3rd Year
Huntingdon (Ind.) ‘04
Rick Hammer was appointed Edinboro’s men’s and women’s cross country coach in early August 2013. He is teamed with Anne Carlson, who serves as Edinboro’s head track & field coach/director of cross country operations, to oversee Edinboro’s running programs.
Hammer has enjoyed a highly-successful first two seasons at the helm, maintaining Edinboro’s reputation as one of the top NCAA Division II programs in the country. His women’s harriers have won back-to-back NCAA Division II Atlantic Region titles, and captured their first PSAC crown since 2006 a year ago. For his efforts, Hammer was recognized as the USTFCCCA Atlantic Region Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year.
Kasey Jones earned All-American honors in 2014, finishing 14th at Nationals to lead the Fighting Scots to a 15th-place finish. She is Hammer’s second women’s All-American. Jones was named the PSAC Women’s Cross Country Athlete of the Year and the USTFCCA Atlantic Region Women’s Cross Country Athlete of the Year. She won the Atlantic Region individual title, with five runners earning All-Region honors: Jones, Emma Sullivan, Emily Ahrens, Anna Hösl, and Megan Maffett. The same five runners also earned All-PSAC accolades.
The women’s team was recognized as a USTFCCCA Scholar Team with five runners earning USTFCCCA All-Academic honors: Ahrens, Rebekkah Bond, Hösl,Maffett, and Sullivan.
In 2013, the Edinboro women’s team won its first Atlantic Region championship since 2007, as four runners earned All-Region honors: Sarah Krolick, Jones, Ahrens, and Maffett. Edinboro previously finished second at the PSAC Championships, as did Krolick in the individual race. Krolick, Jones, and Ahrens earned All-PSAC honors.
The women’s harriers capped the season with a 13th place showing at the NCAA Division II National Championships. Krolick earned All-American honors for the second time with a 23rd place finish.
The women’s team was also recognized as a USTFCCCA Scholar Team with six runners earning USTFCCCA All-Academic honors: Ahrens, Dana Cerroni, Brittany Kaltenbaugh, Krolick, Maffett, and Sullivan. .
On the men’s side, the Fighting Scots finished ninth at the NCAA Division II National Championships after placing second at both the PSAC Championships and Atlantic Regional Championships in 2013. The accomplishments were even more impressive given that two of the team’s top runners – returning All-American Bryan Deibel and Dustin Thomas – missed a good portion of the season, including the PSAC Championships. Deibel returned for the regional and national championships, while Thomas came back for Nationals. Both were at less than 100 percent.
Five runners earned All-PSAC honors: Matt Link, Tim McConnell, Dylan Stevens, Michael Thielman and Jordan Roose. That number was bettered in the Atlantic Regional, as seven runners finished as All-Region performers: Link, Thielman, McConnell, Bryan Deibel, Elliott Martynkiewicz, Bart Eckel, and Logan Kempney.
The men’s team was recognized as a USTFCCCA Scholar Team with Deibel, Link, Thielman, and Thomas earning USTFCCCA All-Academic honors. In addition, Thomas was awarded an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.
Link highlighted Hammer’s second season as the men’s cross country coach as he earned All-American honors for the first time. The senior came in 15th at the NCAA Division II National Championships, the same place Edinboro finished as a team.
Edinboro would finish third at both the PSAC and Atlantic Regional Championships. Link paced a group of four All-PSAC runners , along with Elliott Martynkiewicz, Jonathan Gusew, and Tim McConnell. Five runners earned All-Atlantic Region honors: Martynkiewicz, Link, McConnell, Corey Wefing, and Logan Kempney.
The men’s team was recognized as a USTFCCCA Scholar Team with three runners earning USTFCCCA All-Academic honors: Gusew, Link, and Wefing.
The academic honors also included Thomas and Krolick earning CoSIDA Academic All-American accolades, with Thomas earning first team and Krolick second team honors.
The distance runners in track & field have also earned great success. That is capped by Krolick qualifying for the NCAA Division II Indoor National Championships in the 5,000-meter run, and Jones qualifying for the outdoor championships in the steeplechase. Both occurred in 2014.
Hammer joined the Edinboro coaching staff after serving as the assistant cross country/track & field coach at Lewis University for the previous four years. Hammer mentored the distance runners to 40 (plus) All-GLVC honors, along with guiding four student-athletes to qualifying marks for the USATF Junior Nationals. He coached 12 national qualifiers, nine All-Americans, 10 GLVC champions, and two GLVC Freshmen of the Year. In addition, the Flyers won the 2010 and 2011 GLVC Indoor Women’s Track team championships.
He made an immediate impact on both the cross country and track & field programs, as Kathryn Hague posted back-to-back All-American finishes in cross country in 2009 and ’10, Lewis’ first cross country All-American since 1997.
Prior to his stint at Lewis, Hammer spent three years (2006-09) as the assistant cross country/track & field coach at Division III Manchester College (Ind.), where he coached seven national qualifiers, two All-Americans and one national champion during his tenure. He helped the Spartans to the 2009 HCAC women’s track & field team title, and the 2009 men’s track team was 14th in the nation.
All told, 11 different school records were broken and 186 spots were claimed on the Manchester track & field top 10 performance list.
Hammer began his coaching career as an assistant track & field coach at IPFW in 2005, the moved on to assistant cross country/track & field position at Tri-State University the next year.
Hammer is a USATF Level I Certified Track & Field Coach and has a Level II certification in the endurance events from both the USATF and USTFCCCA. He had served as the GLVC representative to the USTFCCCA Cross County Committee the last two years.
A December 2004 graduate of Huntington College (Ind.) with a bachelor’s degree in Business Management/Economics, Hammer was a two-time captain, national qualifier and Academic All-American. The Plainfield, Ill. resident received his master’s degree in Physical Education – Coaching Emphasis from Ball State in 2009. He has been working on a master’s degree in Business Administration from Lewis.
Hammer and his wife, Cecilia, reside in Edinboro.
