Tom Walsh Position: Distances/Women's Cross Country Coach Experience: 16th Year

Tom Walsh enters his 16th year as middle and long distance coach at USC. He also serves as the head women's cross country coach.

During his tenure at USC, the Women of Troy middle and long distance program has consistently been one of the strongest in the country. Last year at the NCAA Championships, Irek Sekretarski took seventh in the men's 800m race and Zsofia Erdelyi placed eighth in the women's 3000m steeplechase. USC has produced two four-time outdoor All-Americans in the 800m and 1500m during the last 10 years.

During the last 14 years, USC middle and long distance runners have captured All-American honors 23 times, including an NCAA 800m championship by eight-time All-American Brigita Langerholc in 2001. Langerholc also finished a suprising fourth in the 800m at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney in a school-record time of 1:58.51. Another Walsh product was Grazyna Penc, a four-time All-American in the 1500m. Penc finished third in 1996 and 1998, fourth in 1997 and was runner up in 1999. Emebet Shiferaw was a two-time All-American in the 3000m in 1996-97. Her best NCAA finish was second place. Anna Lopaciuch twice earned All-American honors in the 1500m, finishing fifth in 1998 and third in 2000. In 2002, Aleksandra Deren placed seventh in the 800m at the NCAAs. In 2004, school record holder Julia Budniak became the first Women of Troy athlete to earn All-American honors in the 3000m steeplechase as she finished sixth. Iryna Vashchuk finished sixth and seventh at the NCAA Championships in her specialty, the 1500m. Vashchuk also qualified for the NCAA Championships in cross country in 2003 and 2004. USC has qualified a cross country runner for the NCAA Championships in six of the last nine seasons. Brooke Thomas and Sarah Ellis qualified in 2002 and 2001, respectively and then Sarah Cocco (2007) and Zsofia Erdelyi (2008) earned berths. USC middle and long distance runners have also been a dominant force at the Pac-10 Championships over the last decade, capturing 14 first place finishes. In fact, a Women of Troy athlete has won the Pac-10 1500m title seven times in the last 14 years. Walsh also worked with 1500m runner Tomasz Babiszkiewicz, a four-time Pac-10 scorer and a two-time NCAA championship qualifier.

In 2007, Walsh helped guide Irek Sekretarski to the school record in the one-mile race. The Trojans' 4x800m team of DaSean Cunningham, Raphael Asafo-Agyei, Sekretarski and Duane Solomon also ran the second-fastest time in school history.

This fall Walsh guided the women's cross country team to the team title at the Vanguard Invitational and in 2008 they won back-to-back meet s at Pepperdine and Bakersfield. Zsofia Erdelyi set the school 5K record in 2008 and advanced to the NCAA Championships. The Trojans also captured the Lexus Gauntlet points in both 2007 and 2008 as they beat crosstown rival UCLA. In 2007, the young women's cross country team had an impressive season which included a Trojan runner winning four of the five regular season meets. Freshman Sarah Cocco won two meets, set the school 6K record and qualified for the NCAA XC Championships.

Walsh graduated from USC in 1988, and served as a graduate assistant at his alma mater for three years in the late 1980s. He also served as a track and field consultant for ABC and NBC during the U.S. Olympic Trials.

All-Americans coached by Tom Walsh at USC:

Julia Budniak

Aleksandra Deren

Zsofia Erdelyi

Brigita Langerholc*

Anna Lopaciuch

Grazyna Penc

Irek Sekretarski

Emebet Shiferaw

Iryna Vashchuk

*--NCAA Champion