After spending the past three seasons as an assistant coach with Iona’s distance runners, Maverick Darling joins Cal Cross Country Head Coach and Assistant Coach for distances, Bobby Lockhart, who is entering his second year with the Golden Bears in 2020-21. He will also assist with the track & field program's distance runners.
Darling helped the Gaels to MAAC Cross Country titles in each of his seasons in New Rochelle, New York, while the men’s program reached the NCAA Cross Country Championships in all three years while Darling was on staff. He also helped three cross country runners reach All-American honors in his time with the Gaels.
Prior to his stint as an assistant coach at Iona, Darling spent time coaching the cross country program at Western Kentucky where the men’s team notched its best Conference USA finish in the previous three years.
Darling got his start in coaching at his alma mater, Wisconsin, assisting the men’s cross country program to a 2016 Big Ten title and eighth-place finish at the NCAA Championship meet as a volunteer coach.
As an athlete for the Badgers, Darling was a part of the program’s fifth NCAA men’s cross country championship team in 2011. A native of Ovid, Michigan, Darling was a two-time cross country All-American, helping the team to four Big Ten titles and four NCAA Great Lakes Regionals.
The 2009 Big Ten Cross Country Freshman of the Year, Darling turned in his best individual finish on the big stage at the 2012 NCAA
Championships, finishing 11th overall and the second Badger to cross the finish line.
Darling was a three-time All-American on the track at UW, finishing his career with a fourth-place finish in the men’s 5,000-meters at the 2013 NCAA Outdoor Championships and winning the men’s 10,000-meter title at the 2013 Big Ten Championships.
