Syracuse University Women's Track & Field

Brien Bell enters his eighth year at the helm of the Orange cross country/track and field programs in 2025-26. A fixture with the program, he has been at Syracuse for two decades including his time as an assistant. Since his arrival, Syracuse has returned to national prominence, winning multiple NCAA titles (team and individual) and numerous conference titles. Bell’s men’s cross country team enters the 2025 campaign riding a streak of 16-straight NCAA Championship appearances, which is the nation's fourth-longest active streak, while the women’s team has qualified in each of the past four seasons. Aside from the 2019-20 academic year, which saw the outdoor track season canceled due to the global pandemic, Bell’s track squad has finished with at least one All-American in every season of his head coaching tenure. Bell has been named the USTFCCCA Northeast Region Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year four times, including three of the last-four seasons and has continued to build a strong program across all facets. This past season, Syracuse was represented at five of the six NCAA Championship events (men's and women's cross country, men's and women's indoor track and field and men's and women's outdoor track and field). 'Cuse has qualified its team and/or athletes for five-or-more championships in each of the past three seasons. In 2022-23, Syracuse was 1-of-11 teams in the country to score at all-six NCAA Championship events and have both its men’s and women’s team finish the s

Former Big Ten Champion Chantel Ray enters her fourth year on the Syracuse track and field staff in 2025-26, assisting Associate Head Coach Dave Hegland with the sprinters and hurdlers. In her time at Syracuse, at least one sprinter/hurdler has qualified for the NCAA Championships annually, including Jaheem Hayles, who was a three-time USTFCCCA First Team All-American during that stretch. This past season, Iaunia Pointer finished her season as a USTFCCCA Second Team All-American in the 200-meter dash. Ray, a Hampton, Virginia native, joined the Orange from Southern Illinois University where she was the Assistant Coach and Director of Operations for the track and field team. During her time as a Saluki, Ray was involved in all phases of the day-to-day operations of the track and field office. Her responsibilities included making travel arrangements, scheduling, meet management, serving as a liaison with academics and assisting with alumni and community service events. On the track, she coached SIU to finish near the top of the Missouri Valley Conference in all three seasons with the program. Both the men and women's programs were runner-ups at the MVC indoor meet in 2020, the women also finished second in both the indoor and outdoor meets in 2021, and again at the MVC indoor championships last season. Prior to assisting at Southern Illinois, Ray earned her degree in sport industry from The Ohio State University, while also being a Big Ten Champion on the track. As a Buckeye, s

One of the top sprint coaches in the sport, Dave Hegland has built Syracuse into one of the premiere destinations in the country for hurdlers, while leading the program to new heights. Beginning his career as a graduate assistant in 2004, Hegland’s 21 years at Syracuse, including 20 at the helm of the sprints/hurdles program, has built the Orange from the ground up. He has mentored an NCAA Champion, multiple Olympians and U.S. indoor champions, 16 different NCAA qualifiers, nine USTFCCCA First Team All-Americans, an ACC athlete of the year, 13 different conference champions and seen his athletes take down 16 school records. Hegland has coached multiple podium finishers at the NCAA Championships in the hurdles, highlighted by Jarret Eaton’s NCAA Championship in the 60-meter hurdles in 2012. In addition to Eaton’s national title, Freddie Crittenden III earned runner-up honors in the 60-meter hurdles twice at the NCAA Championships, and most recently Jaheem Hayles took bronze at the 2023 outdoor championships in the 110-meter hurdles, en route to earning ACC Performer of the Year accolades. While the 60 and 110-meter hurdles have seen the most success under Hegland, he has coached an NCAA Championship qualifier in six different events (60, 100, 200, 60H, 110H, heptathlon). A four-time USTFCCCA Northeast Region Assistant Coach of the Year – including 2023, Hegland and the Orange staff have led the team to regional and conference dominance as well. The team won its first ACC Champ

Raynee Revard, who was previously on the Orange staff for three seasons from 2013-15, returned to the Orange as an assistant coach in 2018, before being promoted in 2025 to Associate Head Coach, Cross Country. Revard primarily works with the Syracuse women’s distance and cross country runners. She was most recently an assistant at Toledo with a stop at Ball State before that. In her first season with the Orange in 2018, the 'Cuse women's cross country team tied its best finish at a conference meet in program history, taking third at the ACC Championships. Shannon Malone, now a member of the coaching staff, then went on to win the NCAA Northeast Region Championship - a first for a 'Cuse woman. The year capped off Revard coaching two NCAA Championship qualifiers in the 10,000-meters at the NCAA Track and Field Championships - Paige Stoner and Laura Dickinson - from the 'Cuse women's program. In 2019, the Orange men returned to the top of the podium in men’s cross country and talented transfers Jordan Jacob and Amanda Vestri posted strong seasons for the ‘Cuse women. Both teams were simultaneously ranked No. 1 in the Northeast Region for the first time since 2014. In the 2020-21 campaign, Revard coached a pair of women's All-Americans in the 10k, as Vestri and Annie Heffernan each qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. JP Trojan (10k) and Aidan Tooker (steeplechase) also qualified for the event on the men's side. It capped another strong season for Vestri,

Sam Otis joined the Syracuse cross country and track & field programs as an assistant coach in September 2025. Prior to returning home to Central New York, O...

Silas Derfel returned to the Syracuse cross country/track and field programs as an assistant coach in Sept. 2025. Derfel, a member of the cross country/track and field programs from 2018-24 was a USTFCCCA All-Northeast Region performer in cross country during his time as a student-athlete. He holds a bachelor's degree in kinesiology and exercise science and a Master's degree in exercise science from the David B. Falk School of Sport and Human Dynamics.