2017 - Brian Medigovich will enter his fourth season as the head men's and women's cross country coach at Chadron State College and his fifth season overall with the program. Ever since the sport returned to CSC in 2012 after a nearly 30-year layoff, he has guided the cross country programs for three of the five seasons.
Last year marked a watershed moment for the five-year-old cross country program, as the Eagles had their first NCAA qualifier, Alejandro Garcia. The Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, native transferred from Gillette College in 2014, redshirted in 2015, then ran 21st at the 2016 NCAA South Central Regional in Denver to qualify as an individual for the national championships. He went on to come in 65th at the national meet in Saint Leo, Florida.
In addition, Garcia received numerous academic accolades, including three-time RMAC Academic Runner of the Year, three-time RMAC Summit Award winner, and 2015 Academic All-American. He capped off his cross country career with the 2016 NCAA Elite 90 award, given to the student-athlete with the top grade point average at the NCAA Championships.
The Eagle men achieved their best-ever team placement at the 2016 RMAC Championships, held in Spearfish, South Dakota. They placed three within the top 30 of the 105-man event, as Garcia became the first men's All-RMAC First Teamer and Dylan Stansbury took Second Team honors.
In 2015, the women's program matched its best-ever finish at the conference championships, as Nicky Banzhaf became the first Eagle female to earn both All-RMAC and All-Region honors in the same cross country season. She secured the highest-ever individual place for a CSC woman at the RMAC championships, finishing 14th, and went on to place 24th at regionals to crack the top 25 and claim her All-Region certificate.
2015 was also the lowest combined point total for both programs at an RMAC Championship meet.
Medigovich's 2015 women's cross country program had the highest GPA of any team, in any sport, in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, with a 3.81. As a result, they were awarded the RMAC Brechler Award for women's cross country. The CSC harriers featured Banzhaf, the 2015 RMAC Cross Country Academic Athlete of the Year, as well as USTFCCCA Academic All-Region recipient Rebecca Volf. Junior Maggie Vinton was listed among the RMAC All-Academic First Team in the fall as well with a 4.0 GPA.
Medigovich, who was the interim head coach during the 2014 season, is the first full time cross country coach in Chadron State history. In all, he’s the eighth coach in program history and just the second since the Eagles resumed running off-road in 2012. Former track and field head coach Ryan Baily, now a Colorado State assistant, led the CSC harriers in their first two seasons back.
A native of San Luis Obispo, California, he joined the program first as a graduate assistant for the 2013 season. His duties also include assistant coach for the CSC track and field team, where he molds distance runners for indoor and outdoor track and field events.
Prior to Chadron State, Medigovich was as an assistant coach at Cuesta Community College in 2012 and at Adams State University for two years. At Cuesta, he focused primarily on recruiting. He also ran for the Asics Aggies. In Alamosa, he helped guide the Adams State men's cross country team to a second place finish at the NCAA National Championships, while the women's team finished fourth.
He ran collegiately for Adams State, earning All-American honors 13 times. He was the individual national champion in the 5k indoors in 2010 and competed on three national championship teams. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in sports management.
Medigovich is also a highly accomplished professional runner. He's qualified for three USA National Championships, in addition to running for the Hanson-Brooks Project and the Asics Aggies in California. He's also qualified for the Olympic marathon trials, finished second in the San Jose Half Marathon and eighth in the USA 10-mile championship.
His personal records are: 3:44 in the 1500, 7:55 in the 3k, 13:29 in the 5k and 28:40 in the 10k.
