The Evolution of Cross Country and Track, Triggered by Gannon

Putting the needs of the student-athlete first. Tackling each day with purpose. Surpassing what you thought possible yesterday. Striving, pushing, working hard. These are the driving forces of Creighton head coach Chris Gannon's cross country and track programs over the last eight years, the same ones that have fueled his love and passion for the sport his entire life.

Long before leading the Bluejays to host their first Big East Championship in program history. Before reviving a Creighton track program that hadn't been active in 60 years, and even before setting foot on Creighton's campus, Gannon's passion for track began on the runway of a long jump pit. He was just nine years old!

"I probably peaked in second grade to be honest — I was like top 15 in the country in the second grade for long jump … and I can assure you that I was never that good again," said Gannon.

While the ribbons, early victories and instant success caught nine-year-old Gannon's attention, it was the thrill of pushing himself to improve that sparked his lasting passion for the sport.

"The thing I always loved about track … is that it doesn't matter if you're throwing or sprinting or jumping … your biggest competition is with yourself," noted Gannon. "And it doesn't matter if you're a state champion or if you're on JV or you're a freshman. It's just the opportunity to go out there and see, 'Can I be better than I was the last time I competed?'"

Gannon joked that he peaked in second grade, but his love for track carried him far beyond those early playground days.

In 1999, Gannon began his first year of college at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in health, physical education and recreation while competing on the track team.

However, things with the track team didn't unfold as Gannon had hoped. A freshman-year injury kept him off the track, limiting his participation through his junior year. By the time Gannon reached his senior year, he was forced to step away from competition entirely.

"All my friends were still on the team. I still wanted to hang out, I still wanted to travel, I still wanted to be with my friends, so the only way to do that was to start coaching," said Gannon.

Thus, Gannon shifted into a new role — coaching his teammates. That experience laid the groundwork for his first official coaching position. In 2003, fresh out of college, 23-year-old Gannon took the position of head track coach and assistant football and basketball coach at Sidwell Friends School in Washington D.C.

It was within the confines of this prestigious college preparatory school that Gannon first felt what it meant to have someone believe in him as a coach and found a mentor in the process.

"My boss, Anne Renninger … saw something in me that I didn't even see in myself," said Gannon. "She hired a kid who was 23 years old and she told me, 'You're a coach' … I don't know why she hired me, but she believed in me."

After a year at the helm of multiple athletics programs at Sidwell Friends School, Gannon was ready to shift focus back to his own education, returning to school at Fort Hays State University in Kansas.
While pursuing a Master of Science in human performance at Fort Hays State gave Gannon the opportunity to explore and find a passion for another side of the sport: cross country.

"I love the concepts of what's happening at the physiological level within the human body, and the outcomes of that are performance. Cross country is just that," noted Gannon.

Earning his Masters helped solidify Gannon's path as a coach. During that time, he also gained hands-on experience as a graduate assistant with Fort Hays State's track program.

After two years in that role and a second degree under his belt, Gannon made another move in his career, heading to Omaha to coach at the high school level — first at Gross Catholic and then at Skutt Catholic High School.

It was at this time that the culmination of his coaching experiences began to cement the first part of Gannon's coaching philosophy. Gannon explained it simply, capturing both the mindset and the motivation he shares with his athletes.

"Dream big, work hard, stay humble. That's what we say. It's eyes up, the future is bright. It's those same kinds of themes that we're always looking forward to, but we're just present with being the best that we can right now," concluded Gannon.

He carried these principles as part of his coaching ideology, but when Gannon took the next step and got the head coaching job at Creighton in December 2018, he found the university's culture — and its emphasis on Cura Personalis — perfectly aligned with the second, equally important part of his philosophy.

"My biggest pinnacle, foundational belief is that we have to care about people as people first and we have to take care of them as people first … If I am not cared for as a person, I'm never going to be the best athlete I can be or the best student I can be," said Gannon.

Gannon wasn't alone in this mindset. Assistant coach Matthew Fayers, hired soon after Gannon assumed leadership of the program in 2018, shared the same values, creating a perfect partnership.

"When I look back on my coaching time here — seven years now — hiring Fayers is the best thing that I ever did. He and I compliment each other really well. We value the same things and we're very much in line with one another," noted Gannon.

But new-hire Fayers wasn't the only person to share Gannon's foundational belief as a coach. Former Creighton volleyball coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth was also a pillar for Gannon in his early years as a coach — and remains one to this day.

Having grown her own program from the ground up, Gannon credits Booth as an instrumental influence as he set out to continue to build up the cross country program.

"She had a tremendous impact on me … The [sports] are not the same, but the people are the same. How we interact with people and how we motivate people … get the best out of people. Booth is as good as they come," concluded Gannon.

It was the combination of these influences that gave Gannon the tools and confidence to shape his own path. Drawing from Booth's example and Fayer's energy helped Gannon start championing progress of his own, just a year after beginning his tenure at Creighton.

In 2019, Gannon pushed for the reinstatement of the Creighton track team, a program that hadn't been official since 1962. The process took three years, during which time Gannon faced a change in administration, from then-athletic director Bruce Rasmusson to McCormick Endowed Athletic Director Marcus Blossom just one week after Gannon's initial proposal.

Blossom agreed to move forward with the reinstatement, Gannon said, and after many hours of proposals, budgeting and facilities planning, Creighton once again had a track team in 2022 — the men's team returning after a 60-year absence, and the women's team making its debut.

With the program officially in place, Gannon said the next challenge was convincing recruits to buy into this new addition to the Creighton team.

"It's about finding the right person. One of the conversations we have with people when we go through the recruiting process is, 'You can come here and you can be a part of building something. You can come here and be the first person to do what hasn't been done here yet,'" said Gannon.

It's that chance to grow and make history — and the way the athletes have seized it — that has driven Creighton's track program forward since then. Between Ryan Montera breaking school records and becoming the first Creighton male to compete in the Big East Track Championships to Marcos Gonzalez earning the program's first points with a sixth-place finish in the steeplechase, the Bluejays have steadily made their mark.

Despite all the accolades, though, Gannon says the most meaningful part of his job has always been the connections he's made with his student-athletes.

"It's Eli Vedral starting a cookie company. It's Boston [Small] and Liz [Kettler] and Ashley [Riley] and Caroline [Jachino] and Siobhan [Stoll] all in medical school. It's Margaret [(Hendrickson) Stamper] and Jackson [Stamper] getting married. It's Haley [(Fye) Keller] having a baby and Nate [Fedel] having a baby. That's the coolest part."

Now, looking back, Gannon sees these relationships as proof that the journey has mattered as much as the destination. But he's never needed a roadmap; he just shows up, works hard and lives the lessons he shares with his team.

"I don't know that we set out to build what we have, as crazy as that sounds … I don't know that if you would have asked me five years ago that this was the goal [I could have told you]," recalled Gannon. "Sometimes when we set these goals, these goals define us. I just approach life with this, 'I'm going to show up, I'm going to do the best I can do today, I'm going to be better today than I was yesterday'."

True to this thinking, Gannon doesn't know what's ahead for the team, but his commitment to hard work, caring for the whole person and striving to be better today than yesterday will never stop fueling him.

"Somebody asked me the other day what's next and I'm like, 'I don't know.' We're just going to show up and work hard tomorrow," said Gannon. "If I don't have an answer, I'm going to find an answer. If I don't know the way, I'm going to find the way. And if there's nobody else to help me get it done, I'm going to get it done myself."

The Evolution of Cross Country and Track, Triggered by Gannon

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