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Todd Morgan
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Todd Morgan begins his third season at Florida as the primary coach of the cross country team. He has worked with the team for the past two seasons in an assistant coach’s role, but takes on the main responsibilities heading into the 2008 season. He also works with distance runners (800m and above) on the indoor and outdoor track teams.
During the 2008 track and field season, Morgan coached four All-Americans and six regional qualifiers. He helped senior Carlos Phillips win the 2008 NCAA East Regional Championship and set a new record with a 800m time of 1:46.7. Phillips recently won the bronze at the North America, Central America and Caribbean (NACAC) Championship in Mexico.
In 2007, Morgan also coached Phillips and Shane Stroup, Florida’s 1,500m record holder, in the Olympic Trials. At UF, he assisted the Gators to second-place (men) and fourth-place (women) finishes at the Southeastern Conference Championships. The women earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships and placed 11th, the highest finish Florida women have ever achieved.
In his first season with the Gators, Morgan helped lead the Gator men and women to the NCAA Championships in the same season for the first time in program history.
Morgan came to the Gators from South Florida where he was an assistant track and field coach, focusing primarily on USF's distance athletes. In his two seasons at USF, Morgan coached 16 All-Conference performers (15 Conference USA, one Big East) in track and cross country. He worked with four NCAA All-Region Cross Country performers and in 2004, Christa Benton qualified for the NCAA Championship and finished 43rd overall.
Before arriving at USF, Morgan coach at Virginia Commonwealth from 2001 to 2004. While working with the Rams, Morgan coached 36 athletes to school records, In the 2001-02 season, Morgan served as the interim head coach. When a full-time head coach was hired in 2002, Morgan continued to serve as an assistant coach at VCU, working with sprints and jumps. He coached Tanika Brown, the 2003 NCAA East Regional, ECAC and Colonial Athletic Association High Jump Champion. Brown was also named the CAA's Freshman of the Year under Morgan's tutelage. In addition to Brown, eight additional Morgan-coached athletes qualified for the East Regional and two moved on to the NCAA Championships.
Morgan began his coaching career at North Carolina in 2000. He worked primarily with the men's and women's cross country team, sprints and jumps. The Tar Heel women's cross country team finished 12th at the 2000 NCAA Championship, which included a top individual finish of fourth by Shalane Flanagan.
Morgan graduated from North Carolina with degrees in political science and communications in May of 1999. He served as the captain of the Tarheel cross country team in 1997 and 1998. As a senior, Morgan turned in a NCAA provisional qualifying time in the 5,000m on the track. Upon his graduation, Morgan competed for Nike Athletics America for a year.
Morgan and his wife Christy reside in Gainesville.
The Todd Morgan File
Hometown: Wake Forest, N.C.
Education: Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Communications, University of North Carolina, 1999
Running Career:
1996-1999: University of North Carolina; team captain 1997-98
1999-2000: Nike Athletics America
Coaching Career:
2000-2001: University of North Carolina, Assistant Coach; cross country, sprints and jumps
2001-2004: Virginia Commonwealth, Assistant Coach; sprints and jumps
2004-2006: University of South Florida, Assistant Coach; distance
2006-present: University of Florida, Assistant Coach; cross country and distance
