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Cross Country

Cross Country

Eagle

Cross Country Coaches

Mark Thompson

Head Coach

Mark Thompson, one of Oklahoma’s most accomplished track and cross country athletes, was named OC's head cross country coach in December of 2008.

Thompson has served as an assistant coach for OC’s cross country and track and field programs for the past two seasons. He was instrumental in helping the Eagles win the 2008 Sooner Athletic Conference cross country championship.

Thompson worked with three OC runners who earned NAIA All-America honors in cross country. Jordan Powell was a two-time All-American and Silas Kisorio and Sylvia Chirchir were each one-time winners under former head coach Wayne Strohman and Thompson.

In addition to his cross country coaching responsibilities, Thompson assists Randy Heath with the men’s and women’s track and field programs, working specifically with the distance runners.

Thompson was a six-time state champion in track and a three-time state champion in cross country at Edmond Memorial High School. He went on to run for two national championship teams at the University of Arkansas.

The 30-year-old Thompson is an active runner. Over the last couple of years, he set personal bests in distances ranging from the 800 meters through the half-marathon, including victories at the Tulsa Run 15k, and in the 5,000 meters at the Stanford Invitational. He earned runnerup honors at the prestigious Drake Relays Special Invitational Mile. In the summer of 2009, Thompson reached his career goal of a sub four minute mile while racing in Europe. He came away with a 3:59.29 effort during his last race in Belgium.

Thompson is also a physics instructor at Oklahoma Christian. He joined the OC faculty in 2005 after teaching three years at Fayetteville High School in Fayetteville, Ark. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics from Arkansas.

Thompson is married to the former Darci Grisso, who serves as OC’s Director of Admissions.

 

Sam Dech Sam Dech

Assistant Coach

Sam Dech, a five-time NAIA All-American in track and cross country at Southern Nazarene University (Okla.), joined the Eagle coaching staff in 2008-09. Dech won the Sooner Athletic Conference cross country championship in 2000 and 2003 and was a six-time NAIA national qualifier in track and cross country. Dech also earned Academic All-America honors four times at SNU. Still an active runner, Dech recently set personal bests in the 800 meter and 1500 meter race distances while racing in Europe coming away with 1:49.91 and 3:43.19 efforts, respectively.

Dech has worked in the information technology department at Delta Dental of Oklahoma since 2001. In 2007, he was promoted to the company’s manager of network operations.

A native of Oklahoma City, the 29-year-old Dech was a graduate assistant at SNU in 2004 and 2005. He earned a degree in systems network managing from SNU in 2001 before completing his MBA in 2005, also at SNU. He and his wife, Bethany, have been married for seven years.

 

Katie Clark Katie Clark

Assistant Coach

Katie Clark, a 2003 Oklahoma Christian University graduate in biology, became an assistant coach for the Eagles prior to the 2009-10 school year. Clark helped the Lady Eagle's 4x800 relay team reach the national meet multiple times and came away with an SAC championship in the 800 meters her senior year at OC. Clark also holds the outdoor school record in the 800 meters at 2:19.96 in addition to being a member of the 3200 meter relay team that holds the indoor (9:49.26) and outdoor (9:39.58) school records.

Clark spent several years coaching high school track and cross-country locally at both Edmond North High School and Edmond Memorial High school. In 2005, she spent a year as the Female Youth Ministry Associate and then returned to coaching in 2006. Clark also taught biology during her time at Edmond Memorial. She has been married to her husband, Michael, since 2005 and they have a daughter, Macy, who is 18 months old.