Cross Country
- Title:
- Men's Head Coach
- Email:
- rggeiger@ncsu.edu
- Phone:
- (919) 515-3959
As Track & Field Head Coach (Men: 1984-present, Women: 1984-2018)
- 179 All-America selections
- 543 All-ACC Performers
- 214 ACC Individual Champions
- 8 ACC Team Championships
Since taking over the NC State men's and women's track and field programs as head coach in 1984, Rollie Geiger has guided the Wolfpack to unprecedented heights. The men's team has won eight ACC championships and has finished as conference runner-up four times. The Wolfpack women have had four ACC runner-up finishes, and both squads have sent athletes to the NCAA Championships every year of his tenure.
Under Geiger's leadership, seven Wolfpack men garnered All-ACC accolades in the 2022 outdoor track & field season and two NC State men qualified to the NCAA Championships. Joshua Brockman posted a Second Team All-America performance while Cameron Murray tabbed Honorable Mention All-America in the 110m hurdles. At the NCAA Indoor Championships, Chris Alexander and Von Douglas represented the Pack, both attaining All-America accolades.
In the 2020-21 season, the men's track and field team had two sets of athletes participate in two event during the NCAA Championships. Geiger had six men competing in the 4x100m relay semifinals, and one individual athlete run in the 5000m final. Four of the men in the 4x100m relay garnered Honorable Mention All-America honors for their performance in the event.
Geiger embarked upon his 40th year at NC State with the start of the 2018-19 season. He served as distance coach for the track & field team from 1979-84 and was elevated to head coach at the beginning of the 1984-85 school year.
Since the start of Geiger's reign as the head track & field coach, 87 Wolfpack athletes have earned 172 track & field All-America citations.
Included in that group of All-Americans are four NCAA champions. In 2002, Kristin Price won the 10,000m at the NCAA Championships, the Wolfpack's first individual title since 1993. NC State's 4x100 relay quartet of Auguston Young, Alston Glenn, Danny Peebles, and Harvey McSwain claimed the 1985 NCAA title, and in 1993, Tyrell Taitt captured the national championship in the outdoor triple jump. In 1991, Laurie Henes (current NC State women’s track and field head coach and women's cross country head coach) won the NCAA 5,000m championship. Geiger was also on the coaching staff and worked extensively with Betty Springs when she won the NCAA 5,000m and 10,000m championships in 1983.
Under Geiger's tutelage, Ryan Hill became perhaps the greatest distance runner in NC State history with six all-time program records. Hill capped his collegiate career in 2013 with 10 total All-America awards between track (7) and cross country (3). He not only obliterated his own NC State record but also the North Carolina record in the mile, clocking a 3:54.89 at the 106th Millrose Games. Hill broke a 39-year-old ACC record, topping UNC-Chapel Hill's Tony Waldrop, whose 3:55 time was set in 1974. His mark was the fourth-fastest ever by a collegian and the second-fastest by an American college runner.
During his career, Geiger has coached five athletes to U.S. collegiate or national records: Betty Springs for the 5,000m and 10,000m, Kathy Ormsby for the 10,000m, Suzie Tuffey to an American junior record at 5,000m, Jeff Warrick to a national high school record at 1,500m, and Kenyetta Iyevbele to the U.S.A. Junior National Championship record in the 800m.
In addition, Geiger has coached athletes to international prominence, including sprinter Kevin Braunskill (1988) and jumper Neil Chance (1992), who won the 200m dash and long jump, respectively, at the World Junior Championships. Braunskill also picked up a bronze medal at 200m at the World University Games in 1989.
NC State’s athletes have recently enjoyed a great amount success at the Pan Am Junior Championships. Wolfpack sprinters Gabriele Cunningham and Cravont Charleston each took home 4x100m gold at the 2017 Pan Am Junior Championships. In 2011, Iyevbele won the Pan Am Junior title in the 800m. Alexis Perry captured the 2013 Pan Am Juniors gold medal in the 100m hurdles.
At the junior national level, Geiger helped place Lynn Strauss (3,000m), Gavin Gaynor (steeplechase), Chris Corcoran (javelin), and Chris Dugan (steeplechase) on the United States National team in 1983, '84, '91 and '98 respectively. Under Geiger, javelin thrower Eric Schoenborn became a member of the 1985 United States National team, and Emmanuel and Reggie Barnes joined Chance as members of Team USA in 1992.
Geiger has also been head coach of the Wolfpack's ACC men's cross country dynasty since 1981 and served as the head coach of the women's cross country squad from 1981-2004 as well, winning 15 ACC men's championships and 17 ACC women's championships. His men's cross country team has won 12 of the last 23 ACC cross country titles, including the 2011 championship.
NC State women's cross country has made more NCAA Championships appearances than any other school in the country with 31, and had 10 national top-10 finishes under Geiger, including five top-five finishes in six years from 1983-88. The Wolfpack men have finished in the national top-10 a total of 10 times since 1987, including a 10th-place finish in 2011. Both squads finished in the top 10 in 2003, with the women placing sixth and the men taking 10th. Twelve men and seven women have won individual ACC cross country championships under Geiger's tutelage, and two women, Betty Springs in 1983 and Suzie Tuffey in 1985, won individual national championships.
During Geiger's remarkable tenure as an assistant and head coach in cross country, NC State's teams have built a tradition matched by few programs nationally, combining to win 35 Atlantic Coast Conference team championships and 19 individual ACC championships.
In the classroom, Geiger's teams have exemplified what student-athletes are supposed to be. Brian Himelright became the latest recipient of an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship in 2013 and the 22nd in program history since the creation of the scholarships in 1964. In the winter of 2007, both Georgia Davis and Jemissa Hess were awarded the James-Weaver-Corrigan Postgraduate Scholarship by the ACC, giving Geiger 14 student-athletes to receive that honor.
Stephen Furst was named the ACC Scholar Athlete of the Year after a tremendous senior season under Geiger's guidance and was also a NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship winner with fellow senior Vegh in 2007. Jonathan Addison, who owns the school record in the men’s indoor long jump, claimed back-to-back ACC Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors during the 2015 Outdoor and 2015-16 Indoor seasons.
Well-known nationally, Geiger has coached at the United States Olympic Festival and in 1987 was named coach of the United States National team for the World Cross Country Championships. He has also been a featured speaker at the U.S. Olympic Training Center.
Prior to coming to Raleigh, Geiger led a perennial powerhouse program at Bayshore High School in Bradenton, Fla. His teams consistently placed in the top 10 at the state, with individuals placing in every event.
A 1971 graduate of Kent State University, Geiger was a three-time letterwinner in track and cross country. He majored in health education and received a minor in psychology. He is married to the former Betty Springs, one of the finest runners in NC State history, as she was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 2003. They have two children, Rachel and Trey, both of whom attend NC State.
ACC COACH OF THE YEAR
Track and Field (6)
1985, 1986, 1988, 1996 (2), 2004
Men's Cross Country (13)
1986, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2011
Women's Cross Country (15)
1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001
ACC CHAMPIONSHIPS
Men's Track and Field (7)
1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1996
Men's Cross Country (15)
1986, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2011
Women's Cross Country (20)
1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006
