Oklahoma State University Athletics
Dick Weis
February 27, 2009 | Cowboy Cross Country & Track
Coach Dick Weis is now in his 26th season on the Oklahoma State cross country coaching staff. He has enjoyed great success as a coach and is well-known and respected in the sport throughout the United States and in international communities.
Weis led the Cowboys to the 1995 Big 8 Cross Country team championship and guided OSU to 12 NCAA Cross Country Championship appearances as head coach. He has led or helped lead the Cowboys to NCAA appearances in 14 of the last 15 years, with OSU securing top-five finishes in 1995 (third), 1996 (fourth) and 2007 (third) and posting an average finish of 14th in the nation during that time.
In addition, Weis served as head coach for eight Oklahoma State teams that competed at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships and eight OSU teams that competed at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Weis helped the Cowboys to one of the finest seasons in school history in 2007 as the Pokes placed third in the team standings at the NCAA Cross Country Championships behind All-America performances from Ryan Vail and David Chirchir. In addition, the Cowboys won their third straight NCAA Midwest Regional title.
In addition to All-Americans Vail and Chirchir, the 2007 OSU cross country squad featured all-region performers Matt Barnes-Smith, Sean Fleming, David Jankowski and Daniel Watts, with Vail, Chirchir, Fleming, Jankowski and Barnes-Smith earning all-Big 12 honors as well.
The Cowboys also succeeded in the classroom in 2007-08, as Vail was a first-team ESPN the Magazine Academic All-American and was joined on the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's All-Academic team by Jankowski during the cross country season and by Jankowski, Barnes-Smith and Terry Josserand during the track and field season. As a team, OSU sported a combined grade point average above 3.0 to earn USTFCCCA All-Academic team honors in both cross country and track and field.
The 2008 track season was highlighted by Vail winning a Big 12 indoor title in the 3,000 meters and by Vail following that up with All-America honors in the outdoor 5,000 meters with a fifth place finish at the NCAA Championships.
Weis gained a great deal of recognition in the 1990s for coaching his cross country squad to nine straight NCAA appearances, six District V titles and six District V Coach of the Year honors. In addition to the team success, Weis produced individual cross country All-Americans Joe Metcalf (1985), Steve Fury (1989), Solomon Kariuki (1993-95), Patrick Kiptum (1995), Kim Critchley (1995), Jon Wild 1993-95), Christian Nicolson (1996), Christopher Kebenei (1996), Chuck Sloan (1999), and Mindi Pukstas (2003). Weis, who has coached OSU cross country for 23 years, came to Stillwater, Okla., from Missouri and quickly turned both the men's and women's cross country teams around. In his first year with the Cowgirls, the team placed last in the Big Eight Conference. Just three years later in 1986, the Cowgirls were the Big Eight Champions. They proceeded to an 11th-place finish in the 1988 NCAA Championships and followed it up with a fifth-place finish in 1989. He also coached the individual cross country champion for eight years, from 1982 to 1989. Weis also coached women's cross country All-Americans Christine McMiken (1984-85), Jackie Goodman (1986-89), Sonia Barry (1988) and Heather Garrett (1989).
In the years since he came to Oklahoma State in 1983, Weis has produced some outstanding athletes. During Weis' time in Stillwater, Cowboy and Cowgirl track and cross country has produced 86 All-Americans, nine NCAA champions, five NCAA runners-up, one world-record holder and two Olympians. Christine McMiken set the world record in the three-mile run with a time of 14:53.80. She also represented her home country of New Zealand by placing ninth in the 10,000m run in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea. He also has coached 21 individuals to world cross country selections. He spent four years, from 1979 to 1982, as the track coach at Missouri. While there, he led the Lady Tigers to the 1980 Big Eight Championship and two second-place conference finishes. He coached 26 All-Americans while at Missouri, including two-time Big Eight champion Sabrina Dornhoeffer (1982, 83), world-record setter Rosalyn Dunlap in the 600y indoor (1:18.56) and 1984 Los Angeles Olympian Pam Page. He began his coaching career at the high school level in the state of New York. He enjoyed considerable success as a cross country coach at Albertus Mangus High School in Bardonia, N.Y., where his team was ranked first in the nation in 1974.
From there, Weis moved to Monroe-Woodbury High School in Central Valley, N.Y., and produced two state high school titles. The White Plains, N.Y., native earned his bachelor's degree in 1971 from Kings College in New York. He is married to Donna and is the father of five children, including Joe (OSU almunus and two-time track indoor 1,000m Big Eight Champion in 1990 and 1992) and Ray (OSU alumnus and member of the OSU wrestling team in 1993 and 1996). Ray is also the Head Wrestling Coach at Jenks HS. Weis was born in 1938 in Montreal, Canada.
