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Director of Cross Country and Track & Field:
Christopher Straub

Christopher Straub enters his eleventh year at Elizabethtown College and was appointed Director of Cross Country and Track & Field in July, 2007.  Currently, he serves as the head men's cross country coach and assists head women’s cross country coach, Brian Falk, with the women’s team during the fall.  During the 2007 cross country season, Coach Straub coached the women's team to a MAC championship and an at-large berth in the NCAA Division III championships where they placed 23rd in the nation led by All-American Erin Fisher ‘08.

During the track & field season, Coach Straub oversees the operation of the entire program, while training the men’s and women’s distance runners.  Coach Brian Falk serves as the head coach for the women’s cross country program during the fall season and then coaches the men’s and women’s middle-distance runners in the winter and spring.  With the departure of alumna, Erin (Lichti) VanderSchaaf ’06, Coach Joel Hoffsmith takes over as the new head women's track & field coach.  Coach Hoffsmith coaches the men’s and women’s sprinters and horizontal jumpers.  Coach Eric Bennett ’04 works with the men’s and women’s vertical jumpers and multi-event athletes.  In addition to coordinating the off-season strength & conditioning program for all T&F athletes, Coach Bennett is supervising ETown’s new throws coach, Bryan Marison ’08, during the 2008-09 season.  Helping with recruiting and administrative duties is ETown graduate student in Occupational Therapy and ’07 MAC Champion in the triple jump, Jenna Riley, ’08.  Crystal Agnew ’11 returns in 2009 to serve as team manager at competitions. 

Elizabethtown College has experienced unprecedented success since the arrival of Coach Straub in July 1998.  His career at ETown reads like a rags-to-riches storybook as together with a phenomenal coaching staff they have turned around two struggling cross country programs and started track & field programs from scratch!  Since 1999, when the men’s cross country team started its school-record streak of eight consecutive Middle-Atlantic Conference team titles, all six programs have won a combined 21 conference team titles.  In 2003-04 and 2006-07 (freshmen and senior years of the Class of 2007), ETown men won “Triple Crowns” or MAC titles in cross country, indoor track & field, and outdoor track & field in the same academic year.  ETown is also a regular participant at the NCAA Division III Cross Country, Indoor, and Outdoor Track & Field Championships with all six programs having finished amongst the Top 20 teams since 2004.

ETown track & field programs are known for having both conference level depth and national-caliber quality.  A total of 176 men and women cross country and track & field athletes have achieved All-MAC honors since 1998.  Sixteen athletes have produced 32 All-American performances in each of the six sports during Straub’s tenure.  After several National Runner-Up performances over the years, it was in 2007 at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships held at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana, that an ETown track & field athlete was dubbed National Champion.  Coached by alumnus, Eric Bennett ’04, then junior Kevin Clark ’08 jumped 17-1-1/2” in the pole vault to become ETown’s first-ever National Champion in track & field.

Coach Straub has been honored by his peers by being named the MAC Coach of the Year sixteen times over the past ten years.  During 2006-07, he was named the MAC Men’s Coach of the Year in cross country, indoor track & field, and outdoor track & field as the men swept conference titles in all three sports for the second-time ever.  In 2007, Straub was named the MAC Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year after the women placed four runners in the top five at the 2007 MAC Cross Country Championships.  The victory marked the second-ever team title in the program’s 27-year history with the first-ever coming in 2004 under the direction of Coach Mike Dager.  In November, 2002 Straub was named the NCAA Division III Mideast Regional Cross Country Coach of the Year as Dustin Scott ’03 (24:54) and Matt Rockwell ’05 (24:58) went 1-2 out of a field of 230 runners over the 8k course at Salisbury University to lead Elizabethtown College to their only regional championship to date.  That same semester the men’s cross country team posted the highest GPA of any NCAA Division III men’s cross country team in the nation with a cumulative team GPA of 3.54.

Prior to coming to Elizabethtown College, Coach Straub worked with student-athletes at Miami University (OH), East Carolina University (NC), and Susquehanna University (PA).  Straub graduated cum laude in 1993 from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.  He then went on to earn a master’s degree in 1995 in sport science (sport psychology) from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.  In 1992, he was the team captain and MVP of JMU’s cross country team.  At the 1992 CAA Championships, Straub finished 3rd only behind eventual Olympic Trials track & field competitors Brian Hyde (William & Mary) and Matt Holthaus (JMU).  The 1992 squad beat conference rival William & Mary to win JMU’s first-ever conference title in men’s cross country.

Coach Straub and his wife, Traci, have two daughters, Seneca (9) and Milligan (6).

Contact Coach Straub at straubce@etown.edu