Chris Cameron enters his 32nd season as head coach of the men’s and women’s cross country programs and his 13th as a member of the track & field coaching staff for the 2022-23 academic year, which will be Merrimack's fourth as a member of the Northeast Conference (NEC).
Cameron has overseen Merrimack cross country since its inception, and has been a driving force behind the teams' success on the courses and in the classroom. Both teams have been as consistent as any other in both the Northeast-10 Conference and in the region over Cameron's tenure, and he has been at the helm for the only three league championships and the only three team NCAA Championship appearances in program history.
Merrimack continued to impress in its third season as a Division I institution in 2021, as the men ran out to a third place finish at the NEC Championship, while the women ended in sixth. TJ Corliss had the top time on the men's side, as he was eighth individually with a time of 26:16.9 on the 8K course. He also earned a major award, as he was tabbed the NEC's Student-Athlete of the Year for men's cross country. Two others earned top-20 times on the men's side, as Ryan Dyer (14th) and Ben Chase (18th) paced the Warriors as well. Samantha LiPetri narrowly missed out on a top-10 time in the championship, as her 18:59.3 mark on the 5K course was 12th-best. The Warriors' depth shone throughout the season and in the final event, as Hannah Brisson (23rd), Olivia Beaudet (27th) and Ava Mahoney (30th) all had top-30 finishes as well.
After the COVID-19 pandemic moved the fall cross country season to the spring, Merrimack made a splash in the two events it competed in. Julia Dempsey was one of the top competitors in all of the NEC on the women's side, as she earned all-conference honors after she crossed the line in fourth to lift the team to a fourth place finish overall. She also earned a national accolade as a USTFCCCA All-Academic athlete thanks to her high GPA and championship finish. The men showed promise for the future when Colby Barnes and Chase were the top two finishers for the Warriors as freshmen at the NEC Championships. Both teams also earned USTFCCCA All-Academic team honors to showcase their versatility in the classroom as well.
In the Warriors' first season at the Division I level, both the men and women were impressive with dueling fifth place finishes at the NEC Championships. Kate Fisher made a splash with a top-5 time for the women at the championship, while Corliss' mark was good enough for a top-10 finish. Cameron coached four NEC All-Conference honorees among the two sports, including Corliss, Fisher, Ella Affanato and Brisson. Both of the teams were also honored as USTFCCCA All-Academic teams at the end of the year.
Merrimack closed out its Division II cross country season on an incredible high note, as both the men's and women's teams made remarkable strides at the team and individual front in the fall of 2018. Both teams posted their best finishes in recent memory at the conference championship race highlighted by a second-place finish from the women's side that represented the best ranking for the program since their league championship three-peat in the late 1990s. The men's fifth-place finish came with a relatively young squad and was their best placement in over a decade.
The women would go on to finish third at the NCAA Regional Championship to earn the program's third overall qualification for the national championship race (and second for the women), marking the second straight year that either of the two teams would make an appearance at nationals. There, rising senior Katherine Ferrara would become the program's first All-American in school history to wrap up an incredible year full of individual accolades for both herself and her teammates. She was one of three all-region honorees and one of three all-conference selections, as well. Altogether, the men's and women's teams would combine for nine top-three team finishes over the course of the 2018 campaign. Merrimack also had five cross country performers earn USTFCCCA All-Academic accolades in addition to both teams earning similar honors, as well.
Cameron also had an impact during the track & field circuit in 2018-19, guiding rising junior Julia Dempsey to all-conference honors during the outdoor campaign in the 5,000-meter race. The men's team posted two of its best-ever finishes at the league championship meets, including a historic runner-up performance during the outdoor season.
The 2017 cross country season was yet another example of the consistent level of success that Cameron has been able to guide the team to on a yearly basis. The men's program made history after it finished third at the NCAA East Regional meet to punch the team's first-ever trip to the national championship meet, which was held at Evansville, Indiana. That accomplishment highlighted a fantastic campaign that saw the team earn three straight second-place finishes to start the season before a sixth-place performance at the NE10 Championship meet in October.
The women also had another impressive season with four top-three finishes among the six events they competed in. Their best team finish came with a second-place result at the Bowdoin Invitational in September, while their highlight of the postseason meets occurred at the league championship when they ran to their best finish in 18 years, placing third overall. The last time a women's team enjoyed more success at the NE10 Championship meet was during the team's run of three straight championships from 1997-99.
Cameron saw four of his runners -- two on each side -- earn USTFCCCA All-East Region accolades and seven total student-athletes garner USTFCCCA All-Academic honors for posting a 3.25 GPA or higher and finishing in the top-30 at the regional championship meet. The team also boasted one all-conference third team selection on both sides, as well. Finally, Keith Steinbrecher '18 took home CoSIDA/Google Cloud All-District honors while classmate Niall Coughlin and Ferrara were NE10 Academic All-Conference picks, as well.
During the 2017-18 track campaigns, Cameron helped Steinbrecher win the 3000m Steeplechase at the NE10 Outdoor Championships, provisionally qualifying for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the process. He also helped coach an all-region distance medley relay during the indoor season, as well.
In 2016, the men's team placed sixth at the NE10 Championships for the fourth consecutive season, while the women earned a fourth-place finish, marking the third time in four years that they were a top-four finisher at the league championship meet. Cameron saw two student-athletes earn all-region honors on the men's side, while in the classroom eight total student-athletes (four men/four women) were named USTFCCCA All-Academic Team selections, while both the men's and women's teams posted GPAs over 3.0 to earn similar accolades.
The fall of 2015 was no different for Cameron as he guided the men to another sixth-place finish at the NE-10 Championships and the women to a fifth-place finish, while both teams and six individuals earned Academic All-American status. Cameron would slot one runner from each side on to all-conference teams.
He led the program to another stellar year in 2014, as the men placed sixth and the women fourth at the NE-10 Championships, matching their best marks in recent history, while both enjoyed success at the NCAA East Regional Championships, as well.
One of the program's truly historic benchmarks came in 2013 after the women's team broke through at the NCAA East Regionals. After placing third as a team in the race, the Warriors earned a berth in the NCAA National Championships held in Spokane, Washington, marking their first-ever appearance in the national championships over the program's 23-year history.
In the classroom, Cameron's squads have been excellent, earning 10 straight USTFCCCA National All-Academic Team awards (requiring a 3.0 team GPA or higher while scoring at a regional meet), while a number of individuals have earned spots on the national all-academic team in that span, including a school-record eight during the 2011 season.
Cameron has been named the Northeast-10 Women’s Coach of the Year three times and has coached numerous Northeast-10 Conference Runners of the Year and Freshmen of the Year.
He guided the women’s cross country team to three-straight conference titles from 1997-1999. On several occasions, his teams have been selected by the NCAA Division II Cross Country Coaches Association as an Academic All-America, and many individual runners have garnered Academic All-America honors. In 2005, such was the case with both the men's and women's team, as well as Alison O'Brien, who was named an All-American by the Coaches Association.
A 1989 graduate of Clemson University where he earned cum laude status as a secondary education and history major, Cameron was a member of the three-time Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) champion Tiger cross country and track & field teams. In 1989, Clemson placed fourth at the NCAA Cross Country Championship. Cameron is also a four-time ACC All-Academic Honor Roll member.
A native of Methuen, he resides in Barrington, New Hampshire, with his wife Mary-Jo and their two children.
