NEAC Names SUNY Cobleskill Coach 2016 Womens Cross Country Coach of the Year

COBLESKILL - The North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) announced today that SUNY Cobleskill Head Cross Country Coach Mitchell Tomaszkiewicz has been selected as league’s 2016 Women’s Cross Country Coach-of-the-Year. This marks the sixth time that the Fighting Tiger mentor has been honored as the league’s women’s coach-of-the-year award and his ninth Coach-of-the-Year honor overall since Cobleskill joined the NEAC in 2008.

Tomaszkiewicz helped guide his harriers to their eighth consecutive league title on Saturday October 29th as Cobleskill won the 2016 NEAC Women’s Cross Country Championship at the conference’s championship meet hosted by Lancaster Bible College in Lancaster, Pa. The Fighting Tigers posted score of 25 points to outdistance their nearest competitors in the 12-team field by 74 points with five team members earning All-NEAC Team honors. 

Among those all-conference honorees were 2016 NEAC Women’s Rookie-of-the-Year and Runner-of-the-Year league champion freshman Emma Bayuk, Sandy Hook, Conn., Newtown High School, senior Taylor Tommell, Guilderland, N.Y., Guilderland High School, the first runner in program history to earn NEAC First Team honors four times, junior AnnaClaire Piersiak, Staten Island, N.Y., Curtis High School, a three-time First Team All-NEAC honoree, sophomore Quinn Porter, Ballston Spa, N.Y., Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School, a two-time NEAC First Team selection and freshman Abigail O’Brien, Stockton, N.Y., Cassadaga Valley High School, who earned a spot on the NEAC Second Team. 

Once again, when he was informed of his selection as Coach-of-the-Year Tomaszkiewicz thanked the many people he felt had a hand in helping him receive the award.  

“While it is always great to be honored by your peers, a Coach-of-the-Year award is really the result of many people doing hard work behind the scenes. My assistant coach Craig Sargent was a former high school coach for 40 years and for my money he’s one of the best in the business, our athletic trainer Kyle Liang is a rising star in the field who did an outstanding job this year getting us and keeping us healthy, our department secretary Cindy Handy  handles all of the necessary paperwork that allows us get to all of our meets prepared to run and our equipment management staff  of Mike Jorgensen and Ryan Gunzinger make sure that things like course set-up and equipment are things I never have worry about. Finally the young men and women in our program are the ones who enable me to take a lot of bows. As a coach you are only as good as your athletes and I am blessed to work with some exceptional young people who work hard in practice and the classroom on a daily basis. Without all of their efforts awards like these would never come my way. ”

Tomaszkiewicz is the longest tenured coach in SUNY Cobleskill Cross Country history having completed his 24th season with the Fighting Tigers. During this time he has guided the program to 94 invitational titles, 16 conference championships, two NJCAA Region III Championships and the 2000 NJCAA Division III Women’s National Championship. The Illinois native graduated from St. Laurence High School, in Burbank, Ill. in 1980, Lewis University in Romeoville, Ill. in 1985 with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism/Mass Communications and from Loyola University of Chicago in 1989 with a master’s degree in Higher Educational Administration.