Dunbar Excited About New Challenge

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — All these years later, Vin Lananna still remembers the video of Trevor Dunbar running a two-mile time trial outdoors in Kodiak, Alaska. It was filmed in November 2008, and snow fell on the 17-year-old Dunbar as he ran. Snow covered the ground, too, and the track had to be shoveled to make a path for Dunbar.

“I’ve always had that image of Trevor as this person who will try to conquer any challenge that’s in front of him,” Lananna said, “and if that isn’t the basis and foundation for good, strong coaching, especially for track & field, I’m not sure what is.”

For seven years, Lananna served as head coach of the University of Virginia’s track & field and cross country programs. His tenure ended in July, when he resigned to become the USA Track and Field Foundation’s chief executive officer. Dunbar, who’d joined Lananna’s staff in 2021, was named the Cavaliers’ interim head coach for 2026-27.

“I guess you could say the pressure's on, but I feel very confident in myself and my staff here that we're going to have this full time,” said Dunbar, who was Lananna’s associate head coach in 2025-26.

His mentor shares that belief.

“Just like that guy who was running and shoveling the track when he was 17 years old, I have no doubt that at 35 that Trevor will put everything into making sure he’s successful,” Lananna said.

A native of Anchorage, Alaska, Dunbar was a high school senior when he first spoke to Lananna on a recruiting phone call. Dunbar spent two years at the University of Portland before transferring to the University of Oregon, where he ran for Lananna. Dunbar was an eight-time All-American who helped the Ducks win two NCAA team titles in track & field: one indoors and the other outdoors.

Before Lananna named him associate head coach, Dunbar was an assistant at UVA for four years, working with the distance runners.

For the Wahoos, cross country season starts Friday with the Virginia Invitational at their home course, Panorama Farms in Earlysville. In 2025, at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in Columbia, Mo., the UVA men placed seventh and the UVA women 24^th.

All five of the runners who scored for the Cavalier men in Columbia have moved on, including Gary Martin, who finished seventh overall.

On the women’s side, all five of the runners who scored at NCAAs are back: Tatum David, Gillian Bushee, Stella Kermes, Tatum Olesen and Cate DeSousa.

“We’re starting from a higher floor on the women's side,” Dunbar said. “I think the ceiling is high on both sides, but the men are going to have some growing to do. They're going to have some learning to do. We've got to get experience, which we don't have too much of. We've got a lot of youth and talent, so we've got to build. We've got to work hard every single day and not be too attached to outcomes. We've got to be process-oriented here.”

It's XC Season 🤩

Virginia Invitational this Friday 9-11 🏃💨

🚜 Panorama Farms, Charlottesville
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— Virginia Cavaliers (@VirginiaSports) September 9, 2026

For the men, returners Henry Acorn and Adam Balewicz are among the runners expected to contribute, and Shane Brosnan, a transfer from Harvard, adds considerable experience.

“So we've got some pieces there,” Dunbar said. “We've got to bring them together and have a lot of work to do.”

Newcomers of note for the UVA women include Carly Wilkes, a transfer from Furman University who grew up in Southwest Virginia. In 2024, Wilkes was the Southern Conference’s Cross Country Runner of the Year.

“She’s kind of a homegrown talent here,” Dunbar said. “She’s just been doing a great job fitting right in with the women, and obviously she's got the experience running at the level that we want to be at.”

During the regular season and at the ACC meet, women run 5k and men 8k in cross country. For the NCAA Southeast Regional and the NCAA Championships, the distances will be lengthened to 6k for the women and 10k for the men.

Of the runners who’ll compete in cross country for the Cavaliers, many are better-suited for the shorter distances offered in indoor and outdoor track & field, Dunbar said.

“So we've got a full roster,” he said, “but it's a mixture of youth, it's a mixture of middle-distance talent, and more cross country specialists.”

For a lot of runners, cross country is a “building block,” Dunbar said. “We don't like to talk about track when we're in the midst of cross country season, because we want to be in the moment we're in, but if you look at our roster and make an honest evaluation, we are going to be better at indoors than cross country and we will be better outdoors than indoors. So we're going to gain momentum throughout the year.”

Dunbar began his coaching career at Oregon, where he was a volunteer assistant for two years while running professionally. He later served as a volunteer assistant at Boston University before joining the staff at Florida State as an operations assistant with the distance program.

Then came a year at the University of California, where Dunbar coached the Golden Bears’ distance runners.

“At every stop along the way I maintained contact with him,” Lananna said, “and I always knew, just based on his passion for the sport and his commitment to the athletes, that if I ever had a position that was available [at UVA], Trevor would be the first person I would call,” Lananna said.

That happened in 2021, and Dunbar “has proven to be incredibly committed to the kids and to the craft,” Lananna said. “He’s widely motivated, and he is a student of all these great coaches [at UVA], regardless of sport, and his passion he wears on his sleeves.”

He’s a first-time head coach, but Dunbar has been preparing for this moment, taking notes on how Lananna led Virginia’s programs. Still, Dunbar said, it’s “nothing like learning as you go and figuring out everything about the role.”

He noted that he’s known Lananna “over half my life now. He called me for the first time when I was 17 years old, in recruiting, and he’s kind of seen me at every stage: as a high schooler, as a recruit, as a student-athlete, as an assistant coach and then as an associate head coach. So I've gotten to know him so well. We've been kind of locked in stride here and he's mentored me along extremely well.

“I’ve got nothing but respect and appreciation for what Vin has given me. I've learned what it takes to build a staff, a connection.”

The importance of recruiting can’t be overstated, Dunbar said. “We’re nothing without our student-athletes. So it's about finding the right people here, getting the right people together that are going to make this special.”

This has been a summer to remember for Dunbar, and not only because of his promotion. He and his wife, the former Joelle Amaral, had their first child in June: son Lennox. She’s an assistant coach at UVA and works with middle-distance and distance runners.

In his new role, Dunbar spends more time on administrative tasks than he did as associate head coach. He’s ably assisted by his staff, including director of operations Carter Olander, and that’s helped him “get everyone on the same page,” Dunbar said.

Overseeing the nearly 100 student-athletes who make up the cross country and track & field programs is no easy task, but Dunbar is up for the challenge.

“I’m taking it on very seriously,” he said, “and I’m going to have a fun time doing it.”

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