St. Olaf College Athletics

Head coach Chris Daymont is in her 37th season at St. Olaf in 2017-18. She was inducted to the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Hall of Fame on Dec. 15, 2014 and is a member of the St. Olaf Athletics Hall of Fame.  

In 2016-17, Daymont was named 2016 NCAA Central Region Cross Country Coach of the Year by the USTFCCCA after leading the Oles to their first regional championship since 1999 and earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championships for an eighth straight appearance.

In 1976, Daymont was hired as the varsity women's cross country coach at St. Olaf.  In her time as a coach, Daymont has mentored more than 1,200 female student-athletes.
 
Daymont has led St. Olaf to nine conference championships in her tenure, the second-most of any MIAC school. The Oles captured five consecutive titles from 1998-2002, and had their best NCAA finish in that stretch, fourth-place in 1999. Daymont has accompanied athletes to the NCAA National Championships 18 times (ranks seventh in all-time appearances), 11 of those with team finishes in the top 10. She has coached over 32 different athletes to 81 All-American honors.
 
Voted NCAA Division III Central Region Coach of the Year three times, Daymont has also earned MIAC Coach of the Year honors twice. She also serves as the meet director for many major cross country and track and field events, most notably hosting the NCAA National Cross Country Championships in 2002 and 2007.
 
The arrival of the Minnesota State High School Cross Country Championships on the St. Olaf campus were facilitated by Daymont. She also has made her mark as a leader in water training. She serves as a distance and middle distance clinician around the region and worked as a co-director for the 1982 Associated for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women track and field championships.
 
A graduate of the State University of New York-Cortland, Daymont went on to earn her master's from Syracuse University. Daymont had a five-year hiatus from St. Olaf (1981-86) and taught and coached at Bloomsburg State (PA) and Macalaster.
 
Daymont teaches in the exercise science department as an associate professor, specializing in exercise physiology.

She and her husband Dick live in Northfield. All three of their children -- Sara, Megan and Tommy -- attended and were student-athletes at St. Olaf. Megan and Chris were inducted to the St. Olaf Hall of Fame on the same day in 2013.