After nearly two decades of sustained excellence with the Hillsdale College track and field program, as a competitor, assistant, and head coach, Andrew Towne is stepping away to take on a new challenge.
Towne announced his retirement as the head coach of the Charger track and field program following the conclusion of the 2021-22 season last weekend, and will be moving into a position with Hillsdale College's office of Institutional Advancement this summer.
A national search for the next leader of the Hillsdale College track and field program is already underway.
"It's been the honor of my professional career so far that for the last decade I've gotten to lead the program I grew up in," Towne said. "I've always admired what Hillsdale College stands for as an institution, and I've felt from the beginning that the track and field program is a great platform to showcase the college's values.
"I'm very grateful to have gotten this opportunity, and I'm proud of what our staff and our athletes have been able to accomplish over the past decade. I'm also happy that I'm leaving this program on a high note and in great shape for the next coach."
A native of Pittsford, just 12 minutes southeast of Hillsdale College, Towne was a standout athlete for the Charger men's track and field program from 1999-2004, earning all-conference honors. He also had a notable stint as an assistant coach with the Hillsdale track and field program from 2006-2009 under legendary head coach Bill Lundberg, helping develop sprint stars Jared Krout and Jazmin Williams who earned a combined five NCAA DII All-American honors during their careers at Hillsdale.
After a short time as a coach at NCAA Division I program Miami (OH), Towne chose to return to Hillsdale in 2011 as head coach of the women's track and cross country programs, and undertake one of the most difficult challenges any coach can face – taking over a program that is already tradition-rich and successful, and leading squads that not only meet but exceed those high expectations.
Over the next decade, Towne faced that challenge head-on and made the program his own by not only living up to Hillsdale's past accomplishments in the sport but by taking the Chargers to new and unprecedented heights.
In his first season as head coach in 2011-12, Towne led the Charger women to their best-ever finish at an NCAA DII National Meet, taking fifth as a team at the indoor championships that season, and coached Amanda (Putt) Eccleston, Hillsdale's first female national champion at the NCAA DII level, to a combined three national titles indoors and outdoors.
That initial success was just a taste of what Towne would build later in the decade. During a three year stretch from 2014-16, Towne was at the helm of one of the greatest team performances in Hillsdale College history.
In the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons, Hillsdale College had a podium finish as a team in five of the six contested NCAA DII national championships in women's cross country, indoor track and field, and outdoor track and field, including runner-up finishes at the 2014 cross country championships, the 2015 indoor championships and the 2016 indoor championships, all still the best finishes in an NCAA DII national championship event in Hillsdale College athletics history across all sports.
Led by Emily Oren, a nine-time event national champion who has an argument to be the greatest athlete ever to set foot on the Hillsdale College campus, the Charger women earned All-American honors in an unprecedented 34 events, and were named the 2015-16 USTFCCCA Program of the Year, one of the highest honors a program can receive.
In the latter half of the decade, as Hillsdale transitioned from the GLIAC to the G-MAC, Towne didn't let the program slip. The Chargers continued to have success, winning two women's cross country conference titles, three indoor track and field titles and two outdoor track and field titles in a five year span, while Towne earned G-MAC Coach of the Year honors seven times over that stretch. He also produced another national champion in Kajsa Johansson, who won the 2021 indoor 200m dash title.
Beginning in 2014-15, Towne also added the Hillsdale College men's track and field and cross country teams to his duties, and during his tenure he's helped build the men's program back toward the heights of its heyday in the 80s and 90s. Towne coached 2015 national champion Maurice Jones and also helped lead the Charger men's team to its best conference showing since 2000 this past spring, with a third place finish in the 2022 G-MAC Outdoor Championships and the most points scored by a Charger men's team at a conference meet since 1998.
All told, in a decade as a head coach at Hillsdale College, Towne led Hillsdale to 85 All-American honors in events across both genders, as well as 14 NCAA DII event national championships for a program that had won just one event national title at the DII level before his tenure. Thirty-four of the 38 active Hillsdale women's track and field records were set by athletes Towne coached, as well as 18 men's records.
But while his accolades are many, Towne will be remembered at Hillsdale for his leadership, character and the relationships he built with athletes and coaches, guiding them to success that's continued long after their days on the track were finished.
"I'm sure that fifteen years from now, what I'm going to remember most vividly are not the times and places our athletes achieved, but the relationships that I had with them as people," Towne said. "The accomplishments and awards of the last 10 years are special, but what's going to stick with me are the amazing people I got to work with and to coach, and the impact they've had and will continue to have on who I am as a person."
Towne also leaves the program in a great place for the future, with 11 of the team's 13 national meet qualifiers from this past season slated to return for the 2022-23 season, and a strong foundation for the next coach to build on to continue the program's successful run.
Hillsdale is currently accepting applications for the track and field head coaching vacancy. Interested parties are encouraged to apply here.
Photo by MaryKate Drews