Earlham College

Pat Thomas is in his 29th season as the head coach of the Earlham women’s and men’s cross country programs. In addition to his tenure as cross country coach, Thomas was the Quakers’ head track coach for 14 seasons and has resume that role for the 2015-16 season.

Thomas has established a long and successful history of developing athletes in both cross country and track. His 1995 cross country team captured Earlham’s first North Coast Athletic Conference championship on way to a National top-20 ranking. The Quakers followed that up with an NCAC Co-Championship during the 1996 season.  His ability to develop athletes and lead them to reach their full potential has also been borne out with years of consistently high level of success on the track.

Recent Earlham athletes who have reached the highest level in Division III track include Walker Yane, Sara Bohall and Chris Shaw. Yane earned All-American honers by running 9:07.66 to place eighth in the steeplechase at the 2007 Division III National Championship. Earlham then produced two All-Americans in 2008. Sara Bohall finished fourth in the 400 hurdles in 61.35 and Chris Shaw placed fifth in the discus with a toss of 164-9. Bohall was a 16-time all NCAC performer and was the NCAC’s 400 hurdles champion four consecutive years. Shaw was a three-time NCAC discus champion as well as All-NCAC shot putter and holds the Quaker discus record at 167-1. The marks by Yane and Bohall are the fastest ever posted by in the history of the NCAC. In 2011, Jacob Naegeli won the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference individual championship in cross country.

During Thomas’ earlier years at Earlham, Scott Pearson became the first runner in the NCAC to win both the 5K and 10K double in consecutive seasons (‘91 & ’92). Shannan Rieder is the only runner to win the conference’s 5K/10K double in three consecutive seasons (1999-2001). Rieder also captured the 2000 NCAC women’s cross country title and was a national qualifier in the 10K on the track, posting a career best of 37:56.0.

Thomas’s coaching accomplishments at Earlham include more than 250 all-conference performances and over 50 conference event champions. He has coached NCAC Athletes of the Year on eight occasions: Rieder (three times), Pearson (twice); throwers Shaw and Loni Clark and hurdler, Bohall. All of Earlham’s women and men’s indoor track records have been set during his tenure, while all but two of the women’s outdoor records and all but nine of the men’s outdoor records have been eclipsed during his tenure.

Additional performances that have highlighted Thomas’s coaching career include Indiana Intercollegiate individual championships on six occasions - steeplechasers, Troy Gottfried in 1996 and Yane in 2006, sprinter Tashi Johnson’s 100 and 200 titles in 2004, and Bohall’s 400 hurdles titles in 2007 and ‘08. Johnson was also a national qualifier in the 100 in 2003 and 200 in 2004.

The two-time North Coast Athletic Conference Cross Country Coach of the Year is also especially proud of his runners’ performances in the classroom. Earlham's men and women’s cross country teams have consistently been among the nation’s top academic squads. The 2001 men’s cross country team posted a cumulative GPA of 3.67, highest among all of the nation’s NCAA Division III institutions.

Thomas has had six of his former athletes inducted into the Earlham Hall of Fame as well as his 1995 men’s cross country team. Those individuals include Pearson; Tiffany Harris and Andy White, both school record holders and national qualifiers in cross country and all-conference performers in cross country and track; Karim Hammad, NCAC mile and 1500-meter champion and school record holder. Rieder was added to the Hall of Fame in 2012. In 2013, Gottfried became a member of the Hall of Fame. Many runners have continued their running careers post graduation. 1993 graduate, Katie Galdabini defeated over 4000 female runners in winning the 2002 Portland Marathon while Rieder won the Chicago Lakeshore Marathon in 2004.

A native of Belle Valley, Ohio, Thomas lettered in cross country and track at The Ohio State University before his graduation with a B.S. in Physical Education in 1976. He earned a Master of Arts in Exercise Science at OSU while serving as the Buckeye’s volunteer assistant coach in cross country and track. Thomas continued his post-collegiate running career by competing marathons and other road races until his 50’s. His road racing highlights include capturing the Midwest AAU 30 K title in 1977. Thomas was the head cross country and track coach at Marietta College for three years prior to coming to Earlham.