NEW ORLEANS –Chico State Cross Country Coach Gary Towne will have to settle for one U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association West Region Coach of the Year honor this season. Towne, the winner of a dozen such awards in his nearly 14 years of coaching cross country, was recently named the West Region men’s coach of the Year.
Towne has guided the Wildcats to their eighth consecutive West Region title, eighth consecutive California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) title, and 10th straight berth in the NCAA Championships this season. His men’s team is currently ranked No. 4 in the nation, and his women’s team is No. 5. They’ll both toe the line at the NCAA Championships Saturday in Evansville, Ind.
The Wildcats kicked off this season by winning the Division-I heavy Asics/UC Irvine Invitational. They also won the Willamette Invitational, the CCAA Championship, and West Region Championship, while finishing fourth in the Division I-dominated Stanford Invitational and fourth in the San Francisco State Invitational with the Wildcats’ “B” team.
Towne, a 1991 graduate of Chico State, also serves as the distance coach for the Wildcats’ consistently successful track & field teams.
In his 13-plus seasons at the helm, Towne has coached 62 track & field All-Americans, including 2007 National Track Champions Scott Bauhs (10k) and Charlie Serrano (5k) and 2008 National Track Champions Bauhs (5K) and Sarah Montez (3K). On the trails, Towne has coached 140 cross country All-Conference runners, 96 All-Region runners, and 33 All-Americans, with Bauhs winning the 2008 National Championship.
Eighteen of Towne’s cross country teams have finished in the top 10 in the nation at the National Championships (his last 10 men’s teams and eight of his women’s teams). Last year, the women’s team finished seventh in the nation for its eighth top-10 performance in the last nine years. The men, meanwhile, finished third in the nation, which marked the program’s seventh straight top six finish and 10th consecutive top-10 performance.
Towne’s teams have collected 13 CCAA cross country championships (eight straight for the men, five for the women) and 12 West Regional titles (eight straight for the men, four for the women).
