COACHES & STAFF
assistant coach michael whittlesey
Additionally, in his 11 years at the helm of the cross country program at UNC, the Carolina women’s team advanced to the NCAA Championships 10 times, including a program-best sixth-place finish in 1999. With a 10th-place finish in 2004, the Tar Heel women posted back-to-back top-10 NCAA finishes for the first time in school history. After assisting the Tar Heels to a fourth-place indoor finish and another top-10 outdoor finish and producing four NCAA individual and relay titles, Whittlesey was awarded the first-ever NCAA Division I Track and Field National Assistant Coach of the Year for women’s middle distance/ distance in 2003. Whittlesey also received the 2007 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field East Regional Assistant Coach of the Year honor. On top of the great team success during Whittlesey’s tenure at UNC, the Tar Heels also witnessed some of the greatest individual distance athletes in school history during his term. Perhaps no other athlete thrived under Whittlesey more than Shalane Flanagan. Flanagan was the NCAA cross country champion in 2002 and 2003. Not only was Flanagan the first Carolina woman to ever take the cross country national championship, but she was only the third woman in NCAA history to successfully defend her title. A three-time recipient of the NCAA Cross Country Athlete of the Year award, Flanagan also excelled on the track. She won a pair of indoor national championships in 2003. Individually, she claimed the title in the 3,000 meters, and then teamed up with teammates Erin Donohue, Anissa Gainey and Alice Schmidt to take first-place honors in the distance medley relay. Flanagan also earned a spot on the 2004 U.S. Olympic 5,000 team before claiming a bronze medal in the 10,000 at the 2008 Olympic Games. Along with Flanagan, Whittlesey coached standout runner Alice Schmidt, who was a two-time national champion in the outdoor 800 and the first North Carolina track and field athlete to win an NCAA title in the same event twice. Both Schmidt and Flanagan went on to earn places on the 2005 U.S. Track and Field World Championship team, while Erin Donohue earned All-America status in both cross country and track. All three athletes earned spots on the 2007 U.S. Track and Field World Championship team, as well as the 2008 U.S. Olympic team. Whittlesey has twice won both the ACC Cross Country Coach of the Year and Southeast Region Coach of the Year awards, earning each in 1999 and 2003. A native of Morris, Conn., Whittlesey started his coaching career at UConn as a graduate assistant. While at UConn he assisted with distance and was a pole vault and multi-event coach. He then served two years at UNC-Charlotte where he worked as an assistant coach. While with the 49ers, Whittlesey led his athletes to 53 new school records in 18 different events and coached all-conference performers in the triple jump and javelin. Whittlesey’s competitive experience includes being the first American finisher in the 1995 Boston Marathon. He also qualified for the 1996 Olympic Trials in the marathon after competing as a non-recruited athlete at the University of Connecticut. He graduated from UConn in May 1990 with a bachelor’s degree in sports medicine/athletic training and later earned a master’s in biophysical science/exercise physiology in 1993. In 1997, Whittlesey received a doctorate of philosophy in sports science/exercise physiology from UConn. Whittlesey and his wife, Carol, have two children: eight-year-old daughter Samantha and six-yearold son Ryan.
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