Ryan Vanhoy - Director of Track & Field and Cross Country - Staff Directory

Staff Directory

Ryan Vanhoy

Title:
Director of Track & Field and Cross Country
Email:

Coaching Resume
3 NCAA National Champions (DMR, 2 individuals)
44 First Team Track All-Americans, 68 Total
8 Cross Country All-Americans
8x Conference Coach of the Year (6 Big West, 2 SEC)
9 Big West Team Championships won during tenure (6 Cross Country, 3 Track)
Coached 13 Big West Individual Championships (10 Track, 3 Cross Country)
11x USTFCCCA South Region Coach of the Year (7 XC, 4 Track)
Coached 68 Track All-Americans (44 First-Team, 24 Second-Team) during career
Coached 8 Cross Country All-Americans (seven men, one woman)

Ryan Vanhoy, who spent nine seasons building the Ole Miss cross country and track distance programs into powerhouses in the SEC, was named Cal Poly's Director of Track & Field and Cross Country on June 20, 2022, and is in his fourth year with the program in 2025-26.

In his first year leading the Cal Poly cross country program, Vanhoy, the 2022 Big West Men's Coach of the Year, helped the Mustangs earn their first sweep at The Big West Championships since 2018 and their sixth in program history. A total of six runners secured All-Big West honors.

Vanhoy guided the Cal Poly men to a dominant performance at the conference championships as the Mustangs finished with 22 team points — the best mark by the men's Big West champion since 2016. Cal Poly swept the top three places in the race and five athletes finished inside the top 10 individually.

Jake Ritter made history under Vanhoy's watch in 2022, becoming the first athlete in conference history to capture three Big West individual cross country titles by running a conference meet record 8K time of 23:27.4 at UC Riverside's Ag/Ops Course. The Big West Men's Athlete of the Year went on to place 12th overall at the NCAA West Regionals to grab All-Region honors and punch his ticket to the NCAA XC Championships in Stillwater, Oklahoma. At nationals, Ritter placed 90th to become Cal Poly's highest individual finisher on the men's side since Phillip Reid in 2007.

As a team at NCAA West Regionals, the Cal Poly men secured eighth, their best finish since 2013, and the women took home 11th, their best finish since 2018.

During his first season leading the Mustang track program in 2023, men competed indoors for Cal Poly for the first time in Division I program history and the women broke four school records indoors. Outdoors, 24 new top 10 marks were recorded across the men's and women's teams and three school records were broken, including a pair by distance phenom Aidan McCarthy (men's 800-meter and 1,500-meter). Under Vanhoy's guidance in 2023, McCarthy secured First Team All-American honors in the 800, placing seventh at the NCAA Championships. McCarthy was named Big West Men's Co-Track Athlete of the Year, finished first in the 800 at the NCAA West Preliminaries and advanced to the 800 semifinals at the USATF Outdoor Championships during the summer. Overall, Vanhoy mentored four distance NCAA West Prelim qualifiers during the 2023 track season.

In 2023, Vanhoy also helped professional runner John Rivera qualify and compete at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest in the men's 800.

Vanhoy was the associate head coach of men's and women's cross country at Ole Miss from 2015-21, elevating the programs to heights never seen in the school's history, earning 14 NCAA Championship team berths along the way.

In 2021, Vanhoy was named the USTFCCCA South Region Men's and Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year after leading both the Rebels' men's and women's teams to NCAA South Regional titles and second-place finishes at the SEC Cross Country Championships. The Ole Miss women went on to capture 10th at the NCAA National Championships, the best finish in program history, and the men 15th, their third-best result in school history.

Nationally, Vanhoy is the eighth coach ever to sweep the USTFCCCA regional men's and women's cross country awards since the current format was put in place, and the first to sweep the South Region awards.

Vanhoy also spent seven seasons at Ole Miss (2016-22) as the assistant track and field coach for the distance team. In the spring of 2022, Vanhoy mentored two NCAA Champions in Mario Garcia Romo (men's indoor mile) and Sintayehu Vissa (women's outdoor 1,500-meter). Garcia Romo and Vissa were among four athletes Vanhoy coached during the 2022 outdoor track season that received All-American honors and two of 12 All-American honorees he oversaw during the 2022 indoor season.

Vanhoy arrived in Oxford, Mississippi in 2013 to take over as the men's cross country coach and serve as an assistant track coach for the men's distance team. Unprecedented success, school records and program firsts soon followed. He led the Rebel men to their first appearance in the NCAA Cross Country Championships in 2014, as well as their first South Regional title that same year.

Overall, Vanhoy led the Ole Miss men's cross country team to eight NCAA Championship appearances, five NCAA South Regional titles and the program's first two SEC team titles in 2018 and 2019. He won the men's South Region Coach of the Year award five times and helped the Rebel men place fourth at the 2016 NCAA Championships, a program best.

Vanhoy added to his coaching duties at Ole Miss in the fall of 2015 by becoming coach of the women's cross country team and the women's distance crew on the track. In cross country, he guided the women to six straight NCAA appearances, including the program's first in 2016, and two NCAA South Regional titles, and earned a pair of women's South Region Coach of the Year awards.

Across both cross country teams at Ole Miss, Vanhoy coached 61 NCAA All-South Region honorees, 34 All-SEC runners and eight total All-Americans. Ole Miss is also one of just four schools nationally to have both men's and women's cross country teams finish inside the Top 25 at each of the six NCAA Championship meets from 2016-21.

On the track at Ole Miss, Vanhoy's athletes were just as impressive. Sixteen of the 20 indoor and outdoor school records in distance events are owned by Rebels Vanhoy coached. Vanhoy guided 65 Rebels to All-American honors (41 first-team, 24 second-team), 57 to SEC Championships and 21 to SEC runner-up finishes. Vanhoy was named USTFCCCA South Region Men's Assistant Coach of the Year four times and his 2017 distance medley team won the NCAA title.

Prior to his time at Ole Miss, Vanhoy coached at Northeastern University for one year and at his alma mater, University of North Carolina, for three years.

Vanhoy coached his runners at Northeastern to four Colonial Athletic Association conference titles. During his tenure at North Carolina, Vanhoy helped produce two ACC champions, five NCAA East Region qualifiers and two Olympic Trials qualifiers.

With the Tar Heels, Vanhoy was an assistant track and field and cross country coach during his first two seasons prior to be being promoted to head men's and women's cross country coach in January 2012.

Vanhoy, who competed on the North Carolina track and cross country teams in 2006 and 2007, graduated from UNC in 2009 with a bachelor's degree in biology. The Asheboro, N.C. native received his master's degree in exercise physiology from UNC in 2012. Vanhoy is married to Cal Poly Head Women's Cross Country Coach and Assistant Track Coach Michelle Chewens and the couple has two sons, Hudson and Henry.

Coaching History
Cal Poly Director of Track & Field and Cross Country, 2022-Present
Ole Miss Associate Head Men's and Women's Cross Country Coach, 2015-22
Ole Miss Assistant Track & Field Coach, men’s and women’s distance, 2016-22
Ole Miss Assistant Track & Field Coach, men’s distance, 2014-15
Ole Miss Men’s Cross Country Coach, 2013-15
Northeastern Assistant Track and Cross Country Coach, 2013-14
North Carolina Head Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Coach, 2012-13
North Carolina Assistant Track and Cross Country Coach, 2010-12