Western Colorado University Men's Cross Country

Michel, the 2011 USTFCCCA Men's National Coach of the Year, is in the midst of her ninth season as the head men's and women's cross country coach at Western State Colorado University in 2015. She will also begin her ninth season as an assistant coach of the Mountaineer track & field team at the onset of the season. During the 2011 season, Michel coached the Mountaineer men to the fourth-lowest team score in NCAA DII history en route to her first national championship. Simultaneously, she coached her first individual National Champion in cross country as Ryan Haebe broke the tape ahead of teammate Tyler Pennel, highlighting a 1,2,5,7,12 finish for the men. The top-ranked women were upset by a mere four points in 2011, finishing in second place for the second year in a row. The Mountaineers also swept the RMAC titles in 2011 with the women claiming their second-straight league title for just the second time in program history. Michel is a four-time RMAC Coach of the Year, and earned both the men's and women's honors in 2011. She was also the 2011 USTFCCCA Central Region Women's Coach of the Year. In her tenure at Western, Michel has coached 37 Mountaineers to 127 All-American honors between cross country and indoor/outdoor track and field. Michel also made history when she became the first woman in any sport at any NCAA level to earn a National Coach of the Year honor for a mens sport in 2007. Subsequently she would become the first woman to repeat this honor with her 2011 selection. In addition, nine of her distance runners have gone on to capture 11 Capital One Academic All-America nods including first team selections Loren Ahonen (2010-11), Tyler Pennel (2012), Lauren Kleppin (2012) and Ryan Haebe (2015). As a first year head coach she led the Western State men to a second-place finish at the NCAA Division II National Championships. The women finished sixth. Following the season, Michel earned a spot in Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd segment based upon her historic achievements. In 2008, the men's program finished runner-up for a second year, while the women's team got back on the podium with a third-place finish. In 2009, the men finished runner-up for the third consecutive season while the women, limited by illness in the week leading up to the national championships, finished ninth. Michel took both teams back to the national podium in 2010, and led the women to their first conference championship since 2001. Both teams finished second at the national championships held in Louisville, Ky. In 2013, Michel guided the Mountaineers to top-four finishes at the NCAA Championships with the women claiming third and the men finishing fourth. The mens team also took home the RMAC Championship for the second time in three seasons. As the distance coach for the Mountaineer track and field program, Michel has coached five national champions and seven national runner-ups since 2009. On the track, Michel has coached national champions David Goodman to the steeplechase title in 2011, Ryan Haebe (2012 Steeplechase), Tyler Pennel (2012 10k), Gabe Proctor (2013 10k & 5k) and Vegard Olstad (2013 1500). National runners-up coached by Michel include Lauren Kleppin in the 10,000-meter run (2011 and 2012), Tyler Pennel in the 5,000-meter run (2009, 2011-12), Hillory Davis (2011 Steeplechase), Glen Watts (2010 Steeplechase), and Lisa Thomas (2009 Steeplechase). As an athlete, Michel earned eight All-American honors in track and field and cross country. In track and field, Michel won Division II titles in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, 3,000-meter run and indoor mile, and held the national championship steeplechase record until 2008. She was a six-time RMAC champion. Michel earned RMAC All-Century honors in women's track and field as part of the conference centennial celebration in 2008-09. She was also a member of the NCAA 25th Anniversary Team for Women's Track and Field and was the 1999 NCAA Cross Country Runner of the Year. After her collegiate career, she finished fifth at the US Track and Field Championships in the steeplechase in 2002. She entered the Mountaineer Sports Hall of Fame in October 2010 for her national championship career as a Western State student-athlete. Michel, a prep product out of Wheat Ridge, Colo., is a 2001 graduate of Western State with a degree in History and Secondary Education. She went on to receive her masters degree in Sports Management from California University of Pennsylvania in 2007.  

Hunt joined the Mountaineer cross country and track & field programs as an assistant coach in August 2015.   Hunt comes to Western after spending the 2014-15 season as a volunteer assistant coach at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona. While with the Antelopes, Hunt helped guide the womens track & field squad to a Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Indoor Championship and the cross country teams to their highest conference finish in program history.   In his short time at GCU, Hunt helped the Lopes record 58 top-10 all-time performances, 19 Academic All-WAC student-athletes, four school records and three all-conference honorees. The mens and womens teams also achieved the highest GPAs at GCU during the 2014-15 academic year.   What impresses me most about Craig is his enthusiasm and passion for the sport, said head cross country coach Jennifer Michel. He has a lot of energy but hes very mature for being a young coach. He was a volunteer at Grand Canyon and was doing a lot of things above and beyond of what they expected. They were very much appreciative of him and recommended him. When he came up to visit campus, he just impressed everybody he met. He seemed to be a good fit instantly with what we were looking for, and Im excited to have him join us.   In the summer of 2013, Hunt completed an internship with STRIVE Trips in Písac, Peru. During his internship, he organized and directed training sessions, plyometric drills, strength and conditioning workouts, injury prevention exercises and informational lectures to American high school athletes. He also volunteered in the local schools and fundraised and constructed a new track surface for the villages athletic fields.   Hunt was a six-time Northeast Conference (NEC) individual champion and two-time NCAA qualifier while competing for Central Connecticut State University (NCAA Division I) in New Britain. He was a nine-time First Team All-NEC selection and seven-time NEC Athlete of the Week. In his time with the Blue Devils, Hunt was named the 2013 NEC Outstanding Track Performer of the Year during the indoor season and was later tabbed the 2013 NEC Outstanding Performer of the Year in cross country, helping CCSU to their fifth-straight league title. He was also named All-Northeast Region in cross country in 2013.   Hunt also excelled in the classroom, earning NEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors for the 2013 cross country season. He was a four-time Deans List recipient and three-time USTFCCCA All-Academic Team selection.   During his time as a student-athlete, Hunt spent five years working for Fast Track Timing LLC as an assistant timer where he traveled around the East Coast timing and scoring triathlons, road races, cross country and track & field competitions. He also served as a physical education student teacher during the spring of 2014 for Flanders and Hatton Elementary Schools and the Middle School of Plainville.   Hunt earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education from Central Connecticut State in May 2014.