Meet Our Coaching Legends: Track Record of Excellence

Coach Justin Wood led the Dartmouth College men's distance team through the transition out of COVID and back into NCAA competition. His teams responded well, setting 12 all-time top-10 marks including winning the Distance Medley Relay at the prestigious Ivy League Heptagonal Championships in 2021. Wood's top athletes dropped impressive performances on the track of 1:48 800, 3:43 1500, 4:01 mile, 8:00 3k, 13:57 5k, and 29:54 10k with the highlight being the team's depth through all distances. His recruiting classes included some of the top distance runners in the country with commitments from multiple state champions and nationally ranked high-schoolers.

At University of La Verne, located in southern California, he coached two NCAA Division III Cross Country National Championships individual qualifiers and one NCAA Division III Track & Field National Championships qualifier (3000m steeplechase), while his athletes established seven new track and field program records.  His recruiting class of 2020 was by far the strongest and largest in program history and boasted commitments from several CIF state finalists. 

In New Jersey, Wood led Stevens Institute of Technology to national prominence as his athletes claimed eight NCAA Division III individual national titles and four top-10 team finishes at NCAA DIII Track & Field Championships.  His most decorated student-athlete was Amy Regan - a 2017 graduate - who won six national titles, including two in cross country, and is one of the few athletes in NCAA history to go undefeated in their final two years.  Amy went on to qualify for the USA National Championships in the 10k and the Olympic Trials Marathon.  He coached athletes to 30 DIII All-American honors and 40 qualified for national meets with 65 track and field program records established during his six years in leadership.  Wood led the women’s cross country team to its first-ever appearance at the NCAA Championships and guided the Stevens men’s cross country team to its first Empire 8 Championship in 15 years. More success would come the following season as the women’s indoor track and field team claimed their first-ever Empire 8 Championship.

At SUNY Delhi, Wood led the men’s cross country team to back-to-back NJCAA National Championships in 2009 and 2010, as well as four consecutive second-place finishes in men’s track and field (2009-12). The 2010 men’s cross country squad set an NJCAA DIII Cross Country Championship meet record with 22 points and six All-Americans, figures that still remain the standard. Thirteen men and 10 women won individual national titles, and 121 student-athletes earned NJCAA All-American honors with Wood leading the way.
 
For his efforts, Wood earned a wealth of coaching honors while at Delhi, claiming NJCAA National Coach of the Year for both men’s cross country and men’s indoor track and field in 2010. He also received NJCAA Region III Coach of the Year honors in 2009 (women’s cross country), 2010 (men’s cross country) and 2011 (men’s outdoor track and field).  For his efforts,  Wood was inducted into the NJCAA DIII Cross Country/Track & Field Hall of Fame in 2010, while also being named to the SUNY Delhi Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016.
 
Wood graduated from Seton Hall University with a degree in social and behavioral science, while earning a master’s degree from Southern Connecticut in exercise science.