Christine Engel - Women’s Cross Country and Track & Field Head Coach - Staff Directory

Staff Directory

Christine Engel

Title:
Women’s Cross Country and Track & Field Head Coach
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University of Massachusetts named Christine Engel its head coach for women’s cross country and track & field on July 30, 2021 and enters her third year with the programs. Engel came to UMass with over 20 years of coaching experience including 17 years coaching Division I cross country and track. The Clemson graduate has mentored student-athletes to 122 all-conference honors at the DI level.
During her first season as head coach at UMass, the Minutewomen won an Atlantic 10 Outdoor Track and Field Championship and a New England Outdoor Track and Field Championship, and Engel was named as the Atlantic 10 Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Year. Since coming to UMass, she has coached two Atlantic 10 Cross Country All-Conference Team honorees (Sarah Conant – 2021, Lily Robinson, 2021), one Atlantic 10 All-Rookie Team student-athlete (Eugenia Fairhurst – cross country, 2021), two Atlantic 10 medalists (Lily Robinson – 10,000m, 2022; Grace Phair – 3,000m steeplechase, 2023), one indoor New England Champion (Lily Robinson - 5,000m, 2022) and one outdoor New England Champion (Grace Phair – 3,000m steeplechase, 2023).

The previous two seasons, Engel served as head men’s and women’s track & field/cross country coach at North Dakota where the Fighting Hawks had 4 NCAA West Regional qualifiers, 36 All-Summit League performers and saw school records fall 24 times on her watch. In 2020-21, she guided Patrick Kipkemboi to the individual Summit League Cross Country Championship title and an NCAA Cross Country Championship berth and her student-athletes swept the male and female Summit League Cross Country Newcomer of the Year awards. UND’s top-five women and top-three men each earned All-Summit League Cross Country accolades as the teams took second and third at the Summit League Cross Country Championships, respectively.

Prior to her arrival at North Dakota, Engel spent three seasons at Fresno State as the head men's and women's cross country coach and assistant track coach, mentoring Annemarie Schwanz to All-America honors in the 1,500 meter run at the 2017 NCAA Track & Field Championships. Under Engel's tutelage, Schwanz set program records in the 800m and the 1,500m while breaking the Mountain West Conference's all-time mark in the 1,500m (4:10.93). Engel’s student-athletes also set school records the indoor mile, indoor 3,000m and the indoor 5,000m during her three years with the Bulldogs.

In her two seasons at Duke as the head women's distance coach (2014-16), Engel helped guide Anima Banks to First Team All-America honors in both the indoor and outdoor 800m. Banks followed up her outstanding Blue Devil career as an Olympic Trials participant, advancing to the 800m semifinals at Historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., running a personal-best 2:02.39. In addition to her work with Banks, Engel coached Duke’s distance medley relay team to All-America status at the 2016 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championship. On her watch, three individuals reached the NCAA East Preliminary round in 2015 in 800m, 1,500m and 10,000m followed by three NCAA First Round qualifiers in 2016 in 800m, 1,500m and 3,000m steeplechase.

From 2008 to 2014, Engel spent six years at Elon taking the Phoenix distance program from the lower tier of the Southern Conference to perennial championship contenders. Along with three runner-up finishes at the conference meet, the women's cross country team also finished ninth at the 2013 NCAA Southeast Regional Cross Country Championship, a 21-place improvement Engel’s first season at the helm and highest finish in school history.

On the track side, the men's (non-sponsored) and women's programs set a total of 18 new school records during Engel’s tenure, including SoCON conference champion Tereza Novotna (3,000-meter steeplechase), who was selected to compete for the Czech Republic at the 2014 European Team Championship. As a runner-up in 2013, Novotna was also part of a 1-2-3 podium sweep in the steeplechase.

Distance programs under Engel's leadership have also achieved in the classroom as Schwanz earned CoSIDA Academic All-America honors, as well as USTFCCCA All-Academic Team accolades. Her distance group collected five Academic All-ACC honors in her two years at Duke while Banks was named to the USTFCCCA All-Academic team as well.

Engel began her collegiate coaching career at the University of San Francisco as an assistant cross country and track coach (2004-07), helping the Dons men's and women's programs to runner-up finishes at the West Coast Conference Championships. She then spent a season at Columbia, helping qualify five Lions' runners for the NCAA East Regional Championship in four separate events, as well as guiding two all-region honorees and one All-American in cross country.

Engel, a native of, Flanders, New Jersey, graduated from Clemson University in 1996 where she was a two-time All-Atlantic Coast Conference selection and a member of the 1995 ACC Championship distance medley relay team and 1993 NCAA Cross Country Championship qualifying teams.

A standout prep runner, Engel was the New Jersey's Gatorade Athlete of the Year, as well as the No. 2 ranked miler in the U.S., earning consensus All-America accolades. She was selected as one of New Jersey's Track & Field Athletes of the Decade.