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COACH WOOD FILE:

  • NCAA I Head Coach - 20 years at Columbia University

  • NCAA I Assistant Coach - University of Georgia and University of Kansas

  • 2012 London Olympic Games Coach - Commonwealth of Dominica

  • 150+ Fast Track Recruiting Commits and Matriculations

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Coach Wood boasts 26 highly successful years of head coach experience, two decades of which were spent at Columbia University.Among his many accomplishments in his 20 years as Head Coach at Columbia, Wood led the Lions to eight Ivy League team titles and ten NCAA Cross Country Championship appearances, produced a pair of Olympians and coached 29 NCAA Division I All-Americans in addition to setting 68 school records.

Over his last 10 years, Wood led the Columbia Women’s Cross Country team to four Ivy League Championships and the 2012 Women’s Track and Field team claimed the Ivy League Indoor title.

The Men’s Cross Country squad won Ivy League championships in 2004, 2009 and again in 2013. His last cross country season went down as the best in Lions’ history with the men’s team finishing second at the NCAA Northeast Regional and earning a program-best national ranking of eighth while making a third consecutive appearance to the NCAA Cross Country Championship.

The Women’s Cross Country team boasted four top-20 national finishes under Wood, including an 11th-place showing in 2002, and made six NCAA Championship appearances in his 20 seasons; while the men’s team finished as high as 17th (2012) at the NCAA Championships.

During Wood’s time at Columbia, the Lions had a women’s runner at the NCAA Cross Country Championship six consecutive years (2000-05). On the track, Columbia produced 65 Ivy League individual titles in the last five years and boasted more than 70 NCAA Track & Field Championship qualifiers in his last eight seasons.

The 2012 Indoor NCAA I Region Coach of the Year, Wood coached the second individual (Kyle Merber) in Ivy League history to break four minutes in the indoor mile. Merber later went on to break the American Collegiate Record in the 1,500 meters.

At the 2007 Penn Relays, Columbia’s 4x800 meter relay team won the Championship of America Race for the first Penn Relays title by the Lions since 1938 and the first victory for an Ivy League school at the Penn Relays since 1974.

Under Wood’s tutelage, five-time NCAA All-American Caroline Bierbaum received the 2005 Cross Country Honda Award, presented annually by the Collegiate Women Sports Awards to the top women athletes in NCAA-sanctioned sports.

He also coached a pair of Olympians with Lisa Stublic going on to become Croatia’s first female Olympic marathon runner. Erison Hurtalt was a two-time All-American and 11-time Ivy League champion at Columbia, where he was the first Ivy League champion in one event all four years (400 meters indoor & outdoor). Hurtalt ran for Dominica in the 400 meters at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and again in 2012 in London.

Wood served as a Coach for Dominica at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Wood also served as the Head Track and Field / Cross Country Coach at Bradley University. He guided the Braves’ Women’s Cross Country team to their only outright Missouri Valley Conference title and had them knocking on the door to a team berth in the NCAA Cross Country Championship after placing third at the NCAA Midwest Regional, their best regional finish in program history. The Braves’ men also enjoyed a program-best 2014 Cross Country campaign, placing third at the MVC Championship. Wood was named the 2014 MVC Coach of the Year.

 

COACH JUSTIN WOOD FILE:

  • NCAA DI Head Cross Country Coach - 2 years at Dartmouth College

  • NCAA DIII Head Cross Country Coach - 2 years at University of La Verne

  • NCAA DIII Head Cross Country/Track & Field Coach - 6 years at Stevens Institute of Technology

  • NJCAA DIII Head Cross Country/Track & Field Coach - 4 years at SUNY Delhi

Coach Justin Wood led the Dartmouth College men's distance team through the transition out of COVID and back into NCAA competition. His teams responded well, setting 12 all-time top-10 marks including winning the Distance Medley Relay at the prestigious Ivy League Heptagonal Championships in 2021. Wood's top athletes dropped impressive performances on the track of 1:48 800, 3:43 1500, 4:01 mile, 8:00 3k, 13:57 5k, and 29:54 10k with the highlight being the team's depth through all distances. His recruiting classes included some of the top distance runners in the country with commitments from multiple state champions and nationally ranked high-schoolers.

At University of La Verne, located in southern California, he coached two NCAA Division III Cross Country National Championships individual qualifiers and one NCAA Division III Track & Field National Championships qualifier (3000m steeplechase), while his athletes established seven new track and field program records.  His recruiting class of 2020 was by far the strongest and largest in program history and boasted commitments from several CIF state finalists. 

In New Jersey, Wood led Stevens Institute of Technology to national prominence as his athletes claimed eight NCAA Division III individual national titles and four top-10 team finishes at NCAA DIII Track & Field Championships.  His most decorated student-athlete was Amy Regan - a 2017 graduate - who won six national titles, including two in cross country, and is one of the few athletes in NCAA history to go undefeated in their final two years.  Amy went on to qualify for the USA National Championships in the 10k and the Olympic Trials Marathon.  He coached athletes to 30 DIII All-American honors and 40 qualified for national meets with 65 track and field program records established during his six years in leadership.  Wood led the women’s cross country team to its first-ever appearance at the NCAA Championships and guided the Stevens men’s cross country team to its first Empire 8 Championship in 15 years. More success would come the following season as the women’s indoor track and field team claimed their first-ever Empire 8 Championship.

At SUNY Delhi, Wood led the men’s cross country team to back-to-back NJCAA National Championships in 2009 and 2010, as well as four consecutive second-place finishes in men’s track and field (2009-12). The 2010 men’s cross country squad set an NJCAA DIII Cross Country Championship meet record with 22 points and six All-Americans, figures that still remain the standard. Thirteen men and 10 women won individual national titles, and 121 student-athletes earned NJCAA All-American honors with Wood leading the way.
 
For his efforts, Wood earned a wealth of coaching honors while at Delhi, claiming NJCAA National Coach of the Year for both men’s cross country and men’s indoor track and field in 2010. He also received NJCAA Region III Coach of the Year honors in 2009 (women’s cross country), 2010 (men’s cross country) and 2011 (men’s outdoor track and field).  For his efforts,  Wood was inducted into the NJCAA DIII Cross Country/Track & Field Hall of Fame in 2010, while also being named to the SUNY Delhi Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016.
 
Wood graduated from Seton Hall University with a degree in social and behavioral science, while earning a master’s degree from Southern Connecticut in exercise science.