Steve Sawyer enters his 11th season as head coach of the ECU men’s and women’s cross country programs. Sawyer has created a strong tradition for cross country at ECU, leading both the men’s and women’s team to six Great American Conference titles in the first six seasons in the league. The highlight so for as been 2012 and 2016 when both teams claimed the title and Sawyer was named GAC Coach of the Year for both men’s and women’s cross country.
The 2019 season saw the women’s cross country team claim the runner-up title at the GAC Championships and Anna Mora became the first ECU female runner to earn the chance to run in the NCAA Division II Championship, where she finished 52nd of 260 individuals.
Mora also led the group at the GAC Championships, earning her second GAC Runner of the Year honor. She joined Aaliyah Regg-Wajid on the All-GAC First Team, while five others were named to the All-GAC Second Team. Abbie Winchester earned second team honors and the GAC Distinguished Scholar Athlete award for the championship.
The men’s cross country team finished fourth in the GAC Championships, with Jakaveon Shaw claimed All-GAC First Team honors and three more earning spots on the second team.
The season also saw the GAC name the men’s team the Team of the Decade after the Tigers saw seven (of 17) named to the GAC All-Decade team members. ECU was represented by Will Baldwin, Cale Eidson, Larry Filer, Ezekiel Kissorio, Kevin Matthews, Richard Mora and Juan-Joel Pacheco Orozco.
The women’s team saw five student-athletes named to the GAC All-Decade Team; ReGina Germaine, Michaela Lombardi, Anna Mora, Kyleigh Norris and Abbie Winchester.
The year was then capped off with Winchester being named the ECU and GAC Female Scholar Athlete of the Year.
2018 was a strong season on both the men’s and women’s cross country and track & field teams. The men’s cross country team claimed their sixth GAC Championship in eight seasons and saw the Tigers finish 1-2-3 in the race, with Sawyer earning the GAC Coach of the Year award. Larry Filer was first and earned GAC Runner of the Year and All-GAC First Team honors, Eliud Koech second for All-GAC First Team honors, and Jakaveon Shaw third for GAC Freshman of the Year and All-GAC First Team accolades.
The ECU men’s team also saw Tommy Grebe earned All-GAC First Team honors and Carson Sandvik name to the All-GAC Second-Team.
On the women’s side, the team finished third at the GAC Championships, with Anna Mora and Kyleigh Norris earned All-GAC First Team honors and Abbie Winchester, Barbara Johnson and Yvette Felix claiming All-GAC Second Team accolades. The team also saw Mora and Kelsey Horner named GAC Distinguished Scholars.
The true highlight of the season was Mora becoming the first female Tiger runner to earn to participate in the NCAA Division II Championships, finishing 148th.
Mora and Koech from the men’s team were also named to the USTFCCCA All-Central Region teams.
In track & field the men’s team saw eight All-GAC First Team selections. Filer finished first in the 5,000 meters and 3,000-meter steeplechase and second in the 1,500 meters. Koech and Shaw finished first and second in the 10,000 meters, with Shaw adding a second-place finish in the 5,000 meters. The also saw a first-place finish in the discus and second in the shot put from Dilland Gardner.
Mora produced the final two All-GAC Track & Field honors, finishing second in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters.
Filer and Winchester also claimed GAC Elite Scholar-Athlete honors and Rain Rehbein and Tommy Grebe claiming GAC Distinguished Scholar-Athlete accolades.
The 2017 highlight came with Larry Filer was the first ECU cross country/track & field student-athlete to earn Collegiate Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Google Cloud Academic All-America Second Team honors, with a 4.0 GPA in biology. Filer was also named to the CoSIDA Google Cloud Academic All-District 7 honors, Academic All-GAC (XC/TF) honors, D2ADA Academic Team honors.
The 2017 women’s cross country team claimed the GAC runner-up title, with three runners earning a spot on the All-GAC First Team and four on the Second Team. The women advanced to finish 11th at the NCAA Central Regional.
On the men’s side, one runner earned All-GAC First Team honors in cross country and one Second Team.
The 2018 track teams also had a strong performance, with the women getting one first team and one second team All-GAC honoree and the men claiming five All-GAC First Team honors.
The 2016 season was another highlight year for the men’s and women’s cross country teams, with both teams claiming the GAC Championship title for the second time in school history. The men’s team made it a three-peat and have now won four out of five GAC titles since the start of the league. The Tigers placed three on the USTFCCCA All-Central Region team and saw the GAC Runner of the Year be earned by an ECU runner in both the men’s and women’s races.
On the women’s side Anna Mora added GAC Runner of the Year and All-GAC First Team honors to her resume, finishing first overall, well in front of the second-place finisher. For the men, Kevin Matthews was the GAC Runner of the Year and an All-GAC First Team selection after out sprinting an Southern Arkansas runner in the final 40 yards to win.
The men also saw Cole Montgomery, Adrian Guevara and Richard Mora earned All-GAC First Team honors, while Larry Filer was a second team pick and also earned CoSIDA Academic All-District 7 honors. The women also saw Michaela Lombardi claim All-GAC First Team honors, while Marisa Meza and Abbie Winchester were named to the second team.
The 2016 track & field teams had a strong showing in their first season in the GAC Championships. The women produced one All-GAC First Team selection, while the men claimed five. Juan-Joel Pacheco Orozco led the squad, hitting an NCAA provisional mark in the 10,000 and earning United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Central Region honors.
In 2015 the men’s cross country team claimed their fourth overall title and second-straight at the GAC Championship. Will Baldwin was the GAC Runner of the Year, finishing first at the championship and being one of five runners to earn All-GAC First Team honors. Sawyer picked up yet another GAC Coach of the Year honors, while the team advanced to the NCAA DII Central Regional, where they placed second and earned a trip to the NCAA DII National Championship and placed 16th.
The 2015 men’s cross country team claimed their third GAC title in four seasons and set a new league record for the largest margin of victory at 33 points, earning Sawyer another GAC Coach of the Year honor. The Tigers also finished 1-2-3-4 and 7 individually in the race, with junior Juan-Joel Pacheco Orozco leading the way. Pacheco Orozco went on to earn a spot at the NCAA National Championship, where is placed 50th overall.
The 2015 season also saw the addition of men’s and women’s track & field teams, with Sawyer as the head coach.
The 2013 season saw the men’s team claim a runner-up finish at the 2013 GAC Championship, with junior Will Baldwin finished second overall and earning All-GAC First Team honors. Baldwin was joined on the first team by freshman Bruce Bragg, Jr. and Ruganza Mugisha, while freshman Richard Mora and sophomore Arturo Nava were named to the All-GAC Second Team.
The women’s team was young in 2013 and placed fourth at the GAC Championship, with junior ReGina Germaine earned All-GAC First Team honors for the second-straight season after finishing seventh overall.
In 2012 the men’s side several runners earned recognition, including Cale Eidson. Eidson was an All-GAC First Team selection, a NCAA All-Central Regional pick, an USTFCCCA Division II All-Academic Team selection and CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team honoree.
Besides Eidson, freshman Arturo Nava was named the GAC Freshman of the Year and to the All-GAC First Team. Two other male runners, Austin Christian and Johanthan Ogan were named to the All-GAC First Team.
The men’s team went on to earn an 11th-place finish at the 2012 NCAA Central Regional.
The women’s title was the first in the GAC, with Samantha Bartlett, ReGina Germaine, Andrea McKinney and Colletta Maiyo all earning All-GAC First Team honors. Katie Bruner and Minhuyen Nguyen were named to the second team.
In 2011, Sawyer led the men’s team to a GAC title, second-place NCAA Division II South Central Regional finish and a No. 11 placing at the NCAA Division II National Championships in 2011.
He also guided the Tigers to a runner-up effort at the first GAC Women’s Championships in 2011.
One of Sawyer’s male runners Armando Saldivar finished 26th at the national meet, thus earning All-American honors. Five of Sawyer’s runners garnered all-region accolades and seven picked up All-GAC awards after placing in the top 10 of the conference championships. ECU swept the top three spots and placed four in the top five of the GAC meet.
Four of Sawyer’s female runners achieved all-conference status after placing in the top 10 and leading the Tigers to the runner-up finish at the GAC meet last year.
He spent the 2005 and 2006 seasons as a graduate assistant under former ECU head coach Susan Payne.
Sawyer had an outstanding career as a student-athlete at ECU as he was a four-time all-conference award winner while earning academic all-conference and Academic All-American accolades along the way.
He finished seventh in the 8k Lone Star Conference Championships as a senior in 2004 and ended up sixth at that same meet as a junior in 2003.
Sawyer, a native of Enid, earned his bachelor’s degree from ECU in 2005 and his master’s in sports administration from ECU in 2006.
