A Championship Program

from 2021 WVU Cross Country Guide

Director of Athletics Shane Lyons

In 15 seasons as the cross country head coach, Sean Cleary has led WVU to unprecedented national success and has been named Mid-Atlantic Coach of the year three times.

A CHAMPIONSHIP

PROGRAM

During Cleary’s first season in 2007, the Mountaineers became the fourth athletic program in school history to capture a Big East Championship title. Led by Marie-Louise Asselin, who placed second overall at the conference meet, WVU would go on to finish ninth at the NCAA Championships - the first top-10 finish in program history.

The 2008 season saw WVU earn a school-best fourth place at the NCAA Championships and first at the Mid-Atlantic Regional. Asselin became the first Mountaineer runner to earn the individual title at the Big East Championship. Keri Bland and Asselin became the first three-time All-Americans in cross country in 2009, leading the team to a sixth-place finish at the NCAA Championships after finishing in 31st and 34th place, respectively. Kate Harrison crossed the line at the 2011 NCAA Championships in an all-time program best eighth place and helped lead the team to an eighth-place finish as well.

In 2014, the Mountaineers recorded an eighth-place finish at the NCAA Championships, where they earned two All-Americans (Jillian Forsey and Katie Gillespie), and an NCAA Elite 89 Award Winner (Kelly Williams). Gillespie joined Asselin and Bland in becoming three-time All-Americans, as she placed 26th overall at the National Championship. Cleary has produced 12 of the program’s 15 All-America titles and numerous all-conference runners. Since then, Cleary has led three individuals – Millie Paladino (2015), Jillian Forsey (2016) and Maggie Drazba (2016) – to the NCAA Championships in the past five seasons.

The Mountaineers returned to the NCAA Championships (2020) for the first time as a team since 2014 and placed 29th overall. In all, WVU has appeared in 10 NCAA Championships as a team, all of them with Cleary a part of the program in some capacity. The Mountaineers have finished in the NCAA top-10 five times since 2007.