Luke Maher recently completed his third season as the head men’s cross country coach at Connecticut College in 2019. He also finished his second year as the head men's track & field coach after serving as the associate head track & field coach during his inaugural winter and spring seasons on the staff.
Maher made an immediate impact with the men's cross country program in his first season as a head coach. The Camels were ranked as high as 26th nationally by the USTFCCCA and placed fourth at the NESCAC Championships as well as seventh at the NCAA Division III New England Regional Championships. The fourth-place finish at NESCACs also matched the team's best ever, as the program also ended the same meet in fourth during the 2002 and 2004 campaigns. In addition, Scott Mason ’19 qualified for the NCAA Championships and garnered All-America laurels by finishing 22nd overall.
On the track, Maher mentored the team’s strongest event groups during the indoor and outdoor seasons in 2018-19. Danny Aschale ’20 and Mason continued to improve and flourish under Maher’s guidance by qualifying for the NCAA Championships in each season. Mason most notably earned All-America laurels for the second straight year by finishing fifth in the steeplechase at the 2018 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships, while Aschale finished three spots ahead of his seed in the 5,000-meter run at the annual postseason event. In addition, Mason was named to the Google Cloud Academic All-District Team by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
In his second season on the sidelines, Maher’s greatest accomplishments once again came on the cross country circuit. The program sent three student-athletes to the NCAA Championships and produced two All-Americans for the first time in the same season, as Mason and Aschale finished 26th and 35th, respectively. Aschale also competed in the 3,000-meter run at the 2019 NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships during the winter.
Maher and his programs experienced similar successes during the 2019-20 academic year. Aschale competed at the 2019 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships, while freshman Jeffrey Love qualified for the 2020 NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships. Furthermore, indoor school records were broken in the 60-meter dash, 800-meter run, and the 3,000-meter run. Aschale’s mark in the 3,000 was also the seventh-fastest time ever run by an NCAA Division III student-athlete in the event.
Prior to his arrival in New London, Maher was the assistant coach of cross country and track & field before taking over as the interim head coach in 2017. During his four years at Amherst, Maher managed and oversaw the daily training regiments of the cross country program as well as the mid-distance and distance athletes.
Over the course of his time at Amherst, Maher would assist in three consecutive appearances at the NCAA Cross Country Championships and a team finish as high as ninth in 2014. On the track, Maher helped the Amherst program set the NCAA Division III national record in the distance medley relay during the 2015 indoor season; the squad would eventually go on to finish third at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships. Maher was also responsible for helping athletes achieve numerous school records and All-America honors during his tenure.
Furthermore, Maher brings a tremendous amount of experience in recruiting high school student-athletes who meet a highly selective admission criterion in addition to having athletic potential. He is also a USATF Level 1 Certified Coach and USTFCCCA Strength & Conditioning Certified.
Maher understands the competitive nature of the NESCAC dating back to his time as a four-year student-athlete who ran cross country and track at Tufts University. He most notably received the Bennett Memorial Scholarship during his senior season. The award is given to 'students who best exemplify the qualities of true sportsmanship as exhibited by the man whose name it bears.'
A native of Patterson, New York, Maher earned his bachelor's degree in History and Africana Studies from Tufts in 2013. He is also a USATF Level 1 Certified Coach and has a strength & conditioning certification from the USTFCCCA.
