MOUNT VERNON – Michael Friess has been named Cornell College's Director of Men's and Women's Cross Country and Track & Field and Head Track & Field Coach, it was announced Friday by Director of Athletics Seth Wing.
 
Friess has served as assistant coach for Cornell's cross country and track & field programs since November 2020. He takes over as head track & field coach for Tashina Steggall, who held that role the past two seasons.
 
Steggall, who's been on Cornell's staff since 2017, accepted a position at Macalester College as Associate Head Track & Field Coach.
 
 "We are grateful for Tashina's service to our student-athletes," Wing said. "We wish her well in her future coaching career."
 
Friess officially begins his new duties on the Hilltop Nov. 29.
 
"This is a special opportunity for me and my family," said Friess, who had a Hall of Fame career as a coach and administrator at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) from 1990-2020. "I look forward to fully embracing this new adventure.
 
"Cornell is an exceptional college and Mount Vernon is a wonderful one-of-a-kind small town. I look forward to working with my fellow coaches, staff, department and the college as a whole to help this program continue to grow and develop."
 
At UAA, Friess coached 15 NCAA Division II champions, 182 all-Americans and 237 conference champions. The Seawolves claimed 32 conference team championships and eight NCAA West Region cross country titles under Friess' guidance.
 
The Anchorage native was head coach of six of the Seawolves' 13 sports (men's and women's cross country, men's and women's indoor and outdoor track & field) and served as associate athletic director his final six years there.
 
"We are very fortunate to have a coach of Michael's caliber leading our programs and willing to take on this challenge of building championship teams," Wing said. "Michael brings tremendous leadership experience and will be a huge asset in developing our student-athletes to their fullest potential."
 
Every team Friess coached at UAA earned academic team accolades by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. Friess compiled an astonishing 49 Coach of the Year awards from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, the Pac West and the USTFCCCA.
 
Friess elevated all of UAA's running programs to national prominence, starting as head men's cross country coach in 1990. He helped reinstate the women's cross country team in 2000, established full sponsorship for men's and women's outdoor track & field in 2005, and then indoor track & field in 2013.
 
Friess' UAA women's cross country team placed in the top eight at the NCAA Championships his final 11 seasons, a streak matched by only two other Division II programs. The women crowned four all-Americans in 2019.  
 
In 2015, Friess was recipient of the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame's Joe Floyd Award, recognizing significant and lasting contributions to the state of Alaska through sports. In 2018, he was inducted in Linfield (Ore.) College's Athletics Hall of Fame.
 
Friess was head strength and conditioning coach for all of UAA's programs (Division I and II) from 1994-2000. He was an adjunct professor at UAA from 2003-14. Friess served on the USTFCCCA's board as secretary and second vice president from 2010-13.
 
Friess graduated with a bachelor's degree in exercise science in 1985 from Linfield, where he was an NAIA all-American distance runner. He earned a master's in sport biomechanics from the University of Oregon in 1986.