Darren Gauson

Title

Cross Country and Track Head Coach
Email

dgauson@bradley.edu
Phone

309-677-2643
Twitter

@dgauson

Darren Gauson by the Numbers
Coach of the Year Honors: 13
2019	Missouri Valley (Men's)
2018	Midwest Region (Men's)
	Missouri Valley (Men's)
	Missouri Valley (Women's)
2017	Missouri Valley (Men's)
	Missouri Valley (Women's)
2016	Missouri Valley (Men's)
2015	Missouri Valley (Men's)
	Missouri Valley (Women's)
2014	Southland (Men's)
	Southland (Women's)
2013	Southland (Men's)
	Southland (Women's)

Cross Country Championships
• Eight Missouri Valley Championships
• Four Southland Conference Championships
• Placed 24th at 2018 NCAA Men's Championship
• Eight Individual NCAA Championship Qualifiers

Individual Awards
• 61 Conference Champions
• Three All-Americans
• 12 Conference Athletes of the Year
• 13 Conference Freshmen of the Year
• Six Conference Newcomers of the Year
• Five Conference Outstanding Track Performers

Academic Awards
• Seven Academic All-Americans
• 10 MVC Elite 17 Award Winners

Having established Bradley as the premier distance program in the Missouri Valley Conference and one of the top schools in the Midwest, Darren Gauson is in his eighth season as head coach of the Braves men’s and women’s cross country and track teams.

Gauson wasted no time making his mark on the Bradley programs, helping the Braves win eight team titles in his seven seasons, while also reaching a number of historic milestones. Under his watch, the BU men’s cross country team qualified for the NCAA Championship for the first time in school history in 2018, finishing as the nation’s 24th-best team and ahead of a number of perennial powers. Additionally, the men’s team claimed the first five MVC Championships in school history in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, while the women completed a sweep for Bradley by taking the 2015, 2017 and 2018 titles.

On an individual level, Gauson has mentored a pair of Braves to three MVC Cross Country Individual Championships in his seven years on campus. Caitlin Busch claimed the women’s crown in 2015 before Jake Hoffert became the first Bradley man to win the individual title twice – claiming the championship in 2017 as he was the first Brave to win the individual crown in 52 years before repeating the feat in 2019. Furthermore, Kristen Busch was the first Bradley runner to reach the NCAA Cross Country Championship in 16 years during the 2015 campaign, while Michael Ward was the first-ever BU man to qualify in 2016. Overall, Bradley has sent four individuals in addition to the 2018 men’s team to the national cross country meet.

The accomplishments have not stopped for the Braves on the track as Bradley continued to create new benchmarks for the program in the winter and spring. Among the recent highlights, the Bradley women set school records for points at the MVC Indoor (70) and Outdoor (84) Championships in 2022, while the BU men added record performances in 2019 with 86 and 70 points, respectively. On an individual level, Daniel Gagne became the first BU man to qualify for the NCAA Track and Field Championship in 42 years, where he earned second-team All-America honors in the 1,500m run in 2017. In 2021, Wilma Nielsen became the first Bradley freshman to qualify for the NCAA Championship and finished the campaign as the nation’s third-ranked rookie in the 800m.

Gauson’s list of accomplishments during his seven years highlights how dominant of a program Bradley has been under his watch. Additional achievements include:

Among the program’s eight conference titles, Bradley has featured a number of historic performances. In 2019, the men’s team set the modern-day Missouri Valley Conference record with 17 points – finishing with the top four runners at the conference meet and five of the top seven. The women also recorded the second-lowest score in the meet’s history during their 2017 championship performance, placing five runners in the top eight.
Bradley runners have claimed 25 individual titles and six relay crowns in seven years under Gauson’s mentorship.
Among the highlights of the program’s track titles are Ward and Haran Dunderdale winning the first individual outdoor and indoor titles for the BU men in 30 and 34 years, respectively, during the 2016 and 2017 championships. Additionally, the Bradley women won their first distance medley relay crown in school history in 2019.
Seven Braves overall have qualified individually for their respective national championship during Gauson’s six seasons.
Thirteen Braves have earned NCAA All-Midwest Region honors in cross country under Gauson, including a school-record five during the 2018 meet.
Gauson was the recipient of the 2018 Roy Griak Award as the USTFCCCA Midwest Region Men’s Coach of the Year. He has also collected Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year honors eight times in his seven years on The Hilltop.
Academic success has been just as common for the Braves during Gauson’s tenure. BU has earned the USTFCCCA All-Academic Team honors in each of his seven years on campus. The men have ranked as high as fourth nationally in team GPA (2019 and 2021), while the women peaked at fifth in 2017.
Six Braves have earned Academic All-America honors in the last seven years – Will Anderson (2018 and 2019) and McKenzie Altmayer (2021 and 2022) received the award twice with Marshall Moyer (2016) and Sarah McMahon (2016) also collecting the accolade – while a total of 47 Braves have earned USTFCCCA All-Academic accolades.

Gauson came to Bradley from Lamar University, where he guided both the Cardinals men's and women's cross country programs to consecutive Southland Conference championships in 2013 and 2014. In addition to the championship success of the cross country teams at Lamar, Gauson coached the Cardinals runners to 29 individual Southland Conference championships in cross country and track in just three seasons. Among his star runners, Gauson helped Matt Johnsen to a 33rd-place finish at the 2012 NCAA Cross Country Championship and the first All-America honor for the Cardinals since 1969. Additionally, Sam Stabler posted the second-fastest 5,000m time in the nation in 2015 to go along with Academic All-America honors.

A 2006 graduate of Napier University in Edinburgh, Scotland, with a degree in sport and exercise science, Gauson competed two years at Butler University, where he earned a master’s of science degree in education in 2008. With the Bulldogs, Gauson earned a Horizon League title in the 1,500m during his final year of eligibility in addition to claiming Scottish national championships in the event in both 2004 and 2005.

Following graduation, Gauson was also an assistant cross country/track and field coach at Butler for four seasons. The Butler men were able to extend their streak of consecutive conference cross country titles to 14 during Gauson’s time in Indianapolis and the team finished 29th at the NCAA Championship during his first season on the coaching staff. Butler boasted four All-Americans overall during his tenure at the school.