Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi Men's Cross Country

Flanagan has been recognized as aNCAA Regional Coach of the Year and/or Conference Coach of the Yearover 30 times in his career. Flanagan started the Islanders program from scratch in 2000.Since that time the Islanders have brought home 11 Conference TeamChampionships, three NCAA National Individual Championships, sevenNCAA All-American awards and four NCAA Academic All-American Teamawards as well as innumerable individual conference championawards.  Flanagan has had Islanders at six of the last seven NCAANational Cross Country Championships. In Texas - CorpusChristis seven years in the Southland Conference, anIslander has been the individual Conference Cross Country Championin six of those years. Under Flanagans leadership, the annual Cross CountryIslanders Splash has been tabbed one of the premiere cross countryevents in Texas, attracting thousands of collegiate, high schooland middle school athletes.  With the opening of the new Dugan Track Stadium on the TexasA&M - Corpus Christi Momentum Campus, Islanders fans can expectto see collegiate and high school track events on campus to comparewith the quality of the Islanders Splash event beginning in the2014 track season. The importance of the opening of the Dugan Track Stadiumcant be underestimated, Flanagan said. It ishuge. Now that we have our own track stadium with locker rooms,offices, training facilities as well as a track and field venue, wewill be able to bring the track program up to the level that thecross country program has been at. The hallmark of Flanagans success is to help his athletesdevelop to the next level of performance. One recent example isKristine Burciaga (2007-2011). Burciaga developed from a walk-onstudent-athlete with a personal-best of 12:15 in the 3200 in highschool to passing the 3200 mark in 10:50 en route to a 16:58 in the5,000 performance during her senior track season. DuringBurciagas senior year, she led the Islanders Cross Countryteam to a Southland Conference Championship title with asecond-place finish. At a more advanced starting level is the example of ShadrackSongok (2005-08). Songok, who is currently a Graduate AssistantCoach for the program, arrived on campus as a freshman with marksof 14:40 for the 5km and 30:35 for the 10km. By the time Songok wasa senior year he had improved his time to 13:46 and 28:16. He hadalso clinched two NCAA National titles in the outdoor 10,000m, oneNCAA National title in the indoor 5,000m and finished seventh atthe NCAA Cross Country Championships. It marked the highest finishfor a Southland Conference student-athlete. The key to success in collegiate cross country and trackand field is recruiting good people with the necessary desire to dowhat is required to develop the full extent of theirabilities, Flanagan said. Not everybody has thetalent to be a National Champion, but if you can help everystudent-athlete fully develop the talent that they do have, thenyou will have a very successful program. That is how we have beensuccessful at every place I have been. Flanagans coaching career started at UTSA where he helpedlaunch the program in 1981 taking over as head coach in 1984.During his tenure, Flanagan coached the only Southland Conferenceteam in conference history to win the NCAA Regional title in crosscountry. He followed that performance with a 19th place finish as ateam at the NCAA Nationals, which was also a Southland Conferencerecord. Even though for most of Flanagans time at UTSA theywere not in a track conference, they joined the Southland in 1991and Flanagan managed to guide the Roadrunners to 18 titles inmens and womens cross country and track. In January of 1997, Flanagan left UTSA to go to the Universityof Texas to coach mens cross country and assist inmens track. During Flanagans three years at Texas,the Longhorns mens team won three Big 12 track titles andhad second and fifth-place finishes at the NCAA National OutdoorTrack Championships. Prior to starting his coaching career, Flanagan did four yearsactive duty in the U.S. Army achieving the rank of Captain. Incollege, he was a four-time national qualifier in cross country andqualified two times in track. His highest finish was 18th place incross country and sixth in track. In 1980, he qualified and ran inthe U.S. Olympic Trials. Flanagan has coached athletes that havemade three Olympic Games (Roger Soler in the 5,000 in 1984 and LizaHunter-Galvan in the marathon in 2004 and 2008). Flanagan has a bachelors degree from the University ofWisconsin-Platteville and a masters degree from UTSA. He hasa level two certification from USA Track and Field in the area ofdistances and was inducted into the UW-Platteville Athletic Hall ofFame in 1999. Flanagan is married to Beverly Johnson. They have one son,Solomon Johnson.