Track & Field Coaches
Head Coach Ned Bishop - Fourth Year Men, 17th Year Women
Ned Bishop took the reins of the men's track & field program prior to the 2007 season. The team has earned its best finishes ever in the New England Division III Indoor and Outdoor Championship meets and amassed its highest point total ever in the NESCAC Championship meet during the last three years. He also returned to the helm of the women's team in 2007, a position he previously held from 1986 through 1998. He has been the head coach of the Camels' highly successful women's cross country squad for the past 24 years.
Under Bishop's direction over the last three years, the track & field squads have broken fifteen men's school records and nine women's school records. Keith Drake (mile/1500m), Brian Murtagh (steeplechase) and Alex Samma (triple jump) have all advanced to the NCAA Division III Championship, and Samma won the program's first-ever national title during the 2009 indoor season.
Bishop has guided the Connecticut College women's team to one New England Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championship title, and he has 36 NCAA national qualifiers to his credit. He has coached 30 NESCAC, New England and ECAC Division III champions and two of his former runners qualified for the 2004 Olympic Trials in the marathon. Bishop coaches the men and women hurdlers in addition to working with the women distance runners.
Bishop graduated from Connecticut College in 1984 after a four-year cross country and track career. He served as the team captain and was named the Most Valuable Runner of the cross country squad in his senior year. He ran the first leg on a school-record distance medley relay team and owns a personal best time of 15:47 for 5000 meters. Bishop recently completed a four-year term as a member of the NCAA Division III Track & Field and Cross Country Committee.
Jim Butler - Assistant Head Coach
Jim Butler has been the head coach of the men's cross country program at Connecticut College for the past 23 years. He has coached numerous NCAA cross country qualifiers and his 2002 team advanced to the national championship meet. He earned New England Coach of the Year honors that year and NESCAC Coach of the Year honors in 2004. Under Butler's tutelage Adam Fitzgerald (10k), Keith Drake (mile), Brian Murtagh (steeplechase and 3k) and Shawn Mulcahy (10k) have all won recent New England Division III track titles. In 2007, Drake qualified for the NCAA's in the mile (indoors) and the 1500 meters (outdoors), and in 2008 Murtagh earned All-American honors in the steeplechase with an eighth place finish. Butler ran cross country and track at Rutgers University.
Sarah Burkhardt - Assistant Coach
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Sarah Burkhardt joined the Camel coaching staff a year ago after a standout collegiate career at Susquehanna University. She coaches the team's jumpers and assists with the sprints. Under Burkhardt's direction, Alex Samma garnered All-America accolades in the triple jump during the indoor and outdoor seasons, while Margaret Thayer and Alex DeShields broke the indoor school records in the long jump last winter. Burkhardt was an All-Middle Atlantic and All-Landmark conference selection and owns personal best marks of 5'2" in the high jump, 33'6" in the triple jump and 61.67 seconds in the 400 meters.
Carl Reichard - Assistant Coach
Carl Reichard is a nationally recognized thrower and brings tremendous coaching experience to the Camel track & field program. He has coached at local high schools for over 30 years, where his teams have won ten league and five state titles. He has coached four high school All-Americans and three NCAA Division III All-Americans. Reichard was a standout football player and a three-time national qualifying thrower at Amherst College. He owns a personal best of 171'11" in the hammer and has been the top American finisher in that event three times at the Master's World Championships.
Adam Fitzgerald - Assistant Coach
Adam Fitzgerald earned All-America honors in cross country and won NESCAC, New England Division III and All-New England titles in the 10,000 meters while an undergrad at Connecticut College. He holds the 10k school record and has a lifetime best of 30:45. He has also run 14:53 for 5000 meters, 24:32 for five miles and recently recorded his pr with a time of 2:25:30 in the 2009 Chicago Marathon. Fitzgerald works with the team’s running events and has also served as an assistant coach for the men’s cross country program since his graduation in 2003.
Amy Parulis - Assistant Coach
Amy Parulis joined the Camel coaching staff in 2007 after two years as a volunteer assistant coach at Duke University where she produced the ACC champion in the javelin and had three qualifiers for the NCAA Division I Regionals. Parulis threw for Carl Reichard at East Lyme High School before going on to a standout career at the University of North Carolina. She earned All-ACC honors in the javelin (best of 152'0") and was the conference champion in the hammer (best of 198'6").
Lori Kessel - Assistant Coach
Lori Kessel graduated from Connecticut College in 2004 after a standout track & field career. Kessel holds school records in the 400 meters (58.55 seconds) and the 4x400 meter relay. She returned to the coaching staff last year to work with the sprinters.
Kyle Judkins - Assistant Coach
Kyle Judkins aids in the coaching of the jumping events by working with the pole vaulters. Judkins vaulted at Wheaton College before coming to Connecticut College to coach last year, and he continues to train and compete with the Skyjumpers Connecticut pole vault club in Norwich, Conn.
Last Modified: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 15:39