Over the past seven years, cross country head coach Chris Hardie has seemingly checked off every box of accomplishments possible – but for him, there’s still more left to do.

After the women’s team won the championship for the second straight year on Saturday, Oct. 28, Hardie won PAC Coach of the Year for a third time in his career. The first time was in 2014, and then for back-to-back years in 2016 and 2017.

Beyond the personal honors Hardie has received over the years, he has led Waynesburg University’s cross country program in ending Grove City’s 27-year reign as PAC champions in women’s cross country – bringing the Yellow Jackets their first title. However, Hardie said it isn’t the awards, but rather, the progress that is satisfying.

“It’s gratifying, all the work we put in throughout the year,” Hardie said. “It really comes to a point here [at the championships], and it’s really exciting to know that all the work finally paid off. But we don’t do it for the awards…we’re going to keep working.”

Hardie said he credits not only the work ethic of the team, but also the coaching staff.

“We work really hard every day, I can’t say I expected success to come this quickly,” Hardie said. “But we really put the work into it. It’s awesome to point out the three assistants here, [Michelle Cross, Laurel Rush and Kristen Stone] do a fantastic job.”

Hardie’s career with Waynesburg University began in 2009, when he served as an assistant coach for a year before becoming head coach. However, Hardie said he didn’t get into long distance running until his senior year of high school and into college. Since then, he’s managed to turn it into a major part of his life, working with Waynesburg for the past eight years. Hardie said he didn’t leave college with the specific goal of becoming a coach.

“I didn’t start with aspirations to be a college coach,” Hardie said. “I just got into it and opportunities came and I embraced it.”

Since then, Hardie has led the women’s program on to consecutive championship titles while earning multiple Coach of the Year awards himself.

Although the conference season is over for the women’s cross country team, regionals and ultimately nationals still lie ahead. The Yellow Jackets will travel as a team to the NCAA DIII Mideast Regionals on Nov. 11, and depending on results, potentially could travel to nationals either as a team or individually. That road ahead for the program, Hardie said, will be challenging but feasible.

“We talk nationals every year with this squad, it’s whether or not we’re close,” Hardie said. “We’re going to… shoot for a national berth. I think it’s going to be tough, but that’s always what we shoot for – hopefully there is three more weeks left in the year.”

Last year, the Yellow Jackets placed sixth out of 51 teams at regionals and failed to qualify for nationals as a team, though two runners did qualify individually – just the second and third athlete to make it to nationals in program history.

Hardie said developing a nationally recognized cross country program is one of his biggest goals, and while the team has not reached that level yet, each year they’ve gotten closer.

“That’s really why I go out and recruit as much as I can,” Hardie said. “[I do it] so we can build a national level team. We’re getting close, but not quite there yet.”