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Wabash College Athletics

Cross Country Brent Harris

Legendary Olympic Coaches to Speak at Wabash

Four former Olympic coaches and legends in the sports of track and field and cross country will speak at a Distance Running Symposium at Wabash College to be held Sunday, October 16 from 7-9 p.m.

Joe Vigil
Joe Vigil, Joe Newton, Stan Huntsman, and Robert H. Johnson will speak on subjects involving motivation, the Olympic experience as a head coach, and global running.

Vigil (right) was a two-time US Olympic team coach and earned National Coach of the Year honors 14 times. His Adams State University have claimed 19 national team championships, including the 1995 NCAA Division II Cross Country Championship with a perfect score of 15 points. He has coached 425 All-Americans and 87 national champions. He worked with Deena Kastor, the bronze-medal winner in the marathon at the 2004 Olympics.

Joe Newton
Newton (left) served as the US Olympic coach in 1988, the only high school coach to serve on the US Olympic coaching staff. His York High School team has won 27 Illinois state cross country titles, earning him National Cross Country Coach of the Year honors.

Huntsman, a 1954 Wabash College graduate, was the head coach of the 1988 US Olympic team. His Ohio University, University of Tennessee, and University of Texas teams have won 46 conference and two team national championships. Huntsman has coached 41 NCAA individual national champions. He has earned National Coach of the Year honors six different times.

Johnson, the recently retired head cross country and track and field coach at Wabash College and an honorary alumnus of the College from the class of 1977, served as a coach on the 2000 US Olympic team — the only Division III coach to serve as an Olympic coach. He led the Wabash cross country team to three top-10 finishes at the NCAA Division III National Championship meet and was named the NCAA Division III Cross Country Coach of the Year in 1995.

Indiana Track and Field Coaches
Robert H. Johnson (fourth from left, front row) and Stan Huntsman (left of Johnson) will be two of the speakers at the Legendary Olympic Distance Coaches Symposium to be held at Wabash College on Sunday, October 16.
The event will take place at the Robert H. Johnson Indoor Track in the Knowling Fieldhouse. The event is free to all Wabash College students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Students, faculty, and staff will be admitted by showing their Wabash College ID. Tickets for the general public are $20 and can be purchased in advance by contacting Wabash College cross country coach Roger Busch by email (buschr@wabash.edu) or at 765-361-6017.
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