Caleb Bowen was elevated to head coach of the Marshall University cross country team on Friday. Bowen has been on the team's staff as an assistant coach since 2015.
"This is honestly a dream come true," Bowen said. "I'm a Marshall guy. I grew up cheering for Marshall. I looked up to guys like Matthew Schiffbauer (multiple time all-conference runner and national championship qualifier). I ran throughout high school and made the decision to walk on and earn my spot on the team. I ran for Marshall and had a great four years wearing the Kelly green. Then Coach (Jeff) Small believed in me enough to hire me as his assistant and for the past eight years we've helped the men and women distance runners rewrite the record books. Now I'm so blessed to have my mentor in Coach Small believe in me enough to choose me to lead his program. I cannot thank him enough."
Since joining the staff, Bowen has coached eight All-Conference USA honorees in cross country who have been honored 11 times, including a school-record three in the same season in both 2020 (Kyleigh Edwards, Abby Herring, Jacob Birurakis) and in 2016 (Daniel Green, Adriana Cook, Andrea Porter). Green, as well as Nick Schmidt and Alex Minor, all earned two-time all-conference honors under Bowen.
On the track, Bowen has led his athletes to 13 school records (Indoor-800m, 1000m, Mile, 3000m, 5000m, DMR; Outdoor- 800, 1500, 5000m, 10,000m, Steeplechase, 4x800m, DMR), one All-Conference USA honoree indoors (Tori Dotson, 2021 800), one All Conference USA honoree DMR team (Tori Dotson, Jillian King, Astoria Beckett, Abby Herring, 2021) one All-Conference USA honoree Outdoors (HollyAnn Swann, 2018 5000m), seven individual scorers at the C-USA Championships, and three relay team scorers at the conference meet.
"I also want to thank Christian Spears, Beatrice Crane Banford, and Andrew Brown for putting their faith in me and for mentoring me along the way. I am so excited to give my heart and soul to this team and see what we can accomplish together."
Follow the team on Twitter and Instagram @HerdTFXC for coverage all season long of Marshall cross country.
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