Christopher Straub enters his 13th year at Elizabethtown College in 2010-2011.
He serves as director of cross country and track and field, overseeing all aspects of both the men's and women's programs.
The men’s and women’s cross country and track & field teams have experienced a great deal of success on both the conference and national level during his tenure. The four teams have won a combined 26 Middle-Atlantic Conference team titles since 1999. Two hundred six student-athletes have earned All-MAC honors since 1998.
Elizabethtown College was represented at 23-straight NCAA Division III Cross Country, Indoor Track & Field, and Outdoor Track & Field Championships from May, 2002 to November, 2009. A total of 35 All-American performances have been achieved by 18 student-athletes since 2001. As a team, Elizabethtown College has finished in the Top 25 at the NCAA Division III men’s and women’s cross country and track & field championships on 15 occasions since 1999.
Not to be forgotten is the program's success in the classroom. The 2002 men’s cross country team achieved the rare distinction of having the highest GPA of all 381 NCAA Division III teams in the United States. The squad also won E-town’s fourth MAC championship in a row, the school’s only Mideast Regional title, and went on to finish 15th at the 2002 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships.
Cross Country…“Eight in a Row”
The past decade has seen tremendous growth and development of the cross country and track & field programs at E-town. Elizabethtown College's men’s cross country team had won only one MAC title (1965). In Straub’s second year at E-town, men's cross country started “The Streak”. From 1999-2006, they won eight straight MAC Cross Country Championships. The men of ECXC won their second-ever MAC title in 1999 after a 34-year hiatus atop the conference. They then went on to win eight Middle-Atlantic Conference team titles in a row.
The women’s cross country team had never won a conference title until 2004 when former head coach, Mike Dager, led the Blue Jays to their first ever MAC crown. Straub was behind the women's second ever MAC title in 2007, while current head coach Brian Falk’s 2008 and 2009 squads upset nationally ranked Messiah College to win the program's third and fourth team championships. Neither the men’s nor the women’s cross country team had ever qualified for the national championships until 1999. In one year, the men’s cross country team went from 24th in the region (1998) to 24th in the nation (1999)! They also advanced as a team to the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships in 2001 (14th), 2002 (15th), 2004 (15th), 2009 (28th) and 2010 (14th). The women’s cross country team advanced to the national championships in 2004 (19th), 2006 (31st), 2007 (tied for 23rd) and 2010 (11th).
Track & Field…“Built from Scratch…Sixth in the Nation in Sixth Year of Existence”
The track & field programs had to be built from scratch as Elizabethtown College only added the varsity sports of men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track & field upon Coach Straub’s hire in 1998. They, too, have gone on to achieve many individual and team accolades since the program’s inception. Like the cross country program, success came relatively quickly for the track & field programs. In 2004, the program's sixth year, the men’s track & field team narrowly missed standing atop the podium (top four teams) at the national championships. The Blue Jays captured a stunning sixth place at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships in just their sixth year of existence! MAC team titles began to add up as well with the men’s indoor track & field team winning their first title in 2003. They went on to defend that conference title for six straight years (2003-08).
Although regularly in the hunt, the women’s indoor track & field team won their first and only team title in 2006 when they broke Moravian College’s decade-long stranglehold atop the conference. At the 2010 MAC Outdoor T&F Championships, Head Women's Track & Field Coach, Joel Hoffsmith, led the team to another second place finish out of 11 teams. In both 2009 and 2010, the Blue Jay women finished in the runner-up position. At the 2009 outdoor conference championships the women were 78 points out of first place. In 2010 the Blue Jay women were a mere 14 points shy of beating Messiah College and standing atop the victory stand.
The men’s outdoor track & field team won its first team title in 2004 by just 1.5 points over then-conference rival Susquehanna University. Coach Straub had been an assistant coach under Susquehanna’s legendary head coach, Jim Taylor, just six years prior. In an epic battle, the track & field meet came down to the 4x400m relay on the campus of Messiah College. E-town’s mile relay squeaked out a second place finish to cap off the team victory, thus shocking heavily favored Susquehanna. It was Coach Taylor’s final meet after a 40-year coaching career and the baton had been symbolically passed from mentor to disciple and one winning program to another. E-town's men would go on to win the MAC Outdoor T&F Championship in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
Before E-town…“We Are The Dukes of JMU and ‘Cradle of Coaches’”
Prior to coming to Elizabethtown College, Coach Straub worked with student-athletes at Miami University (Ohio), East Carolina University (N.C.) and Susquehanna University. Straub graduated cum laude in 1993 from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. He then went on to earn a master’s degree in 1995 in sport studies (sport psychology and kinesiology) from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Throughout the sports world, Miami has the unique reputation as the "Cradle of Coaches". Legendary football coaches such as Woody Hayes (Ohio State), Bo Schembechler (Michigan), and Ara Parseghian (Notre Dame) all had roots at Miami.
As a senior at JMU, Straub was the team captain and MVP of JMU’s cross country team. At the 1992 CAA Championships, he finished 3rd only behind eventual Olympic Trials track & field competitors Brian Hyde (William & Mary) and Matt Holthaus (JMU). The 1992 squad beat conference rival William & Mary to win JMU’s first ever conference title in men’s cross country. A few years later, the JMU program would go on to become one of the best teams in the nation. In 1998, the JMU men qualified for the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships for the first time ever and finished ninth as a team under the direction of Coach Pat Henner. JMU discontinued the sports of men’s cross country and track & field in 2007.
Coach Straub and his wife, Traci, have two daughters, Seneca (11) and Milligan (7).
