Lananna Honored with 2025 USATF Legend Coach Award
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 country titles in 2007 and 2008. The Oregon men won their first indoor national title in 2009 before the women’s hat trick of indoor championships from 2010-2012.
“His passion and leadership have shaped a legacy of excellence, most notably through the winning culture he has cultivated here at UVA and at every stop throughout his amazing career,” Williams said. “His voice continues to lead the effort to ensure USA track and field remains an entry point at the grassroots level and a source of great pride in the Olympic Movement.”
On the international scene, Lananna was named the men’s track and field coach for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro after previously serving as the men’s head coach at the 2011 IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, men’s distance coach at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, and U.S. distance coach at the 1999 World Championships in Seville, Spain. He served as the United States head coach for the 1990 IAAF World Cross Country Championships and 1996 IAAF World Cross Country Championships.
Elected President of USA Track & Field in 2016, he played an instrumental role in bringing an array of national and global championships to Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., including the U.S. Olympic Team Trials and 2022 World Championships. While at Oregon, he helped to establish and oversee the Oregon Track Club Elite which produced an impressive number of Olympic medal winners, world champions and American champions under his direction.
For his contribution to the sport of track & field and cross country and legacy of success, Lananna was honored with the 2025 USATF Legend Coach Award.