Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Bahr Named New Gustavus Adolphus Coach

Dale Bahr has been named Gustavus Adolphus College's new men's and women's track and field and cross country coach, the school has announced.

Bahr (pictured), a MSHSL state champion and NCAA Division II national champion half-miler during his racing days, succeeds Tom Thorkelson who retired as head track coach and Jed Freidrich who steps down from his head cross country duties but will remain at the school as the nordic ski coach.

Bahr, a native of New Ulm, has been involved in the track and field and cross country programs at Gustavus for the past nine years. Prior to coming to Gustavus, Bahr was an assistant track and field coach at Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop, Le Center-Cleveland, and Nicollet High Schools. He was also the head cross country coach at Nicollet in 1998 and 1999.

Bahr is a 1995 graduate of Mankato State Univeristy.

"It has been very rewarding for me to work with my mentor Tom Thorkelson at Gustavus for the past nine years and now I get the privilege of taking over the program he built and continue the long tradition of success," Bahr said in a Gustavus media release. "I am also excited to be able to add the head coaching responsibilities in cross country as it will help with the consistency of coaching and training for the distance runners who compete in cross country in the fall and track and field in the spring."

You can find the full media release HERE.

Photo courtesy of Gustavus Adolphus College.

1 comment:

Nate said...

This is great for all the Gustavus runners. Dale has been a driving force behind the GAC distance programs, and his enthusiasm about running is contagious (heck, he named his first son Runnar!). Go Gusties, and congrats Dale!