Head Coach Nolan Swanson

Nolan Swanson is the Fredonia State Coach of Men’s and Women’s Track and Field and Cross Country, an appointment made during the spring of 2006.

A two-time All American distance runner at Wake Forest, he joined the Fredonia State coaching staff in August 2004. He made an immediate impact.

The 2006 women’s cross country season was the best season in program history –- second in the SUNYAC, fifth in the New York State Collegiate Track Conference, and fifth in the NCAA Atlantic Regional. The regional finish made the team eligible for the NCAA Championships, although the team did not receive a bid. Swanson was named 2006 Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year in the SUNYAC. Swanson's 2004 women's cross country team finished second in the SUNYAC championship meet and fifth in the NCAA Atlantic Regional meet. Those were the best showings in the history of the women's program.

In addition, his 2004 men's team performed its best by the end of the season. Six of seven runners recorded personal-bests at the regional meet. After the program didn’t send a full squad to the NCAA Regional meet in 2003, the team has finished 20th in 2004, 10th in 2005 and 19th in an injury-plagued 2006.

Swanson ran cross country and track at Wake Forest, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology with a minor in business. He won seven Atlantic Coast Conference individual titles. Swanson was named 1999 ACC Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year after winning the 5,000-meter and the 3,000-meter steeplechase and finishing second in the 10,000 meters at the ACC championship meet. He also set -- and still holds -- the all-time ACC 10,000-meter record and the 3,000-meter ACC indoor meet record.

At the NCAA Championships that spring, Swanson finished fourth in the 10,000-meter run to earn his second All-American honor. His first came in cross country in 1998. Earlier that year, Swanson received the Arnold Palmer Award as Wake Forest’s top male athlete in 1997-98.

Swanson competed as a professional for five years with Nike and Asics. He qualified for the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships every year from 1998-2003. In February 2004, he finished sixth at the United States World Cross Country Trials Indianapolis, and earned the right to represent the U.S. at the world cross country championship meet held in Belgium. The Americans finished 11th in the world.

A native of Chautauqua County, he won the New York State Class C-D high school cross country title as a senior at Sherman Central School. He also won the 5,000 meters and the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the 1994 Empire State Games and the 1994 national high school 2,000-meter steeplechase while running for the Jamestown-based Chautauqua Striders.

He is married to the former Amy King, whose sister, Grace, is a 1997 Fredonia State graduate and a seven-time All-American in track and field for the Blue Devils. Grace (King) Odell was inducted into the Fredonia State Sports Hall of Fame in 2002.

Swanson and his wife have two sons, Darien and Carson.

At the time of his Fredonia State coaching appointment, Swanson was serving as a volunteer graduate assistant coach to women’s distance runners at the University of Oregon.

E-mail Coach Swanson

Assistant Coach Tom Calcaterra

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