2016 Day of Distance Speakers
2016 Clinic Notes
Jack Daniels is a professor at. A.T. Still University and a coach of Olympic athletes, such as Jim Ryun, Joan Benoit Samuelson, Peter Gilmore, Amy Hastings, Ryan and Alicia Shay, Magdalena Lewy Boulet, and many others. Daniels has a lengthy coaching career. He coached at SUNY Cortland for 17 years, where his runners won eight NCAA Division III National Championships, 31 individual national titles, and more than 130 All-America awards. Daniels was named the NCAA Division III Coach of the Century, three-time NCAA Division I National Coach of the Year, and the World’s Best Coach by Runner’s World magazine. He was more recently the head distance coach at the Center for High Altitude Training at Northern Arizona University. In 2013, he was named the Head Coach of the Wells College mens and women’s cross country teams. Daniels outlined his training philosophies in the 1990 book, Daniels’ Running Formula, which revolutionized the way to coach, utilizing easy to apply “VDOT values”. Daniels, who currently resides in Flagstaff, Arizona, holds three degrees. After earning his Bachelor of Science in 1955 from the University of Montana in Physical Education and Mathematics, Daniels completed his Masters of Education from the University of Oklahoma at the University of Oklahoma in Physical Education and Exercise Physiology in 1965. Daniels earned his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in Physical Education and Exercise Physiology in 1969. He has also earned a Certificate from the Royal Gymnastic Institute in Stockholm, Sweden in Sport & Exercise. A highly decorated athlete, Daniels is one of only three United States pentathletes to win two Olympic medals, both in the team event.
Mike Glavin was just named the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year for cross country, as his team captured this year’s Atlantic 10 Conference Cross Country Championship. This is Glavin’s 27th year as the head coach of Saint Joseph’s men’s cross country and track and field teams in 2015-16. A 1978 graduate of SJU, Glavin also embarks on his third year as the director of the track and field programs. Under his leadership, the Saint Joseph’s mens’s track and field and cross country program has produced a total of 171 Atlantic 10 track and field champions – 95 indoor and 76 outdoor – in addition to 50 All-Conference cross country honorees, 61 Academic All-Conference performers, 30 NCAA Regional and seven NCAA Finals qualifiers, six IC4A Track and Field champions, three Academic All-District honorees, and an Academic All-American. Glavin returned to his alma mater after a highly successful 10-year stint as the track and cross country coach at Paul VI High School in Haddonfield, N.J. During his tenure there, he led the cross country team to an astounding 110-0 record, including three state championships in 1984, 1985 and 1988. His track record was an impressive 60-18, which included four South Jersey championships and the 1989 state crown. Glavin was inducted into the Paul VI Alumni Hall of Fame in October of 2009. As a Hawk, Glavin established numerous records, including the outdoor track records for the three-mile run and 5k and the indoor track records for the mile and two-mile runs. On the cross country course, Glavin held the Belmont Plateau record with a time of 25:36 and is one of just two Hawks in program history to have twice qualified for the NCAA Cross Country Championships; the other Hawk, McDonnell, was coached by Glavin. Glavin holds a master’s degree in mathematics from Villanova University and taught at Haddonfield High School (N.J.) for over 20 years. He was inducted into the SJU Track Hall of Fame in 1983.
Dr. Gregory Biren is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health and Exercise Science at Rowan University. He is a certified Clinical Exercise Physiologist, NCSA Strength and Conditioning Specialist, and Corrective Exercise Specialist recognized by the National Academy for Sports Medicine. Dr. Biren teaches science oriented courses such as Exercise Physiology, Kinesiology, Exercise Prescription, and Nutrition for Fitness. He is currently collaborating with K-12 school systems providing STEAM related experiences to develop excitement for the care of the human body by incorporating Exercise Science into the curriculum. Dr. Biren received both his Master and Doctoral degrees from Temple University. His research interests involve nutritional programming as well as achieving peak performance in the athlete.
Kurt Wayton began coaching right after graduation from Indiana State for Buena High School (N.J.) , alongside Steve Kordos, one of the best track and field coaches in the state. In 2005, Wayton was hired at West Windsor-Plainsboro South (N.J.), as a special education and social studies teacher. He started as a volunteer coach in cross country and became the boys head coach one year later. By 2006, his program grew from 15-20 athletes to around 80 athletes. Wayton is now the distant coach for the both the boys’ and girls’ teams. In 2013, despite losing five of its top seven runners to graduation, West Windsor South won its second straight state Group 4 championship and finished third at the Meet of Champions for the second straight year. West Windsor South also won the Mercer County title for the fourth year in a row, and captured its fourth straight Central Jersey, Group 4 championship and its fifth in six years. As a result of his team’s success, he was chosen as the 2013 Star-Ledger Cross-Country Coach of the Year. Each year, Wayton’s program produces about 35 sub-5 minute milers, which is consistently one of the top totals in America. Wayton, along with his twin brother, Geoff, were All-State runners at Mainland High School (N.J.) in the mid 1990s, and then acclaimed athletes at Indiana State.
Meg Waldron received her M.S. in Sport Psychology from Temple University and is a USATF certified track coach. She was an All-American runner at Bernards High School, under the tutelage of legendary New Jersey coaches Ed Mather and Mark Wetmore. In high school, Waldron had the fastest girl 800 meter split in Penn Relays history and was selected as the NJ female high school athlete of the year and one of the top 10 NJ female athletes of the century. Meg continued her running career at the University of Virginia. She later went on to coach high school All-Americans Tim Lear and Chris Lear (“Running with the Buffaloes”). Currently, Waldron serves as a Mental Performance Coach for the NJ/NY Track Club, which works with Olympic caliber athletes. She also directs a girls empowerment running club and a middle school track team in Philadelphia. Waldron has worked with teams from youth to the collegiate level including: LaSalle, Princeton, and Stanford Universities; Nike Grassroots; and the U.S. Olympic Development Program. A little known fact is that while living in Honduras in the early 2000s, she helped run the Olympic torch down the Pan American highway.
Marcus O’Sullivan is the head men’s Track and Field Coach/Cross Country Coach at Villanova University. He is three-time world indoor champion at 1500 meters and a former world record holder. He is also a four time Olympian and has run over 100 sub 4 minute miles. In Coach O’Sullivan’s first year as head coach, the women’s cross country team won both the 1998 Big East Championship and the 1998 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships. In 1998, Coach O’Sullivan received honors for the Big East Coaching Staff of the Year Award and was named United States Track Coaches Association National Coach of the Year by the U.S. Track Coaches Association. In 2014, he led the Men’s Cross-Country team to win the Big East Championship and also the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regionals.