HOLLAND -- Hope College cross country coach Mark Northuis has been
honored by his peers as the Great Lakes Region women's cross country
coach of the year. The award is given by the U.S. Track & Field Cross
Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
HOLLAND -- Hope College cross country coach Mark Northuis has been
honored by his peers as the Great Lakes Region women's cross country
coach of the year. The award is given by the U.S. Track & Field Cross
Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
Northuis coached the Flying Dutch to the championship of the NCAA
Division III Great Lakes Regional this past weekend. The team will run
in the national championship this coming Saturday in Terre Haute, Ind.
The regional championship is Hope's first in 25 years. Hope cross
country teams (women and men) are no strangers to the national
championship, however. In 24 years under Northuis, Hope has qualified
teams or individual runners to nationals a combined 25 times between
the men's and women's programs.
The academic performance of his teams is a point of pride for coach
Northuis. The women's program has, for example, been named to the MIAA
Academic Honor Roll for 14 consecutive years. Both programs regularly
are named to the academic honor roll of the USTFCCA.
A five-time Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA)
all-conference cross country and track runner at Hope, As a collegian,
he was among the nation's top small college cross country runners,
finishing 27th as both a junior and senior at the NCAA Division III
national championship meet. In track, he won the 5,000 meter run at
the 1980 MIAA Field Day.
Northuis has guided the cross country fortunes of his alma mater since
1988. The Flying Dutch won the league championship in 2004 and 2011.
Northuis is a professor of kinesiology and chair of the department. He
is active in the College Cross Country Coaches Association and has
served on the NCAA Division III advisory committee for cross country
and track & field.
As a collegian, he was among the nation's top small college cross
country runners, finishing 27th as both a junior and senior at the
NCAA Division III national championship meet. In track, Northuis won
the 5,000 meter run at the 1980 MIAA Field Day.
Northuis earned the Masters degree in exercise physiology at the
University of Michigan and received the Ph.D. in exercise science from
the University of Minnesota.
He and his wife, Pam Bulthouse, a 1981 Hope graduate, have five
children, Anders, Elizabeth, Klare, Madalyn, and Michaela.