Bio entering the 2014-15 season
Chris Capeau, a former NAIA national marathon competitor and 2009 NAIA Champion of Character award winner, enters his third season as mid-distance/distance coach for both the track and field and cross country teams at SDSU.
"The past few season's cross country improvements were all due to (Capeau's) passion, commitment and desire to build a winning team," SDSU cross country and track and field coach Shelia Burrell said.
Last year, Capeau coached Marianne Hogan to a eighth-place finish in the 10,000 meters at the MW Outdoor Track & Field Championships, which was just the program's second athlete to ever scoring in the 10K and first since 2005. SDSU went onto capture its second straight outdoor title.
During the indoor campaign, Capeau helped Chelsea Kruthers set the mile record (5:01.00) and Rachel Roesgen run the third-fastest mile (5:08.10) in program history at the Howie Ryan Invite on Feb. 1. The distance medley relay team of Dynasty Gammage, Maderia Toatley, Kruthers and Roesgen also set a school record the day before in 12:05.71. At the MW Championships later in the year, the DMR of Kruthers, Nicole Oudenaarden, Gammage and Roesgen ran the eighth-fastest time in program history of 12:48.63.
In cross country, Capeau led the Aztecs to a win at the 13-team adidas/UCI Invitational on Sept. 7 and a runner-up finish of 10 teams at the Titan Invitational on Oct. 25. Under Capeau's direction, Kruthers posted three top-10 finishes and ran a time of 21:39.0 at the NCAA West Regional Championships on Nov. 15, which was the sixth-fastest cross country 10K in school history.
In the 2012-13 season, Capeau coached Josefine Koskinen to the sixth-fastest 800 in program history (2:07.86) and one of the fastest 1,500's in recent memory (4:37.20).
During the 2012 cross country campaign, SDSU won the UC San Diego Opener on Aug. 31 and the Fullerton Invitational on Oct. 19, while taking second out of 22 teams at the UCSD Triton Classic on Oct. 6. Hogan was the team's top runner in five of the seven races, including back-to-back wins at the UCSD Triton Classic and the Fullerton Invite, and a second-place showing at the Aztec Invitational on Sept. 15. Laura Vazquez would also run the sixth-fastest cross country 6K and later compete at the USA Junior Cross Country Championships, where she was 38th.
Capeau came to The Mesa after spending one season as assistant women's cross country coach at the University of Texas, where he helped finish third in the Big XII conference and second in the South Region in 2012. Prior to his time in Austin, Capeau was an assistant coach at his alma mater, CSU San Marcos from 2009-2012. At San Marcos, Capeau assisted in the recruiting process, was directly responsible for getting incoming athletes acclimated to a new training system, as well as assisting in extra physical therapy and injury prevention whenever needed.
Capeau competed for three seasons on the cross country and track and field teams at CSU San Marcos, where he was a member of three-straight AII conference team championships. In addition, Capeau qualified for the NAIA nationals in the 5K, 10K and marathon, as well as the 4x800 NAIA national team.
Capeau also competed on the junior college level at San Diego Mesa College, where he finished second in the conference in the 800 meter and fourth in the 1500 meter. He also was the third-place conference finisher in cross country.