Cross Country’s Walker Promoted to Associate Head Coach
August 03, 2016 | Cross Country
Joe Walker III guided the men’s cross country team to a seventh-place finish at last year’s NCAA Championship.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Joe Walker III has been elevated to the University of Louisville's men's and women's associate head cross country coach after five seasons as an assistant coach, head coach Dale Cowper announced on Wednesday.
The move combines the men's and women's programs under Walker.
“I am excited to see our cross country programs return to a co-ed setting,” Cowper said. “Joe is truly one of the top distance coaches in the country and is unquestionably the right person to move each program forward.”
The men's cross country team finished seventh last season at the NCAA Championships – held at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park – for the best finish in school history by the Cardinals and the second top-10 showing at the NCAA Championships. Individually, senior Ernest Kibet crossed the line 12th with a time of 23:57.8.
At the ACC Championships, the UofL's men's cross country team had four runners finish in the top 20, leading the Cardinals to a fifth-place finish, while the women's team took 13th at Tallahassee's Apalachee Regional Park. Kibichiy paced the men with a third-place finish. Senior Benadate Cheruiyot led the women with a time of 21:11.3 to finish 32nd. Junior Claire Noser had a personal-best time of 21:44.6 to take 55th.
“I want to thank Coach Cowper for entrusting me to oversee this program,” Walker said. “I am excited to move into this position and combine the men's and women's programs. Coach Cowper believes it will benefit the entire program and I feel likewise. I also want to thank Christine Herring and our athletic director Tom Jurich for this opportunity.
“We have a large group of newcomers on the women's side and we will continue to build and move toward our goal of being competitive at a national level. On the men's side, we have Edwin Kibichiy, who hopes to contend for the ACC cross country title and score even higher at the NCAA Championships.”
Walker came to Louisville after spending 11 seasons at Alabama, where he served as the head men's cross country coach and an assistant for the men's track and field team. Under his guidance, the Crimson Tide posted four-straight top-15 finishes at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, including sixth in 2007, 10th in 2008 and third in 2009. Additionally, his group captured the NCAA South Region title on eight occasions (2000, 2001, 2005-10). At the conference level, the Crimson Tide won back-to-back team cross country titles (2008-09).
Individually, the Oxford, Miss., native has coached three SEC male cross country athletes of the year (four occasions) and 34 All-Americans (events ranging from 800m-10,000m and cross country). Also, cross country athletes have achieved all-South Region accolades on 42 different occasions. For his efforts, Walker was named the SEC Cross Country Coach of the Year three times (2001, 2008-09) and the USTFCCCA South Region Coach of the Year six times (2000-01, 2007-10).
Academically, Walker's group has been just as successful, garnering USTFCCCA All-Academic Team awards eight times, with a cross country student-athlete earning the prestigious NCAA Elite 88 Award. The honor recognizes the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating in the finals for each of the NCAA's 88 championships.
Prior to his stint at Alabama, Walker served as an assistant coach at South Alabama (1998-2000). He led the Jaguars to the NCAA Cross Country Championships and members of the track team to the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. In 1999, USA captured the Sun Belt Conference cross country team championship and later won the women's indoor track and field title at the league's championships.
From 1995-98, he was the men's and women's head track and field and cross country coach at Meridian (Miss.) Community College, where he guided the program to a National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) title in track and field and cross country (1996-97) and three runner-up finishes. Twice, he was NJCAA National Indoor Championship Coach of the Meet.
Walker earned a bachelor's degree in exercise science from Ole Miss, with a minor in business administration. While there from 1991-94, he was an academic all-SEC performer for the Rebels and a member of the world-ranked 4x1,500m squad in 1994. He finished his career with the third-fastest 3,000m mark in school history.
Coach Joe Walker III Louisville Coaching Highlights
- Coached Edwin Kibichiy to a spectacular 2016 season, with a third-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 3,000m steeplechase. He finished with a personal-best time of 8:30.71 and earned first team All-America honors for the first time in his career.
- Edwin Kibichiy won the 2016 ACC title in the 3,000m steeplechase for the second-straight year and his third conference title. He also finished second in the event at the NCAA East Preliminary Round.
- Kibichiy earned 2015 USTFCCCA all-region honors in cross country, while guiding the Cardinals to the Southeast Regional title.
- Coached Mattias Wolter to first team All-America honors in the 3,000m steeplechase with a sixth-place finish at the 2013 national championships; Wolter won titles in the event at the BIG EAST Outdoor Championships and the NCAA Preliminary Rounds
- Coached Kibet All-American honors at the 2015 NCAA Outdoor Championship in the 10,000m
- Also coached Kibet to the ACC title in the 10,000m and Kibichiy to the ACC title in the 3,000m steeplechase
- Guided the 2015 men's cross country team to the NCAA Southeast Regional title, for the first win in school history, with four athletes earning All-Region honors
- Led the 2015 men's cross country team to a seventh-place finish in the NCAA Championships, the best finish in school history - while Ernest Kibet earned All-America honors
- Coached the 2014 men's cross country team to the American Athletic Conference Championship. The women were runners-up that same year.
- Led Tyler Byrne to a first-place finish and Ernest Kibet to a second-place showing in the 2014 AAC
Championship
- Led Byrne to All-America honors by finishing 29th in the NCAA Cross Country Championships.
- Coached Edwin Kibichiy to the AAC title in the 3,000m steeplechase in 2014
- Led Kibichiy to an 11th-place finish at the 2014 NCAA Outdoor Championships, earning All-
America honors
- Led Kibichiy and Kibet to All-American honors by finishing 23rd and 32nd respectively in the 2014 NCAA Cross Country Championship
- Led Tyler Byrne to honorable mention honors at the 2014 NCAA Outdoor Championship in the 10,000m
- Led Edwin Kibichiy and Ernest Kibet to All-America honors at the 2014 NCAA Cross Country Championships.
- Coached Byrne to the AAC title in the 3,000m at the indoor championships and the 5,000m at the
outdoor championships
- Guided Ernest Kibet to all-BIG EAST status in cross country in 2012 with his fifth-place finish; Kibet became just the third freshman in school history to earn all-conference honors in cross country
- Led Matt Hughes to cross country all-conference and all-region honors in 2011
- His outdoor 4x800m relay team set the school record at the BIG EAST Championships; guided two athletes to a pair of top-five finishes in the 3,000m steeplechase at the championships
- Coached Kibet and Kibichiy to All-American honors at the 2015 NCAA Outdoor Championship in the 10,000m and 3,000m steeplechase, respectively
Players Mentioned
