Lamar University Athletics

Head coach Trey Clark added 16-year coaching veteran Tony Houchin as Lamar University track and field assistant coach in charge of distance and cross country, announced the program Sept. 7, 2015, just before its 2015 cross country season opened. Five seasons later, Houchin is now the head cross country coach and associate director of the track & field program, a promotion he received on September 11, 2019, thanks to four Southland Conference cross country championships in five years.

In addition to his four team titles, Houchin has been named SLC Men's Coach of the Year four times, including in 2019, and he's coached five individual champions - four men and one woman. He's also had three SLC Men's Newcomers of the Year, three SLC Men's Athletes of the Year, a 2017 SLC Women's Freshman of the Year honoree, and a 2016 SLC Women's Athlete of the Year in that time.

In 2019 Houchin coached Jordan Rowe to SLC Men's Athlete of the Year and SLC Men's Student-Athlete of the Year honors, an NCAA South Central All-Region award, and an appearance at the NCAA Cross Country Championships. The men's team won the SLC title for the 17th time in program history, setting an SLC record with 86 points separating Big Red in first from the second place team. Rowe,  Jack Gooch, and Liam Burthem were named First Team All-SLC, and Harry Halford, Declan Neary, and Matthew Arnold took home Third Team All-SLC honors. Julie Emmerson led LU's women to a sixth-place finish and came in fifth for a First Team All-SLC honor, and Katy Whiteoak took ninth for a Second Team nod. Rowe, Arnold, and Gooch were named First Team All-Academic SLC for the men, Julie Emmerson was All-Academic First Team on the women's side, and Katy Whiteoak took home Second Team honors.

In 2018 the Cards finished second on both the men's and women's side, but Jamie Crowe won the SLC and NCAA South Central Regional titles and took home SLC Men's Athlete of the Year and All-South Central Regional honors. Jordan Rowe was the SLC Newcomer of the Year and another All-South Central Regional member, and both Cardinals traveled to the NCAA National Championships. It was the first appearance by any SLC runner at the national championships since 2015.

Jamie Crowe made a stellar debut under Houchin's guidance in 2017, leading LU to its fifth consecutive men's team title with his SLC Athlete of the Year and Newcomer of the Year performance. Crowe was joined on the All-SLC teams by Cormac Kelly and Matthew Arnold, both Second Team All-SLC. Katy Whiteoak was SLC Freshman of the Year, and Evelyn Chavez took home Second Team All-SLC honors.

Lamar took home the SLC Men's title and came in third on the women's side in 2016. Evelyn Chavez was the SLC Women's Individual Champion and the SLC Women's Athlete of the Year, and she also captured First Team All-SLC honors. Frederico Gasbarri came in second at the SLC Championship for First Team All-SLC honors, and Keith Fallon was the SLC Newcomer of the Year for the men. 
 
His presence was immediately felt in 2015 after he helped a very young men’s squad grab its ninth crown in 10 years; his first with the Cardinals. Under his wing, Iliass Aouani was tabbed as both Southland Conference Freshman and Athlete of the Year. He also assists with the distance program during the track and field season, and he was a part of six distance league championships and Verity Ockenden earning honorable mention All-America honors.
 
  He worked with Ockenden and Aouani on their way to sweeping the 3,000- and 5,000-meter indoor races before both went on to win the 1,500-meter run in the outdoor season.
 
Houchin, who was head cross country coach and track and field assistant at UAB prior to his time at LU, came to Lamar with 11 All-Americans and 58 league champions coached between track and cross country during his career, and claims more than 150 all-league members.
 
He arrived at UAB in 2011, and worked with UAB’s first All-American since 2007, and seven of eight distance All-Americans the Blazers ever had.
 
He was over a program that broke 26 school records by nine different athletes, and had over 100 marks in the UAB all-time top-10 performance lists. He worked with NCAA South Region Track and Field athlete of the Year Elinor Kirk, who also took the top spot in the 5000-meter run in the Welsh Indoor record book and eighth in the NCAA for the 10,000-meter run.
 
While at UAB, he coached 12 Conference-USA cross country and track and field champions and 46 All-C-USA athletes. Thirteen times he had a runner advance to the East Preliminary Championships. Proving that academics is also a staple in his work, his cross country team earned the department’s highest grade point average at a 3.578 in 2012, and four athletes were named to the Capital One Academic All-District team.
 
Prior to UAB, he was the cross coach at Nevada-Las Vegas from 2006 to 2010, where he raised the team GPA from a 2.87 to 3.36 and was named as a USTFCCCA All-Academic Team in 2008, 2009 and 2010.  He led his team to the best Mountain West Conference finish the program had seen since 2000 as well as the first All-MWC cross country athletes since then.
 
He coached UNLV’s first mid-distance MWC champion in Charlotte Browning (1500m) as well as the 2007 league track and field freshman of the year. Under his tutelage, 41 marks were added to the UNLV top-10 all-time performers list.
 
Houchin also served as the cross country coach at Southland Conference rival McNeese State from 2005-2006, where he improved the men’s league standing from seventh to third in just one season.  With the Cowboys, he coached two track and field league champions and a handful of All-Southland Conference champions.
 
Before his stop at McNeese, he coached the Butler men to a fourth place finish at the 2004 National Cross Country Championships, the women finished 31st that season. There, he worked with NCAA cross country All-American Olly Laws in 2004 and national champion Victoria Mitchell in 2005 (steeplechase).
 
He instructed 26 All-Horizon cross country athletes and 68 all-league track and field athletes. Houchin also coached four league cross country champions and 30 track and field teams in his two seasons with the Bulldogs.
 
He was a volunteer assistant at Texas A&M where he assisted in coaching distance and mid-distance athletes, including three regional and national track and field qualifiers as well as one Big-12 track and field champion during his one season.
 
His coaching career started as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Oklahoma State.   He worked there for three seasons and saw three NCAA team national championship qualifiers, three regional team qualifiers, and three NCAA All-Americans. The 2001 team was a first place regional team and the 2002 team finished second.
 
He ran cross country at the collegiate level at OSU, and had top 15 team finishes every season he ran, including a third place finish in 1995.