ABILENE ? ACU head track and field coach Don
D. Hood announced Tuesday that he has hired Sam Burroughs to be the new head cross country coach for the Wildcats.
Burroughs has been the assistant cross country coach at Iona College (N.Y.) for the last three years, and he also served as the Gaels' assistant track and field coach. He'll serve in the same capacity in the spring at ACU where he'll coach the distance runners in the spring.
Burroughs helped lead the Gaels to unprecedented success from 2005-2008 as he was part of a program that posted three straight top-four finishes at the NCAA Division I national cross country championship meet. The Gaels were fourth in 2005, third in 2006 and second in 2007. They finished as the runner-up to No. 1-ranked Oregon at the 2007 men's cross country championship with 113 points to Oregon's 85 points.
Burroughs takes over the ACU program from Derek Hood, who resigned in June to pursue private business ventures. Hood led the Wildcats to back-to-back NCAA Division II men's team championships and also coached the Wildcats' distance runners in track and field.
"Hiring a coach of his quality and with his credentials is tremendous for this program and for our runners," Hood said. "Our goal was to find a coach that would be an excellent role model and mentor for our athletes while continuing to win national championships, and Sam Burroughs is that coach."
While at Iona, Burroughs helped coach the Gaels to three straight Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) championships to extend the program's conference championship streak to 17 years. He also helped the women's program to its third straight MAAC title.
In track and field, Burroughs coached 13 individual qualifiers for the for the NCAA Division I indoor and outdoor track and field championships, including three in the 5000 meters and 10,000 meters at the 2008 outdoor championship meet. He coach 13 all-America athletes at Iona and saw 31 male athletes and 25 female athletes claim individual MAAC championships the last three years.
"Our athletes will continue to receive top quality instruction and will be able to know that the training they are receiving will allow them the opportunity to compete to their maximum capability," Don
D. Hood said. " Coach Burroughs' athletes have risen to higher levels at every school he has worked with. I believe that our runners will be fortunate to work with him.
"Coach Burroughs is a proven recruiter as well," he said. "The athletes he recruited to Iona and coached raised that program to a 2nd place finish at the NCAA I men's Championships and the women to a top 20 finish. I think our program will be in very good hands.
Prior to joining the coaching staff at Iona, Burroughs served as the men's and women's distance coach at Manhattan College. During his time at Manhattan, Burroughs led both squads to multiple MAAC track and field conference championship titles.
Burroughs, who earned his B.S. in exercise physiology in 2000 from the University of Buffalo in 2000, competed as a top member of the school's distance teams. Burroughs remained at Buffalo for graduate work, earning his Master's of Science in Human Performance in 2002.
