The Dominican University Department of Athletics announced on Wednesday evening that Greg Baker has been named the Interim Head Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Coach for the 2010-2011 season. In addition, the Stars are excited to welcome back Megan Vaccaro as an assistant coach and have named Ken Trendel the Director of Cross Country Operations.
Baker, an assistant with the Stars last season, is an accomplished runner, having competed at the NCAA Division I level as a member of the Illinois State University cross country team from 2000-2004. At Schaumburg High School, Baker was named an all-state runner in 2000 and was a Mid-Suburban League all-conference selection. Outside of high school and college athletics, Baker ran the Walt Disney World Half Marathon and Marathon races in 2010 and completed the Chicago Marathon in 2008.
Vaccaro is the most decorated runner in Dominican University history with an individual conference championship under her belt at the 2008 Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) Championship meet. Vaccaro, a runner with the program from 2006-2009, is a four-time all-conference selection and narrowly missed all-region honors at the 2008 Midwest Regional Race, placing 17th out of 292 runners with a time of 22:38.1 over the six-kilometer course. In 2008, the Dominican University Department of Athletics named Vaccaro the Female Student-Athlete of the Year.
Trendel, a seven-year veteran of the athletics department at Dominican as Sports Information Director and Assistant to the Directors of Athletics, will take over the day-to-day administrative work, including spearheading the programs’ recruiting efforts.
“We are excited about the structure in both the men’s and women’s programs,” said Trendel. “We have two extremely skilled and passionate runners to train our student-athletes and I’m eager to work closer with both programs to offer a collegiate experience to all those involved.”
