EUGENE, Ore. – Virginia Director of Track and Field and Cross Country/Associate Athletics Director for Administration, Vin Lananna, was honored with the USATF Legend Coach Award for 2025 presented by USA Track and Field (USATF) on Saturday (August 2).
“Congratulations to Vin on receiving the USATF Legend Coach Award,” said Virginia Director of Athletics Carla Williams. “He has exemplified unwavering dedication to the sport of track and field. He stands among the most accomplished collegiate coaches in the sport’s history and his contributions to the sport have had a global impact.”
Considered one of the most successful active collegiate coaches, Lananna’s resume includes 11 NCAA team championship titles among numerous NCAA individual champions, conference champions and Olympic medalists. During three-plus decades as a head coach, he has led his teams to 44 conference championships.
A five-time NCAA cross country coach of the year, Lananna was inducted into the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Hall of Fame in 2012.
Most recently, Lananna led the Virginia men to the first ACC Outdoor team title (outright) in program history in 2024 and the first women’s ACC Outdoor team title since 1987 and just the sixth title in program history in 2025. The Cavalier men recorded the highest program finish at the 2025 NCAA Indoor Championships with a sixth-place finish and at the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Championships with an eighth-place finish. Two-time ACC Coach of the Year and USTFCCCA Men’s Southeast Region Coach of the Year, Lananna has won at least one conference title in four different Division I conferences.
His illustrious career began in 1975 at his alma mater, C.W. Post in Greenvale, NY. where he ran cross country and track and field and was captain of the 1974 team that finished fourth in the NCAA Division II Championships. He went on to help lead Oregon to six NCAA titles between 2007-2012 after guiding Stanford to five national titles from 1996-2002.
A stint at Dartmouth from 1980-1992, Lananna had seven men’s cross country teams qualify for the NCAA Championships, with a pair of runner-up finishes in 1986 and 1987. Taking his success to Stanford in 1992, he led the women’s cross country team to NCAA top honors in 1996 while the men garnered accolades in 1996, 1997 and 2002.
Making his way to Oregon in 2005, he continued his winning ways picking up back-to-back NCAA men’s cross…