Brian Falk enters his fourth season as Elizabethtown College's Director of Cross County and Track & Field in 2014-15. Within his position overseeing the entire program, Falk serves as the head coach for the men's and women's cross country teams. He is embarking on his seventh season with the women's cross country team and fourth with the men's team.
Elizabethtown is 6-for-6 in Middle Atlantic Conference Women's Cross Country Championships since Falk's arrival back in 2008, an unparalleled run of success for the program. Falk is also two straight on the men's side with titles in 2011 and 2012.
Elizabethtown owns five MAC Cross Country Championships sweeps by its men and women, with the first coming in 2004 and the most recent in 2012. The 2012 sweep was the College's fourth in a row, a streak that began in 2009.
In its final MAC Championship meet, Falk's team finished just as it had the previous six MAC meets by winning the league crown. Led by Traci Tempone's second straight runner-up performance, the Blue Jays placed four runners in the top ten and eight in the top 20. Megan Tursi, Amelia Tearnan, and Amanda Kerno were All-MAC First Team performers, while Eileen Cody, Laurie Jones, Alexis Groce, and Liz Wedekind were All-MAC Second Team.
Tempone led the Jays at the NCAA Division III Mideast Regional meet as Falk's squad placed in the top five for the fourth straight year to help earn ECXC its third trip in the past four seasons to the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships. Tempone finished 14th at the Mideast Regional to become just the second female runner in program history to earn All-Region all four years. E-town placed 29th at NCAAs.
The Blue Jay women put six runners in the top 15 and eight in the top 20 to win their sixth straight MAC Championship in 2012. Traci Tempone, a year removed from winning the MAC Individual Championship, again paced E-town, taking second. Taryn Shank finished fourth and Megan Patton seventh to lead the team's All-MAC First Team contingent. Yet, while the Blue Jays boast some of the top runners in the conference, it has been their depth which has allowed the program to sustain its level of excellence.
Amanda Kerno, Eileen Cody, Sarah Steinmetz, Amelia Tearnan and Rachel Carr put forth all-conference performances as top 20 finishers, helping E-town to an unprecedented sixth straight conference title.
At the NCAA Division III Mideast Regional meet, the Blue Jays finished fifth, equaling their pre-meet ranking. Tempone finished 10th to earn all-region honors for the third time in as many years and qualify for the national meet. There, she finished 55th of 277 competitors. Elizabethtown has been represented at the national meet every year since 2003, either as a team or individually.
Also, for the eighth straight year, the women’s squad was named a USTFCCCA All-Academic Team.
In 2010, the Elizabethtown women had a milestone moment with an 11th-place finish at the NCAA Division III Championships in Waverly, Iowa. It was the program's best-ever finish on a national stage. Entering the national meet, the Blue Jays were ranked 29th in the nation. They ascended an impressive 18-positions to close the season as the nation's 11th-ranked team.
Falk, a 1988 graduate of Temple University has paid his dues within the Elizabethtown family. His first year with the program came in 2007 as an assistant coach, a season in which the Blue Jays won a MAC Championship, took fourth at the NCAA Mideast Regional and finished tied for 23rd at the NCAA DIII Championships.
His experience and leadership continue to prove pivotal in the Blue Jays' sustained success within the entire cross country/track & field program. Falk assisted with coaching duties on the men's cross country team up until 2011, when he took over as head coach. He continues to oversee the distance runners on the track & field side.
Since coming to Elizabethtown, Falk has coached a pair of All-Americans in Reichert (cross country, 2011) and Matt Rever (outdoor 800-meter run, 2012). Combined with the seven All-Americans he mentored at Dickinson, Falk now touts nine All-Americans to his resumé.
Elizabethtown is Falk’s second head coaching stint at the collegiate level. He spent a season as the men’s and women’s cross country coach at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, leading the Blugold women to a 12th place finish at the 2006 NCAA Division III Championships in Wilmington, Ohio. Falk assisted with the track and field programs at UW-Eau Claire as well, overseeing individual qualifiers for both the 2007 NCAA Division III Indoor and Outdoor Championships.
Falk earned his bachelor of science in physical education and a Pennsylvania teacher certification from Temple, before obtaining a master of science in exercise science from McDaniel College in 2003. His UW-Eau Claire men’s and women’s cross country teams were named 2006-07 Academic All-Americans by the USTFCCCA for maintaining a team GPA over 3.10.
Prior to his time at UW-Eau Claire, he was an assistant coach with the cross country and track & field programs at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa. He planned training programs for all distance-event athletes in the track and field program, and 11 of those athletes became individual champions within the Centennial Conference. Falk also had a hand in molding nine NCAA Division III Track and Field Championship qualifiers and seven All-Americans.
While at Dickinson, Falk also coached the cross country team at nearby Susquehanna Township High School. The veteran coach started at Susquehanna Township in 1991 and spent 10 seasons there. Falk has been in coaching for over 25 years. He built the Susquehanna program from three returnees in 1991 to over 50 athletes by his departure.
Under Falk’s tutelage, numerous Elizabethtown runners have excelled on the national level in both cross country and track. His list of NCAA qualifiers includes Dylan Rulander, Matt Rever and the 2011-12 distance medley relay team members Rever, Russell Speiden and Mark Weber on the men's side, as well as Eileen Cody, Tiffany Kulp, Traci Tempone and Megan VanDenHengel on the women's side.
Competitively, Falk placed second in the Harrisburg Marathon in 2003 and took third in the God's Country Marathon the same year. He has U.S. Track & Field Level 2 Certification in endurance, jumps and sprints/hurdles/relays.
Falk currently resides in Hummelstown with his wife, Amy, and the their three sons, Patrick, Owen and Clayton.
