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UO set to name Lananna as coach
Vin Lananna will be named an associate athletic director and director of the track and cross country programs today
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
KEN GOE and DOUG BINDER
The University of Oregon will hire former Stanford track coach Vin Lananna as an associate athletic director, and director of track and cross country.

According to multiple sources close to the athletic department and track and field program, the announcement of Lananna's hiring is expected at 12:30 p.m. today.

Neither Lananna nor UO athletic director Bill Moos could be reached for comment Tuesday.

Lananna, 52, was director of track and cross country at Stanford for 11 years. His teams won five NCAA championships, including the 2000 men's track title.

He resigned at Stanford after the 2003 track season to become athletic director at Oberlin College, an NCAA Division III institution in Ohio. He said at the time he wanted to leave coaching to become an athletic administrator.

The new position at Oregon would combine both. The advertised job description calls for a minimum of 10 years of track head coaching experience at the college level and some experience as a college athletic administrator.

Lananna is expected to oversee the track program and also have administrative responsibilities for fund raising, development and community relations.

Lananna has long experience with USA Track & Field, and enjoys a positive relationship with Nike.

Oregon functioned without a head coach during the 2005 outdoor season after the resignation of Martin Smith on March 18, a day before the team opened the season. Smith resigned under pressure after seven seasons with the Oregon program, a period marked by success on the track but controversy over the program's direction.

The UO assistant coaches led the Ducks to the Pacific-10 Conference men's outdoor championship after Smith's departure. Their role in a Lananna regime is unclear. Contracts for four assistants _ Bill Lawson, Rock Light, Dan Steele and Lance Deal _ expired July 1.

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2005/ ... .0713.html

UO track gets its man as head coach

By Curtis Anderson
The Register-Guard

Vin Lananna will be introduced as Oregon's new director of track and field and cross country today, according to a source close to the search process.
Lananna, 52, one of the nation's most highly respected track coaches, also will be an associate athletic director at Oregon and be involved with coaching the UO distance runners.

The Ducks have scheduled a press conference at 12:30 p.m. at Powell Plaza - the new entrance to the track located at the northeast corner of Hayward Field - to make the official announcement.

Lananna is expected to interview the current UO assistant track and field coaches today and Thursday.

Lananna's hiring ends the long search for a new Oregon track coach, which began nearly four months ago when former head coach Martin Smith resigned on the eve of the outdoor season.

Smith, who was recently hired as the head track coach at Oklahoma, reached a negotiated settlement with the university less than a week after leading the UO men to their best-ever finish at the NCAA Indoor championships.

At the time, it was widely speculated that if the Ducks wanted to go after a high-profile head coach with expertise in mentoring distance runners, there would be no better candidate than Lananna.

Those sentiments were given further credence when the position was first advertised. Among the job requirements were 10 years of experience as a Division I head track coach and experience in college athletic administration.

Lananna, who spent the past two years as director of athletics and professor of physical education at Oberlin College, served as director of track and field and cross country at Stanford for 11 seasons - 1992-93 to 2002-03.

During his tenure with the Cardinal, Lananna's teams won five NCAA championships.

In 2000, he led the Stanford men's track and field squad to its first NCAA outdoor title since 1934. Stanford also swept the 1996 men's and women's NCAA cross country crowns before the men repeated in '97 and '02.

As recently as 2002, the Stanford women placed seventh and the Cardinal men finished eighth at the NCAA championships, only the second time in school history that both track and field squads earned a top-10 finish at nationals.

His cross country teams at Stanford won 14 regional titles (seven men, seven women) and 15 Pac-10 championships (nine women, six men).

"Stanford track and field has made unbelievable progress under the guidance of Vin Lananna," Stanford athletic director Ted Leland said in July of 2003. "Vin not only brought Stanford into the national spotlight but the international circle as well. Stanford track and field athletes are known worldwide. We'll miss Vin, but the foundation for success that he has brought to Stanford remains rock solid."

Beginning in 1994, Lananna served as president and co-founder of the Nike Farm Team, a post-collegiate program for privately funded professional middle distance and distance runners based at Stanford. He also was nominated as Team USA middle distance coach for the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.

Prior to his tenure at Stanford, Lananna was the assistant director of athletics at Dartmouth, where he also directed the men's and women's track and field and cross country programs from 1980 until the fall of 1992.

In 12 seasons, the Big Green had a cross country team qualify for the NCAA Championships every year. The Dartmouth men's team placed second at the NCAA meet in both '86 and '87. Lananna's track and cross country squads captured a total of 13 Ivy League titles.

Lananna has received numerous coaching accolades.

He was named NCAA national coach of the year five times - three with the Stanford men's cross country team (1996, '97 and '02), once with the Stanford women's cross country squad (1996) and once with the Dartmouth men's cross country team (1986). He was voted NCAA regional cross country coach of the year 19 times and was awarded 14 conference coach of the year honors.

Lananna began his coaching career at C.W. Post College in Long Island, N.Y., after graduating from the school in 1975. As a student, he earned a bachelor's degree in history and psychology and was captain of the cross country team.THE LANANNA FILE

Highlights of the coaching career of Vin Lananna, who will be introduced as the head track and field coach at the University of Oregon:

• Served as the men's middle distance coach for the USA's 2004 Olympic Team and as assistant coach for the 1999 USA team in the World Championships.

• USA head coach for the 1990 and 1996 World Cross Country Championships.

• His Stanford teams won five national team titles during his 10 years there, four in cross country and one in men's track and field.

• His 1996 Stanford cross country teams won the men's and women's national titles, only the second time that a university won both titles in the same year.

• Five-time NCAA cross country coach of the year.

• Served as director of athletics and professor of physical education at Oberlin College since 2003.

Lananna's Vision - Indoor Track, 2008 Olympic Trials, IAAF World Championships, and more...

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