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Western Illinois University Athletics

Nick Maas

Nick Maas

Western Illinois announced the hiring of head cross country and assistant track and field coach Nick Maas on Thursday (Dec. 8), 2016. 

"I am pleased to welcome Nick to our staff. He is a proven coach with a great deal of success on his resume. He is also a proven recruiter and has a number of ties already to the Midwest as a former resident, athlete and coach from the state of Iowa," said head coach Mike Stevenson. "He is someone I know can be counted on to develop and lead our distance program, as well as have an impact across the board in recruiting and coaching in other event areas. He has expressed his desire for longevity at our institution and will bring some much-needed stability to the team. We took a step in the right direction when we hired Nick."
 
Maas comes to Western after a five-year stint at Metropolitan State University in Denver, Colo. where he served in both the head and assistant coach role. He assisted with coaching the sprints, jumps and hurdles from August 2011 to July 2013 before becoming the head coach of the track and field and cross programs in July 2013.
 
During his tenure at Metropolitan State, a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, Maas coached athletes to 45 program records and two conference records, in addition to coaching 65 All-RMAC performers, 30 All-Region performers, 50 National qualifiers and 21 All-Americans across all event areas. He also coached the women to an eighth place finish at the Division II cross country national championships in 2013, 20th in 2014 and 22nd in 2015, while coaching the men to a 12th place finish in 2013 and 22nd place finish in 2015.
 
Prior to his time at MSU, Mass was the head cross country coach at Buena Vista University for three years where he coached the men's team to a fifth place finish at the 2009 NCAA Indoor Championships and an eighth place finish at the outdoor championships. He also coach 28 All-Conference performers, 14 NCAA qualifiers, eight All-Americans and two NCAA champions.
 
During his season as a head coach at Mount Marty College, he coached four individual national qualifiers.
 
Maas graduated from Buena Vista in 2004 and received his Master of Arts in Exercise Science from Northern Iowa in 2006 where he also served as the cross country and track and field graduate assistant.
 
"I am excited for the opportunity to coach at Western Illinois University. The opportunity to coach at the Division I level in the Midwest was too good to pass up," said Maas. "My wife, daughter and our entire extended family live in Illinois and Iowa, so it's great to be home. There are a lot of great student-athletes already here that need a consistent coach that can guide them to next level of performance. I also plan to hit the recruiting trail hard and bring in more local talent to give us some much needed depth on the distance side. I'm grateful for the opportunity and must thank the search committee, coach Mike Stevenson, and athletic director Matt Tanney for the chance to coach at WIU."