Tom Lyons
Men's & Women's Cross Country

E-Mail: tomlyons@sfsu.edu
Phone: (415) 338-2219

Lyons will begin his third year as the head coach of the men's and women's cross country teams at San Francisco State University this fall. He is also the assistant women's indoor and outdoor track and field coach. In the 2006 harrier season, Lyons' women's team placed 10th in the West Regional Meet and improved to 5th place at the CCAA Championships. The placing equals the best CCAA finish in school history. For the first time ever, the CCAA Women's Cross Country Freshman of the Year hailed from SF State. A most impressive accomplishment occurred when the women's team received USTFCCCA All-Academic Honors with a team GPA among the highest in the nation for cross country programs. On the men's side, the team placed 6th at CCAA and Josh Babiak earned his second consecutive All-CCAA honor and All-West Region award.

In his first season as the coach, Lyons guided the men's and women's teams to 5th and 7th at the CCAA Championships contested in Golden Gate Park. Josh Babiak was the first All-CCAA runner from SFSU since the school joined the conference. Babiak went on to place 6th in the NCAA D-II Western Regional Championships which qualified him for the National Championships. At the D-II National Meet in Chino, Babiak placed 38th becoming the third All-American men's cross country runner in school history and the first since John Moreno achieved the same status in 1978. The men's team earned All-Academic honors from the NCAA Division II Cross Country Coaches Association.

From 1994 to 2004, Lyons was the head boy's and girl's cross country coach at Redwood High School in Larkspur, California taking teams and individuals to the state championship meet in the last ten years. He also was the head boy's and girls' track and field coach from 1994 to 1999 and assistant boy's and girl's track and field coach from 2000 to 2001. Redwood Athletic Director and SFSU alumnus, Phil Roark, awarded the first ever Redwood Coach of the Year Award to Lyons in 1999.

In 2004, the North Coast Section recognized him as an Honor Coach for the sport of cross country. In 2005, he received the prestigious CIF Model Coach Award for his positive contribution to high school cross country in the state of California. Last November, Lyons was inducted into the Marin Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame based on his coaching career at Redwood.

He guided the Redwood boys' and girls' cross country teams to a 133-40 dual meet record including a league record 54 consecutive boy's victories, and nine league championships. In 1996, Redwood's Tiffany Hansen won the North Coast Section Division IV cross country meet and placed 7th in the state championships with a time of 18:47 at Woodward Park in Fresno. She went on to place 10th in the 1600 meter run at the state track meet the following June. Her personal best of 5:04.90 is still the school record and 9th on the league all-time list.

In 1997, Lyons boys' teams began a run of six consecutive state meet appearances. The 1998 and 2000 teams were NCS Division III champions and went on to place 3rd and 5th, respectively, at the state meet with the 2000 team averaging 16:27 for 5K in Fresno. A top runner on the 2000 team included recent SF State runner Josh Babiak.

In 2004, four-time all-state runner, Jake Schmitt captured the Division III state title in a state meet divisional record time of 15:14 at Woodward Park. He went on to place 8th at the Footlocker West Regional and 19th at the Footlocker National Championships in San Diego's Balboa Park.

Lyons' girls' cross country team placed 14th in the 2003 Division III state championships.

As the head track and field coach, he guided the Redwood boys and girls to a 66-47-1 dual meet record and four league championships. Redwood had seven state qualifiers on those teams, and the 1999 boys' team won the North Coast Section Redwood Empire meet with evenly distributed points among the track and field events. Prior to Redwood, Lyons was the assistant boy's and girl's cross country coach at Marin Academy High School in San Rafael for one year.

Lyons received his Bachelor's of Science from the University of Connecticut in Electrical Engineering in 1987, where he was a Cross Country and Track & Field Letterman and a Big East Conference Scholar Athlete. He currently competes for the Tamalpa Runners in races from 1 mile to 100 miles. In 2002, he placed 12th at his favorite race, the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run, in 19 hours and 18 minutes. Lyons resides in Fairfax with his wife, Chris, and two children, Dean (9) and Otis (6).