Q&A: Chris Hardie leads Waynesburg’s successful Cross Country program

Hardie reacts to winning sixth straight women's cross country championship

Make sure to check out Riley’s interview with coach Hardie from the latest episode of WCTV’s Jacket Sports Weekly on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4gRC0fZFWQ  

Chris Hardie has hoisted a lot of hardware as the head coach of the Waynesburg women’s cross country teams over his 11-year tenure as head coach.

Seven Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) Women’s Coach of the Year awards and six-straight PAC titles hang in his trophy case. Hardie and the women’s team picked up one of those six championships this past Saturday.

QUESTION: You ended up winning your seventh PAC Women’s Coach of the Year award in eight years. How impressive is it for you that your coaching is not only leading to PAC titles, but also being recognized by the other coaches in the conference?

A: “Yeah it is really cool. To me it always goes back to the people that are around you so I think it’s important to give recognition to all the coaches that help me every day. We have four distance coaches that are with me everyday and that’s where it gets done. We come up with the workouts and implement them so I couldn’t do it without Kristen Gallik, Laurel Rush and the Latimer twins [Katie and Emily]. So those four, and Michelle Cross comes when she can, so we have a fifth assistant there. They do a great job and you know the ladies have just done a tremendous job with the pressure over the years to kind of elevate during the big moments so I give a lot of credit to them. I just do what I do. Some years it works out, some years it doesn’t. But the people around you make it work.”

Q: This past weekend you ended up winning the sixth-straight PAC championship for this women’s cross country team just by one single point. How sweet was it and how nerve-wracking was it for you that you knew it was going to be a close one?

A: “You were there so you know. I mean it was girl after girl, it looked completely tied the whole way through that thing. I saved a piece of paper from the race; we were keeping score at the three-mile [mark] and we were actually down four points so that’s special to me because of the move that they made late in that race. You don’t see that type of move so it was a special group. If anybody was around me and coach Gallik was, I thought we actually lost by a couple of points for about 30 minutes before a couple of the other coaches came up and congratulated us and I thought, ‘what are you congratulating us for I thought we lost.’ On paper it looked like [we lost], but I also was about 400 meters from the finish so I didn’t see what took place. Some of the passes the girls made at the line were just unreal so they went out and got it and I was totally shocked to be quite honest with you. But we’ve had three of these where it’s been three points or less, I think since I’ve been here; so, it’s been close a lot of the time so we’re getting used to it I guess in a way.”

Q: This was a tight championship. A lot tighter than it was in the championship last spring. You ended up mentioning to me in an interview that your team wasn’t as deep this year as it was in years past, but it took a whole combined team effort. In your opinion, which team is more impressive? The one from last spring that might’ve been a little bit more top heavy with its runners but having to deal with all of its COVID-19 challenges or this team that might not have been as deep and having to deal with a competitive Franciscan team?

A: “I think both were challenges that we knew we could overcome but it was going to take a lot of preparation and a lot of organization from the early part of the year. COVID-19 was prevalent in both seasons, I think we definitely saw that this year. So, I would say this year was probably a little bit more challenging, which makes it more rewarding when we do pull it out at the end, just because of the course conditions, COVID-19 was still prevalent and our depth was a little bit off, but I think the girls definitely did rise to the occasion and made that less of a factor. Probably a little tougher this year. Last year we had Nicole Shelton, Gianna Pugliano, we had some top girls that helped out so losing those really did hurt us, but this will be a special year. I think this one was a little bit tougher and it’s a little sweeter now, which is pretty cool.”

Hardie and the rest of the Waynesburg cross country teams will be in action next on Nov. 13 for the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships to try to qualify for nationals.