SHAWNEE- The St. Gregory's University athletic department is excited to announce the hiring of Chris Creal, to be the new Men's Track and Field/Cross Country Head Coach.
Creal is coming to SGU from Dickinson State University (N.D.), where he spent the last year and a half as the head coach for the men's track and field team, as well as the assistant coach for the cross country team. Prior to Dickinson State, he began his coaching career as a student coach for Midland University while finishing his studies in the Spring of 2011. At Midland, he worked closely with the programs sprinters and helped develop a NAIA 200 meter indoor national qualifier as well as a Great Plains Athletic Conference Outdoor 200 meter Champion.
After graduating from Midland, Chris was chosen as the Graduate Assistant Track and Cross Country Coach at Dakota Wesleyan University and worked closely with the middle distance and distance runners of the program from 2011 to 2013. He would then accept the Assistant Cross Country/ Track and Field Coach at Iowa Western Community College in the summer of 2013. At Iowa Western, he primarily worked with the middle distance and distance program but would also assist the hurdles and multi-events groups when needed.
Creal started his college career, as an athlete, at Dana College and competed in both Cross Country and Track for the Vikings until the school closed. He then attended Dakota Wesleyan University to finish his career with the cross country program.
At Dana, Creal ran just about everything from the 4x400 meter relay up to the Half Marathon, and did whatever he could do to help out the team. By the time he ended his career, Creal was a 2x NAIA All-America Scholar Athlete in cross country and 1x NAIA All-America Scholar Athlete in track.
Creal earned his Master's Degree at Dakota Wesleyan University in Educational Policy and Administration.
Coach Creal is excited to be at SGU and said," I believe this is a great opportunity to help the athletes to be successful on and off the track."