A Championship Program

In 16 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. West Virginia continued its success by qualifying for the 2021 NCAA Championships as a team. The Mountaineers finished in 21st place, while Ceili McCabe finished third overall to earn All-America honors. In all, WVU has appeared in 12 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.