Entering his 24th season of overseeing the St. Lawrence University Cross-Country and Track and Field programs, Mike Howard will again serve as the head coach of the women's cross country team in 2012.
Howard, the Director of the Saints Cross-Country and Track & Field Programs, also oversees the Men's and Women's Track & Field program and serves the university as an Associate Athletic Director in charge of all scheduling and NCAA compliance duties within the department.
He has guided his team to three consecutive Atlantic Regional titles (2009, 2010, 2011), earning automatic bids to the NCAA Championship each year. The Saints finished second in the nation in 2009, the highest place in program history. Howard has coached some of the top cross country and track
athletes in the university's history, including three All-Americans in the past three years (Wendy Pavlus, Johannah Ludington and Jenna Hulton) and a two-time
national champion (Pavlus).Â
Howard, a 1987 St. Lawrence graduate, who stepped out of the role as the Head Cross-Country coach after the fall of 2000, has won numerous Coach of the Year Awards including six United States Track & Field and Cross-Country Coaches Association NCAA Division III Cross Country Regional Coach of the Year honors, most recently in 2011. He has won 19 conference "Coach of the Year" honors during his tenure with the Cross-Country and Track & Field programs as well as earning the same honor in New York State for both sports several times.
He has served as the President of the New York State Collegiate Track and Field Conference which oversees the state meets in cross country and indoor and outdoor track and as the Atlantic Regional representative for Cross-Country. Howard, a standout in both cross country and track as an undergraduate was a three time competitor in the NCAA Cross Country Championships and was a consistent scorer for the Saints in the distance races in both indoor and outdoor track.
Howard began his coaching career as an assistant coach in both track and field and cross country in 1987, and moved to a full-time coaching position in 1988 and Associate Athletic Director at the start of the 1998-99 academic year.
