Ryan Cole - Track and Field Coach - Air Force Academy Athletics

Photo by: Marty France

Ryan Cole

Title:
Assistant Coach | Distances, Middle Distances
Email:
robert.cole@afacademy.af.edu
Phone:
719-333-2173

1 National Champion; 32 All-America Honors

8 Teams in the NCAA Cross Country Championships; 8 Individual NCAA Qualifiers

10 Appearances at the NCAA Indoor Championships

96 Bids to the NCAA Outdoor Championships; 18 Appearances at Final Site

43 Mountain West Champions

210 All-Conference Performances

8 Mountain West Team Titles

9 Mountain West Coach of the Year Awards

17 Air Force Distance Records; 98 Air Force Top 10 Distance Marks

9 Selections to the Air Force World Class Athlete Program

Ryan Cole, a nine-time conference coach of the year, is in his third season as the Director of Air Force Track & Field and Cross Country. After spending the first eight years of his Academy tenure overseeing the Falcons’ highly successful distance program as the head cross country coach, Cole was promoted to Director in August 2022. In addition to overseeing the Falcons’ full program, Cole continues to coach the men’s distance and middle distance runners during the cross country and track seasons.

Cole has led Air Force to eight-straight team appearances at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, including the women’s first-ever Division I team appearance at the start of the streak in 2016. The men have raced in six of the last seven national meets – headlined by a seventh-place finish in 2022, while the women finished within the top 10 (eighth) in 2019. He has coached nine All-Americans – Kyle Eller (2015), Hannah Everson (2015), Mickey Davey (2017), Jaci Smith (2018), Maria Mettler (2019), Mahala Norris (2019, 2020), Sam Gilman (2021), Ryan Johnson (2022) and Luke Combs (2023), with Norris registering the Falcons’ best individual finish in 25 years (fourth, 2020) and becoming the program’s first back-to-back All-American in 29 years. The All-America accolades by Eller and Everson in 2015 marked the first time since 1967 that USAFA had produced multiple Division I cross country honorees at the same meet – a feat that has now been accomplished twice in the last nine years (Mettler/Norris in 2019).

Cole guided the men’s cross country team to its first Mountain West championship in 12 years at the 2015 meet and has since grown the program’s trophy total to five, following back-to-back-to-back championships in 2020-22. The men dominated the conference meets during that three-year stretch – claiming five of the top nine finishes at the 2020 meet, six of the top 10 in 2021, and five of the top eight in 2022 – with the last including the conference’s first-ever 1-2-3 sweep by the same team. He coached the women to runner-up finishes in 2016 and 2019 – placements that marked the best MW finishes for any women’s sport in Air Force history.

He has coached two individual champions in cross country, including Norris, who won the 2020 title to start her stellar senior campaign, and Sean Maison, who led the 1-2-3 sweep during the 2022 meet to become the men’s first MW champion in a decade (second overall). Following their wins, Norris and Maison received the conference’s Runner of the Year award, with Norris becoming the first Academy female to earn an athlete of the year award from the Mountain West. Cole also coached Air Force to four-straight MW Freshman of the Year awards, as Johnson (2019), Combs (2020), Halle Hamilton (2021) and Max Sannes (2022) recorded the top finish by a true freshman in their respective meets. Cole, who has been named MW Coach of the Year five times (2015, 2020, 20221, 2022 men; 2016 women), has seen 33 of his runners earn all-conference distinction 58 times.

Everson made program history in 2015, as she won the Mountain Region title by nearly 10 seconds and became the Academy’s first-ever USTFCCCA Mountain Region Female Cross Country Athlete of the Year. Norris earned the program’s second regional award from the USTFCCCA in 2020, while also becoming the first Academy athlete to be selected as a finalist for the Honda Award.

Headlined by Norris’ national title in the 3000-meter steeplechase at the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Championships, the success of the Falcons’ distance program has continued into the track season. Cole-coached runners have accounted for 22 All-America accolades, including 14 of Air Force’s last 16 first- or second-team designations.

Cole-coached runners have produced 60 qualifying spots to the NCAA Outdoor Championships, with 12 athletes advancing to the final site a combined 16 times. In addition to Norris’ steeplechase victory in 2021, Zach Perkins finished second in the 1500-meter run at the 2015 NCAA Championships, while Everson became the program’s first-ever West Prelim champion in a running event and added a third-place finish in the 10,000-meter run at the 2016 championship meet – a finish Mettler equaled in that event at the 2021 meet. In addition, seven Falcons have qualified to the NCAA Indoor Championships during Cole’s tenure, with Rhoads earning a bid in the 800-meter run three-straight years.

His runners have earned 24 Mountain West titles and 79 all-conference (top-three) finishes, including 1-2-3 sweeps of the men’s 5000-meter podium at the 2022 MW Indoor Championships and 2023 MW Outdoor Championships. His runners have helped the men to 10 Mountain West team titles – and three “Triple Crown” celebrations, following championship sweeps in cross country, indoor track and field, and outdoor track and field (2015-16, 2021-22, 2022-23). While coaching the women’s distance and middle distance lineup, his runners accounted for a majority of the Air Force’s points at several conference meets, including 30 of 33 points at the 2015 indoor meet and 37 of 43 points at the 2020 indoor meet.

Under his watch, Air Force has rewritten 17 of the Academy’s 20 middle distance and distance records, while making 98 improvements to the program’s all-time Top 10 standings in those events. Through 2024, Cole-coached men hold eight of Air Force’s top-10 marks in the 5000-meter run for both the indoor and outdoor seasons. His athletes also hold seven of the top 10 marks in the 1500-meter, 3000-meter, and 10,000-meter distances, as well as six of the top 10 in the mile and half of the top 10 in the 3000-meter steeplechase. While coaching the women from 2015-22, his runners completely rewrote the Air Force Top 10 in the 3000-meter run, while accounting for nine of the 10-fastest 5000-meter times in program history during both the indoor and outdoor seasons.

In addition to setting Academy Records, three Falcons – Gilman, Rhoads and Norris – are all ranked among the top of the Mountain West’s all-time standings, with Gilman setting the conference record for the 5000-meter run during the 2022 indoor season.

Cole was named interim head coach of the track and field team in March 2022, before being elevated to the newly created Director position in August of that year. Since taking control of the track and field program, Cole has led the men to three-straight Mountain West Outdoor titles (2022-24) and the MW Indoor title in 2023 – earning MW Coach of the Year honors each time. He has seen the Falcons combine for 25 Air Force Records during his first two seasons as Director, with two setting Mountain West Records and 11 accounting for the best marks ever by a service academy athlete.

During his time at the Academy, Cole has seen his athletes receive several major awards. Corona was selected as the Mountain West Male Athlete of the Year for all conference sports during the 2015-16 season – the first recipient of that award for any cadet in Academy history, while Norris became the second cadet honored following her historic 2020-21 season and Gilman earned the school’s third honor in 2022-23. Rebecca Esselstein, one of seven Academic All-Americans for Cole-coached teams, was selected as the CoSIDA Academic All-American of the Year for Division I Track/Field and Cross Country and the MW Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2015. Esselstein, a Rhodes Scholar, was the first cadet-athlete in any Air Force sport to be named an Academic All-American of the Year. Michelle Roca, a hurdler during his interim season with the track and field team, claimed the program’s second MW Scholar-Athlete of the Year award following her graduation in 2022.

Two Cole-coached athletes – Rhoads and Gilman – swept the MW Track and Field Athlete of the Year awards during the indoor and outdoor seasons in 2019 and 2022, respectively, while Gilman repeated the indoor honor in 2023. In addition, four distance runners – Jacob Bilvado (2019 indoor), Norris (2022 outdoor), Ryan Ioanidis (2022 indoor) and Gilman (2023 indoor) – were named the Outstanding Performer of their respective championship meets, while Texas Tanner claimed the first MW Field Performer of the Meet award (2024) under Cole’s watch.

Cole-coached athletes have also claimed several of the Academy’s prestigious Top 6 awards, which recognizes individual success throughout the entire athletic department. In addition to earning four of the Academy’s Most Valuable Athlete awards (Everson 2016, Smith 2019, Rhoads 2020, Norris 2021), his distance athletes have also captured the Scholar-Athlete award (Esselstein 2015) and been honored for Athletic Excellence three times (Corona 2016, Metter 2021, Gilman 2023). He also saw sprinter Sean Geither earn the department’s Scholar-Athlete award during his interim year with the track and field team.

Several of his athletes have represented the Academy in Team USA uniforms at the international level, with Sannes most recently helping Team USA to a bronze medal at the World Athletics U20 Cross Country Championships in 2023. In 2022, Bryce Lentz captured gold in the 3000-meter steeplechase at the USATF U20 Championships to become the second Falcon under Cole’s watch to represent Team USA in that event at the World Athletics U20 Track and Field Championships (Hunter Boyer, 2018). In addition, Corona (2016) and Smith (2019) won 5000-meter titles at the NACAC U23 Championships in the summers following their respective graduations.

Prior to joining the staff at the Air Force Academy, Cole spent seven years at Arizona State University, where he served as the women’s cross country and distance coach from 2011-2014 and as the men’s and women’s assistant cross country and distance coach from 2007-2011. During his first four years as an assistant at ASU, Cole was part of two NCAA track and field team championships, and five NCAA top-four team performances. Cole also handled many logistical responsibilities for the program and served as the home meet director for the Sun Angel Track Classic. He coached the 2014 NCAA Outdoor 1500-meter champion and saw his runners account for seven NCAA All-America honors. His 2011 squad qualified for the NCAA Cross Country Championships and his women’s teams posted a perfect 1000-rating for the Academic Progress Rate all three years he was the head coach.

While an assistant at ASU, Cole founded the Sun Elite Track Club, a post-collegiate group that recorded eight Team USA qualifying performances, including podium finishes at the 2011 U.S. National Indoor Championships (third in the 3000-meter run) and at the 2011 U.S. Cross Country Championships (10th).

Cole began his coaching career in 2006 at Northwood University in Midland, Mich. In his one year with the Timberwolves, the distance group broke 13 school records and Cole helped a pair of runners qualify for the NCAA Division II National Championships, including the school’s first men’s cross country qualifier and the first women’s track and field distance finalist.

As a student-athlete, Cole competed for four years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and one year at Grand Valley State University. A native of Sanford, Mich., Cole graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy.