The 2018-19 season marks Joanna Warmington's ninth year as UMD's cross country and track and field coach. She was promoted to the head coaching position for both programs in August 2010 after serving as an assistant the previous two seasons.
Since Warmington's arrival, UMD has qualified for eight NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships -- placing a program-high third in 2014, seventh in 2015 and 2009, eighth in 2008, 10th in 2016 and in 2013, 15th last fall and 21st in 2011 -- while capturing two NCAA II Central Region titles (the first two in team history -- 2014 and 2013) and two Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference crowns (2015 and 2013). Over that stretch,six different Bulldogs have come away with All-American citations, including Emi Trost, who earned that distinction three seasons (2014-16), and two-time honorees Breanna Colbenson (2016 and 2014), Morgan Place (2009 and 2008) and Samatha Rivard (2014 and 2013). In addition, both Trost (2016) and Place (2009 and 2008) claimed NSIC individual titles during Warmington's time on the Bulldog staff while Rivard (2014) and Place (2009) reigned as NCAA II Central Regional champions.
Warmington is a two-time recipient of the NSIC Cross Country Coach of the Year Award (2013 and 2015) and in 2014 was chosen the USTFCCCA Central Region Coach of the Year.
Over the course of her assistant and head coaching tenure, Warmington and the Bulldogs have also laid claim to one NSIC indoor track and field championship (2014) and one conference outdoor title (2009). On an individual front, UMD has churned out NCAA II indoor and outdoor All-American performances on 29 occasions over the past 10 years. Among those was six-time track All-American Emi Trost, the two-time USTFCCCA II Central Region Indoor Track Athlete of the Year and the 2017 USTFCCCA II Central Region Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year, who captured the 1,500-meter run title at the 2017 NCAA II Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Another was Rivard, who, in her debut collegiate go around, prevailed as the 2014 NCAA II indoor mile champion and was named the NSIC Indoor Track Athlete of the Year that winter after finishing as that meet's top overall point producer (28). One year earlier (2013), another one of Warmington's pupils, Chanel Miller, landed the NSIC Field Athlete of the Year at both the league's indoor and outdoor championships and in 2016, Breanna Colbenson was cited as the USTFCCCA Central Region Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year and NSIC Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year.
Warmington, the NSIC and NCAA II Central Region Indoor Coach of the Year, also coached Lexi Williams, the 2012 NCAA II 800-meter outdoor titleholder, as well as UMD's first eight-time All-American in Morgan Place (three in cross country and five in track). Place finished fifth at the 2010 NCAA II cross country nationals after taking six and seventh in 2009 and 2008, respectively.
In 2016-17, the Bulldogs placed fourth -- its highest ranking ever-- in USTFCCCA Division II Program of Year Standings.
Warmington's troops have also gotten it done in the classroom as well as evident by the selection of five Bulldogs to the CoSIDA Academic All-America team - Colbenson (2015-17), Michaela Hesse (2017-18), Bridget Hines (2010-11), Amelia Maher (2014-15) and Trost (2016-18)
Warmington, a Monticello, Minn., native was a four-year cross country and track letterwinner at Drake University, an NCAA I institution, and captained each of those teams as a junior and senior. She captured the Missouri Valley Conference 1,000-meter indoor title in 1993 and was a member of the MVC 4 x 800 meter indoor (1993) and outdoor (1994) champions as well.
Warmington, who also has run numerous marathons and road races since her college running days, graduated from Drake in 1994 with a B.A. degree in graphic arts design. She currently resides in Hermantown, Minn., and has two sons -- James and Mitchell.
