Now in his seventh year, Franklin P. Johnson Director of Track and Field and men's cross country coach Chris Miltenberg has built Stanford to where it can contend for national championships in both cross country and track and field.
So far in the 2018-2019 academic year, the men's and women's cross country teams both placed among the NCAA top-5 for the third consecutive year. And, in indoor track and field, the Stanford men placed fourth -- its' highest finish at NCAA's since 2007-- with their highest point-total since 2000.
In all, eight school records were broken during the indoor season and Miltenberg was named Men's West Region Indoor Coach of the Year by the USTFCCCA.
In 2018, the Stanford women were a close third at the NCAA Outdoor Championships -- two points from first -- in the closest first-through-third team finish in meet history. It matched Stanford's highest women's finish ever, and the Cardinal men were eighth. The average place of 5.5 was Stanford's highest combined finish ever.
Taking into account NCAA team finishes in cross country, and indoor and outdoor track and field, the Stanford women received the Terry Crawford Program of the Year award. Stanford was the only school in the top three of both the men's and women's Program of the Year standings.
This year, after the cross country and indoor track and field seasons, Stanford is leading the Program of the Year standings.
Stanford's combined score of 79 points at the 2018 NCAA Outdoor Championships was most for the Cardinal men's and women's teams since 2000. Stanford's second-place men's team finish at the Pac-12 Championships was its best since 2003.
Under Miltenberg, the Pac-12 Coach of the Year the past two years, Stanford's cross country teams have combined for 14 NCAA team appearances, six NCAA podium finishes, four region titles, and two Pac-12 championships. Individually, Stanford has crowned 18 All-Americans who have combined for 30 All-America honors, eight NCAA top-10 individual finishes and five Pac-12 individual titles.
He twice has been named NCAA West Region Coach of the Year in cross country, in 2013 and 2016, and once in indoor track, in 2019. He has coached 59 Stanford All-Americans to a total of 186 All-America honors. Of those, 39 have become first-team track and field All-Americans, earning a total of 71 first-team All-America honors.
Since 2016, Stanford is the only school to place both its men's and women's team among the top 5 each year at the NCAA Championships. In 2017, Stanford's twin podium (top four) team finishes were the program's first since 2006.
In addition to winning the 2017 and 2018 Pac-12 championships, the Cardinal men have made the NCAA top-5 for five consecutive years. The men were second in 2016 and 2014, third in 2015, fourth in 2017, and fifth in 2018. The women were fourth in 2018, their top finish since 2013, and fifth in 2018. Three of his men have finished among the top-5 at NCAA's and the Cardinal men have had seven top-10 individual finishes since 2013.
As head coach of the women's team, Miltenberg's Card teams won three Pac-12 individual cross-country titles in four years.
Under Miltenberg, Stanford has won six NCAA event titles in track and field and had 15 runner-up finishes. In addition, two Cardinal have set American junior records, another broke an American collegiate record, and yet another broke a collegiate record.
At the 2019 NCAA Indoor Championships, Harrison Williams became the first Stanford male to win an NCAA multi-events title, when he won the heptathlon. Grant Fisher was second in the 3,000 and ran a 3:54 anchor in Stanford's runner-up distance medley relay, and Lena Giger was two centimeters from winning the women's shot put.
In 2018, Sean McGorty captured the men's outdoor 5,000 and Mackenzie Little won the women's javelin title in a 1-2 finish with teammate Jenna Gray.
In 2017, Fisher, then a sophomore, became the first American to win the NCAA outdoor 5,000 title in eight years and the first American underclassman in 28 years to do so.
In 2014, the Cardinal men's DMR team captured the NCAA title. And, in 2013, Kori Carter won the women's 400 hurdles championship in a meet and collegiate record time of 53.21.
In addition, Valarie Allman won the women's discus title at the 2018 USATF Championships in her final Stanford season.
In cross country, Fisher placed among the top 5 three times. Maksim Korolev was the 2014 West Region champ, went on to place fourth in the NCAA and earned a berth on the U.S. team for the 2015 Cross Country World Championships.
The Stanford men have won three NCAA West Region titles since Miltenberg arrived in 2012, most recently in 2016. In all seven years, both the Stanford men’s and women’s teams have advanced to the NCAA Championships, extending a streak of twin NCAA qualifications to 25 years – the longest in the country. The programs have combined for nine NCAA team championships.
In 2016, both his men's and women's cross country recruiting classes were ranked No. 1 in the nation by Flotrack. In August 2016, Miltenberg appointed Elizabeth DeBole, who ran under Miltenberg at Georgetown, as head women's cross country coach.
In track and field, Miltenberg's Stanford teams have combined for 14 top-20 NCAA team finishes indoors and outdoors. In 2015, his men’s track and field recruiting class was named No. 1 in the nation by MileSplit.
In 2017, Valarie Allman earned a spot in the IAAF World Championships in the discus as an undergraduate.
In 2016, one of Miltenberg's former runners, Justine Fedronic, competed in the 800 meters for France in the Rio Olympics.
Academically, Stanford’s programs have excelled under Miltenberg, especially distance runner Miles Unterreiner, who earned a Rhodes Scholarship. Justin Brinkley, Elise Cranny, Aisling Cuffe, Grant Fisher, Luke Lefebure, and Tyler Stutzman each were named Pac-12 Scholar-Athletes of the Year for either cross country or track, and Lefebure earned the NCAA Elite 89 Award for having the highest cumulative grade-point average at the 2013 NCAA indoor track championships.
Stanford has earned the USTFCCCA Men's Scholar-Athlete of the Year in cross country three times in the pasgt four years, with Fisher winning in 2016 and 2017 and Sean McGorty in 2015. McGorty also received the national Scholar-Athlete award for indoor track in 2016.
Stanford's teams are annually recognized with USTFCCCA All-Academic team honors.
Stanford won the men’s cross country Scholar Team of the Year Award for 2014 by the USTFCCCA. During Miltenberg’s tenure, Stanford runners have combined for 86 Pac-12 All-Academic team honors.
Among other top performances under Miltenberg, Elise Cranny set the U.S. junior indoor record in the women’s 3,000 (98:58.88) while finishing second at the 2015 NCAA Championships. And Harrison Williams shattered the U.S. junior decathlon record with a score of 8,037 points while winning the 2015 Pan Am Junior championship. Earlier that season, Williams broke Stanford’s oldest record, the 1952 decathlon mark set by the great Bob Mathias during a gold-medal performance at the Helsinki Olympics, and has broken school multi-event records six times.
Three other especially notable performances have come in the women’s 5,000, when Cuffe ran the third-fastest time ever among collegians, and second-fastest ever by an American collegian, with a time of 15:11.13 at the 2014 Payton Jordan Invitational. A year later, Jessica Tonn ran the No. 7 time among American collegians with a 15:18.85. Also, Amy Weissenbach set a national women’s freshman record in the 800 , running 2:00.98 while advancing to the U.S. Championships final in 2013.
While winning the elite 3,000 at the 2019 Millrose Games, Fisher broke the American indoor collegiate record (7:42.62) held by Galen Rupp since 2009.
Four of his Stanford athletes have won U.S. junior championships: McGorty and Connor Lane (2018) in cross country, Williams in the decathlon, and Allman in the discus. Also, Olivia Baker won gold at the 2015 Pan Am Junior Championships in the women’s 4x400 and Lena Giger took silver in the women’s hammer.
Miltenberg arrived from Georgetown, where he coached the Hoya women to the 2011 NCAA cross-country title.
At Georgetown, Miltenberg was the associate head coach for track and field and the head women's cross-country coach. He was named the USTFCCCA National Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year for 2011.
In five seasons at Georgetown, Miltenberg coached 36 All-Americans in track and field, including Emily Infeld, an NCAA champion at 3,000 and 2016 Olympian. Miltenberg also led the Georgetown women to the 2012 Big East indoor track title.
Miltenberg’s Georgetown teams finished in the top 10 of the USTFCCA Terry Crawford Program of the Year two consecutive seasons. He was a three-time Mid-Atlantic Assistant Coach of the Year for women’s track and field and had six of his athletes compete at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials.
Prior to Georgetown, Miltenberg was the associate head coach for men’s and women’s track and field, and cross country at Columbia. He spent one season in that role and was an assistant coach at Columbia for two seasons before that. He led the Lions to 13th-place finishes at the 2004 and 2005 NCAA Cross Country Championships. Miltenberg also led Columbia to a pair of Ivy League titles during those seasons.
Miltenberg is a 2003 graduate of Georgetown where he was a two-time All-American and placed fourth at the 2001 NCAA Indoor Championships in the 3,000. He went on to run professionally for a year with Adidas while training for the 2004 U.S. Olympic trials.
A native of Huntington, N.Y., he attended John Glenn High, where he was a two-time scholastic All-American in the mile and was the New York state cross country runner-up. He won the mile at the 1998 Golden West Invitational.
Miltenberg earned a master’s in applied physiology in 2005 from Columbia. He is married to a former Georgetown All-America runner, the former Colleen Kelly. The couple has four children: daughters Maggie, Caitlin, and Annie, and son Kevin.
So far in the 2018-2019 academic year, the men's and women's cross country teams both placed among the NCAA top-5 for the third consecutive year. And, in indoor track and field, the Stanford men placed fourth -- its' highest finish at NCAA's since 2007-- with their highest point-total since 2000.
In all, eight school records were broken during the indoor season and Miltenberg was named Men's West Region Indoor Coach of the Year by the USTFCCCA.
In 2018, the Stanford women were a close third at the NCAA Outdoor Championships -- two points from first -- in the closest first-through-third team finish in meet history. It matched Stanford's highest women's finish ever, and the Cardinal men were eighth. The average place of 5.5 was Stanford's highest combined finish ever.
Taking into account NCAA team finishes in cross country, and indoor and outdoor track and field, the Stanford women received the Terry Crawford Program of the Year award. Stanford was the only school in the top three of both the men's and women's Program of the Year standings.
This year, after the cross country and indoor track and field seasons, Stanford is leading the Program of the Year standings.
Stanford's combined score of 79 points at the 2018 NCAA Outdoor Championships was most for the Cardinal men's and women's teams since 2000. Stanford's second-place men's team finish at the Pac-12 Championships was its best since 2003.
Under Miltenberg, the Pac-12 Coach of the Year the past two years, Stanford's cross country teams have combined for 14 NCAA team appearances, six NCAA podium finishes, four region titles, and two Pac-12 championships. Individually, Stanford has crowned 18 All-Americans who have combined for 30 All-America honors, eight NCAA top-10 individual finishes and five Pac-12 individual titles.
He twice has been named NCAA West Region Coach of the Year in cross country, in 2013 and 2016, and once in indoor track, in 2019. He has coached 59 Stanford All-Americans to a total of 186 All-America honors. Of those, 39 have become first-team track and field All-Americans, earning a total of 71 first-team All-America honors.
Since 2016, Stanford is the only school to place both its men's and women's team among the top 5 each year at the NCAA Championships. In 2017, Stanford's twin podium (top four) team finishes were the program's first since 2006.
In addition to winning the 2017 and 2018 Pac-12 championships, the Cardinal men have made the NCAA top-5 for five consecutive years. The men were second in 2016 and 2014, third in 2015, fourth in 2017, and fifth in 2018. The women were fourth in 2018, their top finish since 2013, and fifth in 2018. Three of his men have finished among the top-5 at NCAA's and the Cardinal men have had seven top-10 individual finishes since 2013.
As head coach of the women's team, Miltenberg's Card teams won three Pac-12 individual cross-country titles in four years.
Under Miltenberg, Stanford has won six NCAA event titles in track and field and had 15 runner-up finishes. In addition, two Cardinal have set American junior records, another broke an American collegiate record, and yet another broke a collegiate record.
At the 2019 NCAA Indoor Championships, Harrison Williams became the first Stanford male to win an NCAA multi-events title, when he won the heptathlon. Grant Fisher was second in the 3,000 and ran a 3:54 anchor in Stanford's runner-up distance medley relay, and Lena Giger was two centimeters from winning the women's shot put.
In 2018, Sean McGorty captured the men's outdoor 5,000 and Mackenzie Little won the women's javelin title in a 1-2 finish with teammate Jenna Gray.
In 2017, Fisher, then a sophomore, became the first American to win the NCAA outdoor 5,000 title in eight years and the first American underclassman in 28 years to do so.
In 2014, the Cardinal men's DMR team captured the NCAA title. And, in 2013, Kori Carter won the women's 400 hurdles championship in a meet and collegiate record time of 53.21.
In addition, Valarie Allman won the women's discus title at the 2018 USATF Championships in her final Stanford season.
In cross country, Fisher placed among the top 5 three times. Maksim Korolev was the 2014 West Region champ, went on to place fourth in the NCAA and earned a berth on the U.S. team for the 2015 Cross Country World Championships.
The Stanford men have won three NCAA West Region titles since Miltenberg arrived in 2012, most recently in 2016. In all seven years, both the Stanford men’s and women’s teams have advanced to the NCAA Championships, extending a streak of twin NCAA qualifications to 25 years – the longest in the country. The programs have combined for nine NCAA team championships.
In 2016, both his men's and women's cross country recruiting classes were ranked No. 1 in the nation by Flotrack. In August 2016, Miltenberg appointed Elizabeth DeBole, who ran under Miltenberg at Georgetown, as head women's cross country coach.
In track and field, Miltenberg's Stanford teams have combined for 14 top-20 NCAA team finishes indoors and outdoors. In 2015, his men’s track and field recruiting class was named No. 1 in the nation by MileSplit.
In 2017, Valarie Allman earned a spot in the IAAF World Championships in the discus as an undergraduate.
In 2016, one of Miltenberg's former runners, Justine Fedronic, competed in the 800 meters for France in the Rio Olympics.
Academically, Stanford’s programs have excelled under Miltenberg, especially distance runner Miles Unterreiner, who earned a Rhodes Scholarship. Justin Brinkley, Elise Cranny, Aisling Cuffe, Grant Fisher, Luke Lefebure, and Tyler Stutzman each were named Pac-12 Scholar-Athletes of the Year for either cross country or track, and Lefebure earned the NCAA Elite 89 Award for having the highest cumulative grade-point average at the 2013 NCAA indoor track championships.
Stanford has earned the USTFCCCA Men's Scholar-Athlete of the Year in cross country three times in the pasgt four years, with Fisher winning in 2016 and 2017 and Sean McGorty in 2015. McGorty also received the national Scholar-Athlete award for indoor track in 2016.
Stanford's teams are annually recognized with USTFCCCA All-Academic team honors.
Stanford won the men’s cross country Scholar Team of the Year Award for 2014 by the USTFCCCA. During Miltenberg’s tenure, Stanford runners have combined for 86 Pac-12 All-Academic team honors.
Among other top performances under Miltenberg, Elise Cranny set the U.S. junior indoor record in the women’s 3,000 (98:58.88) while finishing second at the 2015 NCAA Championships. And Harrison Williams shattered the U.S. junior decathlon record with a score of 8,037 points while winning the 2015 Pan Am Junior championship. Earlier that season, Williams broke Stanford’s oldest record, the 1952 decathlon mark set by the great Bob Mathias during a gold-medal performance at the Helsinki Olympics, and has broken school multi-event records six times.
Three other especially notable performances have come in the women’s 5,000, when Cuffe ran the third-fastest time ever among collegians, and second-fastest ever by an American collegian, with a time of 15:11.13 at the 2014 Payton Jordan Invitational. A year later, Jessica Tonn ran the No. 7 time among American collegians with a 15:18.85. Also, Amy Weissenbach set a national women’s freshman record in the 800 , running 2:00.98 while advancing to the U.S. Championships final in 2013.
While winning the elite 3,000 at the 2019 Millrose Games, Fisher broke the American indoor collegiate record (7:42.62) held by Galen Rupp since 2009.
Four of his Stanford athletes have won U.S. junior championships: McGorty and Connor Lane (2018) in cross country, Williams in the decathlon, and Allman in the discus. Also, Olivia Baker won gold at the 2015 Pan Am Junior Championships in the women’s 4x400 and Lena Giger took silver in the women’s hammer.
Miltenberg arrived from Georgetown, where he coached the Hoya women to the 2011 NCAA cross-country title.
At Georgetown, Miltenberg was the associate head coach for track and field and the head women's cross-country coach. He was named the USTFCCCA National Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year for 2011.
In five seasons at Georgetown, Miltenberg coached 36 All-Americans in track and field, including Emily Infeld, an NCAA champion at 3,000 and 2016 Olympian. Miltenberg also led the Georgetown women to the 2012 Big East indoor track title.
Miltenberg’s Georgetown teams finished in the top 10 of the USTFCCA Terry Crawford Program of the Year two consecutive seasons. He was a three-time Mid-Atlantic Assistant Coach of the Year for women’s track and field and had six of his athletes compete at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials.
Prior to Georgetown, Miltenberg was the associate head coach for men’s and women’s track and field, and cross country at Columbia. He spent one season in that role and was an assistant coach at Columbia for two seasons before that. He led the Lions to 13th-place finishes at the 2004 and 2005 NCAA Cross Country Championships. Miltenberg also led Columbia to a pair of Ivy League titles during those seasons.
Miltenberg is a 2003 graduate of Georgetown where he was a two-time All-American and placed fourth at the 2001 NCAA Indoor Championships in the 3,000. He went on to run professionally for a year with Adidas while training for the 2004 U.S. Olympic trials.
A native of Huntington, N.Y., he attended John Glenn High, where he was a two-time scholastic All-American in the mile and was the New York state cross country runner-up. He won the mile at the 1998 Golden West Invitational.
Miltenberg earned a master’s in applied physiology in 2005 from Columbia. He is married to a former Georgetown All-America runner, the former Colleen Kelly. The couple has four children: daughters Maggie, Caitlin, and Annie, and son Kevin.