Chris Evans enters his seventh year as an assistant coach with the UC Irvine cross country/track & field team.
Evans, who took over the distance program in 2014, has mentored an all-conference men's cross country runner in each of the last three seasons. In 2017, Evans helped Hector Garcia earn postseason accolades as he placed sixth overall at the Big West Championships. It was the highest finish by a UCI sophomore in over 25 years.
Since Evans' arrival as an assistant coach in 2012, the Anteater cross country squad has had four All-Big West performers, nine Big West Athletes of the Week and one Big West Men's Freshman of the Year. On the track, Evans has seen 18 of his distance athletes run top-10 times in indoor and outdoor school history. In addition, he helped Riley Martin and Sam Hyams advance to the 2013 NCAA West Prelims in the 1500m. Martin also won the Big West 1500m title that year.
A 2001 graduate of UC Irvine, where he competed in both cross country and track, Evans returned to his alma mater after successful stints as the head coach at Golden Valley High School and as an assistant coach at Crescenta Valley High School.
Evans, along with his brother, Rob, transformed the Golden Valley program after taking over as the head coach in the fall of 2007. Within one year, Evans had an All-CIF and All-State runner, and the boys’ team qualified for the 2008 CIF State Cross Country Championships, finishing 11th.
The next four years brought tremendous success as the boys qualified for the state cross country championships each year, finishing third in 2009 and winning a state title in 2011.
The 2011 squad was dominant on its road to the title, going 1-2-3 in the Foothill League, setting the Division II team record at CIF Finals, becoming the third-fastest team ever to compete at the historic Mt. SAC Cross Country Course, and qualifying for Nike Cross Country Nationals, where they placed 11th.
This transformation was evident on the girls’ side as well. The program produced an All-CIF runner in cross country and track, another runner who went on to win the State Junior College Championship in the 800m, and Lauren Hackney who was a two-time All-CIF performer in the 400m, and continued her career at UC Irvine.
Before taking the helm at Golden Valley, Evans was an assistant at Crescenta Valley High School during its run to the top of the standings.
During his competitive career as an Anteater, Evans earned All-Big West honors in cross country and scored twice at the conference championships in track. He graduated from UCI Phi Beta Kappa with a double major in English and history. Evans went on to earn his Master of Arts in Educational Organization and Leadership from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, where he served his Graduate Assistantship within the Medical School.
Evans is a USATF Level II certified coach in the distances, and has presented at the LA84 coaching clinic.
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