Dave Cianelli Director of Track & Field and Cross Country

Entering his ninth year as Director of Virginia Tech Track & Field and Cross Country, Dave Cianelli has built the Hokie program into one of the elite programs in the Atlantic Coast Conference and NCAA East Region. Since Cianelli's arrival in the fall of 2001, Virginia Tech athletes have produced five NCAA individual titles, 67 NCAA All-Americans and 68 conference champions. In addition, Hokie teams have finished in the national top 20 ten times since 2005.

Contact Coach Cianelli
E-Mail: dcianell@vt.edu
Phone: (540) 231-3094

Virginia Tech (2001-Present)
  • Five NCAA individual champions, the first in Virginia Tech history
  • Fifty-eight All-Americans
  • Six NCAA East Region championships
  • Four ACC team championships
  • Fifty-Six ACC individual champions
  • Twelve BIG EAST Conference champions
  • Had 14 athletes earn All-America Honors in 2007, the most in his coaching tenure.
  • 2007 and 2008 ACC Women's Indoor, Outdoor and East Region Coach of the Year

    Southern Methodist University (1988-2001)
  • Eight top-10 finishes at the women's NCAA Track & Field Championships
  • Seven top-10 finishes at the men's NCAA Track & Field Championships
  • 1995 men's and women's Southwest Conference cross country champions
  • Individual achievements included 19 Olympic and World Championships competitors, 27 NCAA champions, 123 All-Americans, 95 conference champions

    Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo (1985-1988)
  • 1985-87 NCAA Division II women's cross country champion
  • 1985-87 NCAA Division II women's outdoor track runner-up
  • 1985-87 CCAA women's cross country conference champion
  • 1985-88 CCAA women's outdoor track conference champion
  • Individual achievements include one NCAA Division II Champion and 13 All-Americans

    By The Numbers
    199 All-Americans
    163 Conference champions
    100 Percent graduation rate at Virginia Tech
    33 NCAA champions
    106 School records at Virginia Tech
    23 Olympic and World championship qualifiers
    18 Top-10 women's NCAA finishes
    12 Top-10 men's NCAA finishes
    3 NCAA Division II cross country national championships
    3 NCAA Division II outdoor track runners-up

    • NCAA, REGIONAL AND ACC SUCCESS
    The 2009 Virginia Tech Hokie squads capped off a successful year with record-breaking showings in the NCAA Outdoor Championships. The men's team finished 16th. Freshman Marcel Lomnicky won Tech's third national championship in the men's hammer throw, and first national championship since 2006, while the women's squad placed 12th at the meet, marking the highest finish in team history at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. The Tech men placed second at the ACC Indoor Championships, the highest finish for the squad since joining the league, and 22nd at the NCAA Indoor Championships. The women's squad earned second at the outdoor conference championships and 35th at the NCAA indoor meet. On the year, the Hokies notched 12 All-America honors and 20 conference championships.

    USA AND INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS
    2009 proved to be another successful year for the Hokies internationally. Yavgeniy Olhovsky won the pole vault at the Israel Athletic Championships to earn a bid into the World Championsips held in Berlin, Germany. Keith Ricks took second in the 200-meter dash at the Junior U.S. Championships to qualify for the U.S. team that competed at the Junior Pan-American games, held in Trinidad and Tobago. Kristi Castlin, Asia Washington and former Hokie Brian Mondschein also competed at the U.S. Championships.

    Queen Harrison made history in June, 2008 when she earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic team,by finishing second in the 400-meter hurdles at the U.S. Olympic Trials to qualify in the event. Harrison was the first Tech track and field athlete to represent any country in the Olympics and only the second Hokie to become an American Olympian in any sport, following Bimbo Coles who represented the United States in basketball in 1988. Seven other Hokie track and field athletes competed in the Olympic Trials. Kristi Castlin (100-meter hurdles), Tasmin Fanning (5,000-meters), Brittany Pryor (hammer throw), Kristen Callan (hammer throw), Sherlenia Green (400-meter and 100-meter hurdles) and Justin Clickett (shot put) all represented Virginia Tech with pride at the Trials.

    COACH OF THE YEAR HONORS
    Cianelli's illustrious career is proven by the awards he has collected throughout his career. In 2008 he won the ACC Women's Indoor, ACC Women's Outdoor and East Region Women's Coach of the Year honors for the second straight year. Cianelli also won his second consecutive USTFCCCA indoor women's Southeast Region Coach of the Year honor in 2008.

    Cianelli has assembled one of the most accomplished coaching staffs in America. Associate head men's and women's track & field coach Greg Jack was named National Throws Coach of the Year in 2006. Former Hokie and NAIA Region XII Coach of the Year Ben Thomas is the cross country coach. Thomas is assisted by former All-SEC runner Jen McGranahan. Long-time assistant, Bob Phillips, a former All-American for the Hokies, coaches the pole vaulters. Tech introduced Charles Foster as the new sprints, hurdles and jumps coach this fall. Foster is a former world record holder in the 110-meter hurdles and a U.S. Olympian in 1976. Foster was honored in 2008 by the USTFCCCA as Men's National Coach of the Year for sprints and hurdles.

    ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE
    The Virginia Tech track & field and cross country programs continue to achieve at a high level in the classroom. Senior Tasmin Fanning garnered the USTFCCCA Cross Country Scholar Athlete of the Year Award, while seniors Jessica Fanning, Erin Reddan and Phillip Padilla, along with junior Devin Cornwall and freshman Michael Hammond all received Academic All-ACC honors. In addition, both men's and women's cross country teams have been USTFCCCA All-Academic Teams for five consecutive years.

    PREVIOUS COACHING EXPERIENCE
    Prior to Tech, Cianelli gained plenty of experience in five seasons as the women's cross country and distance coach at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. With the Mustangs, Cianelli worked with 19 Olympic and World Championship competitors, 27 NCAA individual champions, 123 All-Americans and 95 individual conference champions. Cameron Taylor of New Zealand was a quarterfinalist in the 200m at the 1992 Olympics, and Tytti Reho won the 2000 NCAA championship in the 800m.

    In cross country, both the men's and women's teams captured the 1995 Southwest Conference titles and earned a spot in the NCAA Championships. During 13 years at SMU, the track & field teams finished in the top 10 nationally 15 separate times.

    Cianelli served as the assistant women's track & field and cross country coach at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo from 1985-88, where he led the cross country team to the NCAA Division II National Championship three consecutive seasons; and the outdoor track & field teams finished as the runner-up at the NCAA Division II Championships three years in a row. Individual honors during his four years included 13 All-Americans and one NCAA champion.

    Cianelli started his coaching career at San Marcos High School in Santa Barbara, Calif., as the head track & field coach from 1982-84. In three seasons, he coached seven junior national qualifiers in the heptathlon and decathlon.

    PERSONAL
    A native of Bethesda, Md., Cianelli was a student-athlete at Bowling Green State University, competing in sprints, the decathlon and the long jump. He graduated in 1977 with a B.S., in physical education.

    Cianelli and his wife, Ellen, have a daughter Mariah (14) and son Sebastian (10).