Issue link: http://catalog.e-digitaleditions.com/i/207495
2013-14 Furman Paladin Cross Country and Track & Field Head Coach Robert Gary Robert Gary is in his second season as Furman's head track and field/cross country coach. A native of Chicago, Ill., Gary is a twotime Olympian (Atlanta, 1996 and Athens, 2004), two-time World Championships qualifier, 11-time World Cross Country USA Team member, and the Track & Field News 2004 Cross Country Runner of the Year. Following an illustrious running career, Gary has established himself as a one of the nation's elite coaches through his involvement with USA Track and Field, as head coach of the Ohio State men's cross country and track and field program, and now as head coach of the Furman program, as well as the Furman Elite Professional Running Team. In his role with USA Track & Field, Gary has been actively involved in preparing Team USA for international competition. Most recently, in March 2013 he coached the USA senior men's team to a runner-up finish and a silver medal at the 2013 World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland (the highest Team USA finish in history). In 2010, he served as the men's distance coach for Team USA at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea. He was the head coach for the USA junior team at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Punta Umbria, Spain., and was also USA's U-23 distance coach at the North America, Central America, and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) meet in Toluca, Mexico. In his first year at the helm of the Paladin program, Gary coached AllRegion performer Wilkerson Given to a 20th-place finish at the NCAA Southeast Region Cross Country Championships, the highest finish by any Furman men's runner in at least a decade. Given went on to reach the NCAA East Regional Outdoor Championships in the 3,000m Steeplechase, an event he had just began competing in that spring. Also during Gary's first season, Sinead Haughey won league championships in the 5,000m and 10,000m outdoors, marking only the fifth time in Furman women's track and field history that an athlete won two events at the same league outdoor championship meet and the first time since 1996, when Salima Fountain clinched first in both the 200m and 400m. For her efforts, Haughey became the Paladins' first recipient of the SoCon Outstanding Female Track Performer Award. In addition to setting school records in the men's 400m and 3,000m indoors and the women's 400m hurdles outdoors, Gary's inaugural team earned nine AllSouthern Conference citations and placed two athletes on the Southern Conference All-Freshman Team. Gary's students also performed in the classroom, as Furman placed 10 runners and field participants on the Southern Conference Fall Academic All-Conference Team and 11 athletes on the winter team. Both Paladin teams were honored as 2012 Division I All-Academic Cross Country Teams, and senior Emily Wirzba garnered Furman's Elizabeth Blackwell Academic Achievement Award, which is given annually to the senior female athlete with the highest GPA. In his first year at the helm of the Paladin program, he introduced a Furman recruiting class among the top in the nation for both the men's and women's class. As head coach for the professional training group, Furman Elite, Gary helped guide first-year member Cory Leslie to a new personal best and IAAF 'A' standard in the 3000m Steeplechase of 8:20.31 at the 2013 Golden Grand Prix Meet in Tokyo. With that, Gary became the only American to have coached three American Steeplechasers to 8:20 or faster marks. On the women's side of Furman Elite, first-year member Heidi Gregson achieved a 6-second 1500 PR to 4:13 and helped the Australian National Team to a new National Record in the 4x800m at the prestigious Penn Relays with her split of 2:04. Her training partner, Nicole Bush, returned to the top of the American form chart once again when she ran 9:39 for the 3000m Steeplechase in Puerto Rico earning a coveted IAAF 'A' standard and then going on to win the 2013 USATF Steeplechase title and earn a trip to the 2013 World Track and Field Championships in Moscow, Russia this summer. Prior to his time at Furman, Gary spent six years as the head men's track and field coach at Ohio State and also served as the school's men's cross country coach for 16 years. During his tenure with the Buckeyes, he guided his teams to six top-three finishes at Big Ten championship events, including runner-up performances at the 2009 cross country meet, plus the 2009 outdoor and 2010 indoor meets. Under Gary's tutelage, Ohio State garnered 17 individual titles and seven relay crowns. The Buckeyes reached the NCAA cross country championships during eight of Gary's 16 years as head coach, finishing as high as 11th-place in 2005. Gary's teams produced numerous all-Big Ten honorees, two All-Great Lakes regional selections, and two All-Americans (Brian Olinger and Jeff See). Most recently, his 2011 squad placed 23rd at the national meet. During the 2011 indoor season, Gary led the Buckeyes to a fourth-place finish in a very tight Big Ten conference meet, placing just nine points shy of first place, and produced the fourth-most NCAA Indoor Championship qualifiers. His Ohio State team concluded the NCAA Indoor Championships with the fourth-most All-Americans, including two relay teams comprised entirely of student-athletes from the state of Ohio that set Buckeye records to qualify for the meet. Gary also coached three sub4 minute milers this indoors (Cory Leslie, Daniel Huling, and See). 2 • 2013-14 Cross Country and Track & Field Robert, Rita, & Percy Gary Gary's involvement with USA Track and Field has helped fashion his reputation as one of the nation's elite coaches. Gary's past proteges include Olinger, who won the prestigious Manchester Road Race and turned in the top American finish and the third-best time ever at the Falmouth Road Race, and See, who became Gary's fourth mile champion after winning the USATF indoor mile championship in 2011. In 2010, he coached former Miami University track talent Huling, who won the 3000m steeplechase at the 2010 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Huling was one of several track and field stars, including Rob Myers (1500m), Olinger (steeplechase), and See (1500m), who trained under Gary in preparation for the 2008 Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore. Myers, Huling, and Olinger advanced to the finals in their respective events at the trials. A two-time Olympian (1996 Atlanta Games and 2004 Athens Games) in the 3000m steeplechase, Gary concluded his own running career in 2005 after becoming one of only five Ohio State track and field athletes to earn bids to two separate U.S. Olympic teams. He finished second in the steeplechase at the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1996, recording a career-beset time of 8:19.46, then posted a third-place finish at the 2004 Trials eight years later. As a cross country athlete, Gary garnered 11 career appearances on the U.S. cross country team and was chosen Track and Field News Cross Country Runner of the Year in 2004. A 1996 graduate of Ohio State, Gary completed an illustrious career as a member of the Buckeye track and field program, earning six All-American citations and winning the Big Ten championship in the steeplechase in 1994. His time of 7:52.63 in the 3,000m still stands as the Ohio State indoor record in the event. A three-time All-Big Ten selection, he helped the Buckeyes to three league championships and was inducted into the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2009. Gary and his wife, the former Rita Arndt, who serves as an assistant coach in the Paladin program, are parents of a son, Percy.