University of Tampa Women's Cross Country

Slaven has turned a walk-on program into a heavily recruited nationally ranked team. He was also the head men's cross country coach from 1999-2015 at Tampa. Under his guidance, the Spartan women captured the schools first ever NCAA II South Regional title in 2004 and has since added nine straight crowns from 2007 to 2015. He also led the men to the first SSC tournament title, doing so in 2011 as the team advanced to the NCAA Nationals. He has also led the women to 13 Sunshine State Conference titles, and had the SSCs Runner of the Year in nine of the last 14 seasons. In 2008, Jessica Forrester became the first Spartan to be named the South Region Runner of the Year. Heather Nicolosi later joined Forrester in 2010 as she won the top award for the SSC and South Region. Jess Butler then added her name to the list as the 2011 SSC Runner of the Year as Nicolosi would claim her second-straight South Region Runner of the Year award in 2011. At Tampa, Slaven has coached 43 female runners to first-team all-SSC honors with a total of 49 all-SSC honorees. On the men's side, UT has had 17 first-team selections and 28 total award winners from the SSC. He has also guided nine females to SSC Runner of the Year distinction and two males to the same honor. Slaven has also led the mens team to six seasons as SSC runner-up with two Conference Runner of the Year awards under his direction. The men have competed in 12 consecutive NCAA South Regionals while advancing to the NCAA Championships in 2007 and 2011. The 13-time SSC Coach of the Year has led the women's team to 10 straight NCAA Championship appearances while making 13 consecutive NCAA South Regionals, winning the past eight. He was also named the 2007 and 2011 SSC Men's Coach of the Year. The UT women have been nationally ranked for 11 consecutive seasons and have been ranked as high as 10th in the country in 2004. The Spartans made their first appearance at the NCAA II Championship meet in 2003, finishing eighth overall. Under Slaven, UT has finished in the top 10 at the NCAA Finals a total of four times. UT was eighth in 2003 and 2004 and placed 10th in 2007 and 2009. Slaven has a strong coaching background at both the college and high school levels. He started at Chamberlain High School where he coached for 12 years, winning a girls state championship with an undefeated squad and collecting four conference championships. Slaven was also the Hillsborough County Coach of the Year on one occasion. Slaven served as the head coach at Chamberlain from 1975-78. From there, Slaven took over the University of South Florida mens cross country program where he won four Sun Belt Conference championships in five years while serving as the head coach from 1978-84. Slaven left competitive coaching but remained active in the Tampa Bay area working with several athletes through the years before returning coming to UT in 1999. A Youngstown, Ohio native, Slaven graduated from Youngstown State University with a bachelors degree in education, then furthered his education with a masters degree in physical education at the University of Florida. While at Florida, he ran competitively for the Florida Track Club where his team won two consecutive AAU titles. Slaven served nearly 25 years as a United States Probation Officer before retiring in 1999. He and his wife Patricia now reside in Brandon. They have two daughters and a grandson.

Vaknin is in his first year as head men's cross country coach after spending 17 season's as an assistant coach with the Spartans. Prior to coming to the Spartans, Vaknin had two coaching stints at USF, one from 1991-94 and the other from 1996-2000. As the assistant, Vaknin was in charge of full preparation and coaching for the UT men's cross country team. Under Vaknin, the Tampa men's team has made a transformation into a national contender. While coaching two-time SSC Runner of the Year Elias Gonzalez (2002-03), Vaknin has coached 17 runners to first-team all-SSC honors and a total of 28 members to league mention. He has also placed 19 runners on the All-South Region team. The UT men have now appeared in 13 consecutive NCAA South Regional's, including a program-best finish of second in 2007. Tampa also advanced to the NCAA Finals for the first time in 2007 and 2011 as it finished 22nd and 24th in the nation respectively. Aside from coaching at the collegiate level, Vaknin has been a head coach for distance training teams. Since 1992 he has been the head coach for the Progressive Training Team and has held the same position with Team Leukemia since 1994. During his competing days, Vaknin was a stand out runner at both the high school and collegiate level. In high school he won the Florida High School Cross Country Individual Championship in 1985. Then in 1988 he won the Sun Belt Conference Championship while attending USF. He also became USFs first NCAA track qualifier in the 10k in 1991. That year he finished 16 th nationally. He is still the 10k record holder at USF with a time of 29:25. Dror is a graduate from the University of South Florida and a native of Kiriyat Gaf, Israel. He resides in Tampa with his son, Noah.