Malone University Athletics

2022 marks the 56th season at Malone for Jack Hazen. He spent 53 of those years as the head coach of men’s cross country at Malone University, and as women's cross country head coach for 29 years.

He now is in his second season in the role of Coach Emeritus. His men’s program still ranks as the all-time winningest program as ranked by the NAIA and his 1972 men’s team became the first Malone team to earn an NAIA national championship while his 1999 women’s team became the second.

The 2019 season saw both men's and women's cross country teams made it to the NCAA DII Midwest Regional Championships where the women placed 9th and the men 11th. Hazen also led a pair of women in Hannah Thompson (All-American) and Mackenna Curtis-Collins (G-MAC Champion) to the NCAA DII Cross Country National Championships.

The Pioneers have captured a total of four men’s cross country titles and one women’s cross country title during Hazen’s tenure. In the fall of 2007, the men’s cross country team captured the program’s second NAIA national title, completing a “perfect” season after having finished first in every meet in which it competed. The Pioneer men backed up their incredible 2007 campaign with another national championship in 2008 as the squad held the NAIA’s #1 national ranking from the season’s start to finish. Then, in the fall of 2009, the men's program collected an incredible "three-peat" by capturing its third straight NAIA national title.

During Malone’s time in the NAIA, Hazen’s men’s squad qualified for the NAIA national meet each and every year, never losing a conference/district meet. In addition, his men’s team recorded 35 top-ten NAIA national finishes. 

The Pioneers’ rich tradition of cross country success has continued throughout the institution’s transition to NCAA Division II membership.  In the fall of 2015, the men’s team placed 22nd at the Division II National Championship Meet.  In 2014, the women’s team also became the first NCAA Division II program to claim the All-Ohio Championship, joining Cedarville University’s 2008 squad as the only non-Division I programs to capture the overall All-Ohio Title.  On the men’s side, Malone has claimed an incredible total of eight overall All-Ohio Championships, the last one coming in 2008. 

Most recently, the Pioneer men captured first place at the G-MAC Championship in 2018.

Jack also served as the head coach of men’s track & field for 28 years and women’s for three years. He has coached over 325 NAIA All-Americans in cross country and track & field, which represents over 80% of the All-Americans in all of Malone athletics history.  The All-America trend has continued since Malone moved to Division II as women’s cross country runner Tina Oprean became the first Pioneer athlete in any sport to earn NCAA Division II All-America recognition in 2013.  Andrew Trusty and Ryan Roush then captured All-America honors for the men’s cross country squad in the fall of 2014. Hannah Campbell earned All-American status in the 2015 Cross Country National championships while Roush duplicated the honor in the 10,000 meters in the 2016 Outdoor Track & Field Championships.  Most recently, Jade Smith received the All-America distinction with a 20th-place showing at the 2017 NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships.

Coach Hazen recently served as an assistant for the USA Track and Field Team during the 2012 Olympic Games. In addition to working with the men's distance runners for Team USA at the London Olympics, he has had several previous international coaching opportunities. He was named Head Manager for the 1999 Junior Pan American Track & Field Team and was twice named as U.S. Coach for men’s cross country at the World Championships in Boston and Capetown, South Africa. He was also selected as the Assistant Coach for the U.S. World Championship meet in Helsinki, Finland in 2005.  Jack has coached two Olympians and served on the Track & Field Competition Management Team at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

In the spring of 2016, Hazen received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ohio Association of Track and Cross country Coaches (OATCCC) for 100 total seasons of coaching service.  He was also recently elected to the USTFCCCA Coaches Hall of Fame, joining an incredible list of coaching legends from all levels of NCAA and NAIA competition.

A member of the USA Track & Field Board of Directors, Jack has written textbooks on coaching and has been published numerous times. But most importantly, he has impacted many lives for Christ at Malone University.