Jason Dunn will coach the men's cross country team and will also serve as an assistant coach on the track, working with the middle-distance and distance runners. Dunn, who coached for four years under Coach Floreal at Stanford, most recently led the Cardinal men's cross country team to a fifth-place finish at the 2011 NCAA Cross Country Championships.
During his time at Stanford, Dunn guided one of the nation's top distance programs serving as the head men's and women's cross country coach. Dunn led Stanford's men's cross country program to a No. 1 national ranking throughout much of the 2009 and 2010 seasons and took home Pac-12 Team Championships in each of those two season. The women's team also captured the Pac-12 Team Championship in 2010 giving Stanford a sweep for the first time since 2005. The Stanford cross country teams recorded five top-ten finishes under Dunn's watch, and he was twice honored as the Pac-12 Men's cross country coach of the year. In addition to his conference honors, Dunn was also named a USTFCCCA coach of the year on seven occasions (2 cross country / 3 indoor track / 2 outdoor track).During the 2010 indoor and outdoor track season, Dunn's student-athletes earned a total of 10 All-America honors.
In all, Dunn coached 16 athletes to 59 individual All-America honors, including one NCAA champion, four NCAA runner-up honors, and seven third place finishers. His most successful athlete, Chris Derrick, earned a total of fourteen All-America honors, set the American collegiate record in the 10K (27:31.38) and finished fourth at the 2012 Olympic Trials in that same event. Other individual accomplishments of athletes coached at Stanford include six sub-4 minute milers, two American Junior records, five Stanford school records, and six Pac-12 Champions. Dunn has also guided multiple athletes to post-collegiate professional running careers including Garrett Heath, one of the nation's top milers.
Prior to his time at Stanford, Dunn had successful coaching stints at Virginia, Arizona State and William & Mary.
While at Virginia, Dunn coached cross country teams to the NCAA Championships on eight occasions (four men, four women). He also led the 2005 and 2007 men's squads to Atlantic Coast Conference titles, and in 2005 saw both the men's and women's teams advance to the NCAA Championships, marking the first time in school history both qualified for the championships in the same season. For his efforts, Dunn was honored as the 2005 and 2007 ACC Men's Cross Country Coach of the Year.
In all, Dunn brought 28 All-ACC honors to 17 cross country runners during his time at Virginia. This tally was highlighted when seven Cavaliers earned conference honors in 2005, with the men's team winning the league championship for the first time since 1984. Dunn led 23 runners to 40 all-region honors and five to All-America status.
On the track, Dunn coached 41 All-ACC performances among 20 athletes. He led eight Cavaliers to nine individual ACC Championships and coached six All-Americans. Virginia distance runners recorded 18 NCAA qualifying times during Dunn's tenure, and three school records fell under his guidance.
Dunn's athletes at Virginia also excelled in the classroom as both the men's and women's cross country squads were named All-Academic teams for five years in a row. Additionally, Dunn's student-athletes have achieved All-Academic status as individuals in cross country and track and field on 22 occasions.
"Jason Dunn is a proven coach both at Virginia and Stanford," Floreal said. "He's had phenomenal success at the highest level and knows how to develop talent. He has done that everywhere he has been. He can get the kids who are not the best athletes at the time, and those who are the best athletes, and get them both to the top level. He can find diamond in the rough kids and the superstars. He can coach kids at any level and get them to the top."
While at ASU, Dunn was part of a staff that built the distance program from the ground up. During his tenure, the cross-country teams went from having never qualified for the NCAA Championships to finishing 14th and 12th, respectively, in 1999.
Prior to his stint in Tempe, Dunn served as an assistant cross country coach at William and Mary, his alma mater, for the 1996 season. He shared duties in an interim position for a team that ranked in the top 20 nationally and won a Colonial Athletic Conference title.
Dunn served as team captain and belonged to two NCAA-qualifying cross country teams for the Tribe. He also earned all-conference honors in cross country and on the track, where he was the 1996 CAA conference champion in the steeplechase. Dunn also received All-East honors in the steeplechase and went on to qualify provisionally for the NCAA Championships and the Olympic Trials. Dunn received his B.A. in government from William and Mary in 1996 and a master's in curriculum and instruction with a physical education emphasis from Arizona State in 1999.
