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Rick Wemple enters his fourth season as the head coach for Loyola University Chicago's cross country and track and field programs. Last season, Wemple led the women's cross country team to its fifth Horizon League championship in program history, earning him the Horizon League Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year Award. Wemple also saw eight of his cross country runners earn all-league honors, along with freshman Josh Stein earning the league men's cross country Newcomer of the Year award. In track and field, the Ramblers won three individual events at the indoor league championships and five individual events at the outdoor championships. Senior Pam Staton was named league women's Athlete of the Year and senior Erik Hernandez earned the All-American Strength and Conditioning Athlete of the Year award to round out the team's individual accolades. Wemple's squad garnered several academic awards last season as well. Along with both the men's and women's track and field teams being recognized as USTFCCCA All-Academic teams, seniors Erik Hernandez and Pam Staton were named ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District V. Staton was also named the U.S. Army Horizon League Scholar-Athlete of the Month twice, while Hernandez received the award for the month of February. The men's track and field team finished the year with a 3.229 GPA, which was the ninth-best in the country. Wemple also saw four of his cross country runners and three track and field performers earn Academic All-Horizon League honors. In 2008, Wemple's talented crew posted personal bests on several occasions, while also securing individual victories in three outdoor events and one indoor event at the Horizon League Championships, in addition to recording two indoor school records. Ben Reifenberg earned All-League First Team honors as a freshman for his cross country efforts and seniors Ryan Kuphall, Genevieve Binnie and junior Colleen Donovan garnered All-League Second Team accolades, while sophomore Danielle Locascio was selected Newcomer of the Year. Off the track, graduated senior Rachel Hansen was chosen to ESPN the Magazine's Academic All-District V First Team for the third straight season and the women's team earned Loyola's Presidents' Award for having the highest grade-point average in 2007-08. In Loyola's first season under Wemple, the Ramblers established 12 new school records: two women's indoor, five women's outdoor and five men's indoor records. Loyola excelled at the Horizon League Championships, earning six indoor crowns in individual events and four titles at the outdoor meet. Since then, a total of 16 track and field athletes have taken home individual Horizon League Championships, while 19 cross country runners have been tabbed as all-league performers. Prior to arriving at Loyola, Wemple served as the head cross country coach and assistant track and field coach at Lewis University for two seasons. Wemple has great knowledge of sports as well as a solid recruiting network in the Chicago area to help build on the Ramblers' tradition of success. Under Wemple's tutelage, his student-athletes have had both academic and athletic success. Every athlete Wemple has coached has graduated, while four of his cross country teams earned NCAA All-Academic with Distinction recognition, and numerous athletes have earned NCAA, Horizon League, Ivy League and GLVC academic honors. While at Lewis, Wemple led the Flyers to second place at the Great Lakes Valley Conference Cross Country Championships in 2005 and 2006. As an assistant track and field coach, he guided the men's distance medley relay team to a sixth-place showing at the NCAA Indoor Championships. The All-America relay team registered a school-record performance 9:55.09, which then stood as the nation's top time while Adrian Myers qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 800 meters. During Wemple's seven-year tenure as head women's cross country coach and assistant track and field coach at Brown University, three women's teams qualified for the NCAA Cross Country Championships. In 1998, Wemple led the Bears to second place at the Heptagonal League Championships and fourth place at the NCAA Regional Championships in his first season. The following year, Brown won its first-ever team and individual cross country championships en route to finishing ninth in its first-ever appearance at the NCAA Championships. As an assistant working with the middle distance and distance runners on the track, Wemple helped Brown win both the indoor and outdoor Heptagonal League titles in 1998. He also worked with seven individual and relay Heptagonal League champions which set six individual and two relay school records. As a student-athlete at Yale, Wemple was a 10-time All-Ivy League athlete. He earned 1991 All-America honors in cross country, won six Heptagonal titles in track and still holds the Heptagonal League Championships record of 3:42.09 in the outdoor 1,500 meters. Wemple returned to Yale as a volunteer assistant coach from 1994 to 1998, also working as a research assistant in an exercise physiology lab, where he participated in projects concerning temperature regulation and body-fluid balance. A 1992 graduate of Yale University with a bachelor's degree in biology, Wemple also earned a master's degree in exercise science from Ohio State University in 1994. |
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