Brian Falk enters his 15th season as Elizabethtown College's Director of Cross County and Track & Field in 2025-26. 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 18th season with the women's cross country team and 15th with the men's team.
Elizabethtown dominated the Middle Atlantic Conference Women's Cross Country Championships upon Falk's arrival, winning all six from 2008-13, an unparalleled run of success for the program. Falk also led the men's team to MAC titles in 2011 and 2012 in his first two seasons coaching them. The 2014 season brought with it a change in conference affiliation, E-town joining the Landmark, but the results remained the same. The Blue Jay men and women swept conference titles in their inaugural Landmark Championship races and did so once again in 2015 with the men's team one point away from a perfect meet score. Elizabethtown completed its fifth consecutive sweep of the conference meet in 2018.
Kelty Oaster '24, '25M is the latest in the lineage of dominant Blue Jays on the women's side. Oaster was a four-time All-Landmark Cnnference First Team and All-Mid-Atlantic Region runner for Falk. She was the 2023 Landmark Conference champion and Performer of the Year, the sixth individual champion under Falk and third since joining the Landmark.
Oaster was a three-time qualifier for the NCAA Div. III XC Championships, able to compete twice in 2023 and 2024, where she finished 80th and 109th, respectively. She took 5th at the 2023 NCAA Div. III Mid-Atlantic Regional, the best place finisher for Etown since 2011 and the fastest regional time (21:26.9) since 2007.
Samuel Gerstenbacher '20 became the fourth individual champion on the men's side under Falk and first to win back-to-back individual titles (2017 & 2018). He also won the 2019 edition of the Landmark Conference Championships. The 2016 Landmark Conference Rookie of the Year and all-conference performer was the third Blue Jay in four years to claim the individual crown at the 2017 Landmark Championships. Gerstenbacher and Tyler Alansky '19 went on to NCAA All-Mideast Region honors. Both runners repeated their regional success in 2018.
Gerstenbacher became the sixth different All-American in program history at the 2019 NCAA Division III National Championships after he took 27th. Gerstenbacher was a two-time qualifier for the XC national meet.
The E-town women placed five in the top seven of the 2017 Landmark meet and then, for the first time in program history, had five All-Mideast Region honorees and took second at the NCAA DIII Mideast Regional behind Johns Hopkins.
The women's team has been represented in 13 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championship meets since Falk was appointed as head coach prior to the 2008 season. In seven of eight seasons (2010-2017), the Blue Jays qualified for nationals as a team. In 2014, a third-place performance at the Mideast Regional meet earned E-town an at-large berth to the national championships, where the team finished 28th. Dan Gresh put the men back in the national meet after a two-year hiatus with an 18th-place finish at regionals. Gresh nabbed one of the individual berths and placed 217th.
Gerstenbacher and Colleen Kernan '19 represented the College at the 2018 NCAA Division III National Championships in Wisconsin.
Three All-Mideast Region performances helped the women's team to a fourth-place finish at the Mideast Regional in 2015. E-town kept its' nationals streak alive as they received an at-large berth. On the men's side, Falk watched four of his guys earn All-Mideast Region and the Blue Jays took second, their best regional finish since 2004.
For the first time since 2011, the men's and women's teams both competed at the 2015 NCAA Championships. The Blue Jay women placed 29th in the team standings, while the men's team finished 22nd.
Zach Trama '16 was the third conference individual champion under Falk, marking the second straight season an Elizabethtown runner has won the men's race. Trama placed fourth at the Mideast Regional for his second all-region honor and went on to become the program's fifth different All-American by finishing 26th. He was also the Landmark Conference Men's XC Senior Scholar Athlete.
Prior to the 2014 and 2015 Landmark sweeps, the men's and women's programs took home MAC Cross Country championships in the same season five times, with the first coming in 2004. During a four-year run from 2009-12, no team, men or women, could unseat the Blue Jays from their throne.
Falk coached Amelia Tearnan '15 to a win at the 2014 Landmark Championships and Lydia Dearie '16 at the 2015 Landmark Championships, the fourth and fifth runners in program history to claim a conference meet. Traci Tempone ran to victory at the MAC Championships in 2011 and Megan VanDenHengel was victorious in 2009, both under Falk's watch. Dan Gresh (2014, Landmark) and Eric Reichert (2011, MAC) have won individual titles for Falk on the men's side prior to Trama's victory.
Elizabethtown's women went on to finish third at the NCAA DIII Mideast Regional in 2011, while the men were fifth. Both teams qualified for the NCAA Championships. The men recorded their second straight top 20 finish at nationals by placing 18th in Winneconne, Wis. The women were 22nd at race's end.
In 2010, the Blue Jay women recorded 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 three All-Americans in Reichert (2011, cross country), Matt Rever (2012, outdoor 800m) and Trama (2015, cross country). Combined with the seven All-Americans he mentored at Dickinson, Falk now touts ten 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, Trama, and Gerstenbacher 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 their three sons, Patrick, Owen and Clayton.
Updated on 6/4/25
