Tigers will take on archrival Kansas in annual dual meet at the Hearnes Center on Friday at 1:30 p.m.
Joe Lynn enters his first year with Mizzou track and field as assistant head coach, specializing in the men's middle distance and distance events. Lynn spent the last five seasons at Grand Valley State, a Division II powerhouse located in Allendale, Mich. In his five-year stint with the Lakers, he mentored a combined 30 student-athletes to 90 total All-America honors and he has also mentored 79 Academic All-Americans. In his last year at Grand Valley State, the Laker women's program became the first in NCAA (regardless of division) to win all three NCAA Championships (cross country, indoor, outdoor) in the same season.
In 2010 and 2011, Lynn was named NCAA Division II Midwest Region Men's Track Assistant Coach of the Year and went on the win the National Men's Assistant Coach of the Year award that season at the Division II level, showing a great deal of consistency and a great deal of respect from his peers in the coaching circuit. His distance tutelage has been a paramount reason why Grand Valley State has claimed the NCAA Division II Cross Country and Track Women's Program of the Year in each of the last three seasons (2009-11). He has also coached four teams to NCAA Division II Women's Academic Team of the Year (2010 track and field; 2010 cross country; 2011 indoor track and field; 2011 outdoor track and field) and has coached six cross country teams to NCAA Midwest Regional titles and 22 conference championship teams.
Aside from the program accolades that Grand Valley has received because of Lynn's coaching contributions, he has also had success mentoring his event groups. He has coached three NCAA Regional Champions in cross country (Chris Hammer in 2008 and Tyler Emmorey in 2009 and 2010). Not only that, but he has had 108 individual and seven relay entries for the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor National Championships during his tenure. And despite Grand Valley's success, he continued to raise the bar for excellence at the school as he coached his student-athletes to nine different school records in his five seasons as an assistant coach and associate head coach.
Lynn earned an undergraduate degree in business administration and sports management from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Mich., in December of 2004 and later earned a Master's Degree in Sports Administration from Louisville in 2007. He was a very successful runner at the NAIA level as well, earning Academic All-America honors on the cross country circuit. He won the 2005 Louisville Marathon and earned the Aquinas College Cross Country Captain's Award during his time at Aquinas. He is also an adjunct professor at GVSU, teaching 11 credit hours throughout the school year and is a leader in coaching theory for track and field and cross country as well as basketball, bowling and tennis.
"Joe will be an exciting addition to the Tiger Family," Halter said. "He understands our championship vision and most importantly, he shares our approach to sport with our deeply held core values. Joe's student-athletes have consistently performed at an extraordinary level in both the classroom and in the field of play. He has a proven history of developing student-athletes into both All American runners and students. We are blessed to bring on board not only a terrific coach but an even better person."
"I am extremely excited to join the Missouri Track & Field family," Lynn said. "The opportunity to work with Coach Halter and his great staff is one that I could not pass up. I'm looking forward to the challenge of developing Tiger student-athletes both in the classroom and in competition as not only the best in the Big 12, but in the NCAA."
