2016 NCAA DIII Indoor National Coaches of the Year Announced

NEW ORLEANS — The UW-Eau Claire men and Baldwin Wallace women wouldn’t have won team titles at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships if not for the efforts of their distance runners and throwers, respectively.

With that said, it’s only right to honor both the head coach and specialty coach of those teams with national awards — at least that’s what their peers thought.

UW-Eau Claire’s Chip Schneider and Dan Schwamberger as well as Baldwin Wallace’s Matthew Cole and Kevin Phippswere recognized Thursday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) for their team’s performances during this past season.

Schneider was named the Men’s National Coach of the Year, Schwamberger earned the honor of Men’s National Assistant Coach of the Year, Cole was the Women’s National Coach of the Year and Phipps was feted as the Women’s National Assistant Coach of the Year.

It was in Grinnell, Iowa where Schneider’s Blugolds picked up where the cross country team left off in the fall. UW-Eau Claire moved one step closer to completing the coveted Triple Crown after it held off rivals UW-Whitewater and UW-La Crosse.

The Blugolds scored 53 points to win the team title and Schwamberger’s protégés contributed 37 of those. Schwamberger’s prized pupil, Josh Thorson, doubled down on national titles (3000-5000) and UW-Eau Claire runners also took third and sixth in the 3000 and finished runner-up to Washington (Mo.) in the DMR.

Cole brought three women with him to NCAAs and won a team title. Talk about efficiency.

It was the Yellow Jackets’ first crown in program history.

If it wasn’t for Kim Gallavan, who is the gem of Phipps’ molding, Baldwin Wallace wouldn’t have returned to campus with the championship trophy. That’s because Gallavan scored 20 of the Yellow Jackets’ 42.2 points thanks to victories in the shot put and weight throw.