Mike Howard

Entering his 23rd season of overseeing the St. Lawrence University Cross-Country and Track and Field programs, Mike Howard will again serve as the head coach of the women's cross country team in 2011.

Howard, the Director of the Saints Cross-Country and Track & Field Programs, also oversees the Men's and Women's Track program and serves the university as an Associate Athletic Director in charge of all scheduling and NCAA compliance duties within the department. He guided the team to the Atlantic Regional title in 2010 and his squad climbed as high as No. 2 in the USTFCCCA national rankings.

Howard, a 1987 St. Lawrence graduate, who stepped out of the role as the Head Cross-Country coach after the fall of 2000, has won numerous Coach of the Year Awards including five United States Track & Field and Cross-Country Coaches Association NCAA Division III Cross Country Regional Coach of the Year honors, most recently in 2010. He has won 18 conference "Coach of the Year" honors during his tenure with the Cross-Country and Track & Field programs as well as earning the same honor in New York State for both sports several times.

He has served as the President of the New York State Collegiate Track and Field Conference which oversees the state meets in cross country and indoor and outdoor track and as the Atlantic Regional representative for Cross-Country. Howard, a standout in both cross country and track as an undergraduate was a three time competitor in the NCAA Cross Country Championships and was a consistent scorer for the Saints in the distance races in both indoor and outdoor track.

His programs have consistently been among the top teams in New York State and the Atlantic Region winning numerous conference, state and regional titles throughout his career. In 2009, Coach Howard guided the Saints' women's cross country squad to the program's highest finish in University history in second place overall.  He also coached Wendy Pavlus, a 2008 All-American, to the 2009 NCAA Division III individual national championship.

Howard began his coaching career as an assistant coach in both track and field and cross country in 1987, and moved to a full-time coaching position in 1988 and Associate Athletic Director at the start of the 1998-99 academic year. The Saint head coach has coached some of the top Cross-Country and Track athletes in the universities history, including three All-Americans in 2009 (Wendy Pavlus, Johannah Ludington and Jenna Hulton) and a two-time national champion (Pavlus).