David Shoehalter officially took over the Bulldogs’ program as the Mark T. Young ’68 Director of Cross Country and Track and Field in 2010-11. Shoehalter, who had helped build the program in his 16 seasons as a coach at Yale before that, succeeded legendary Yale coach Mark Young ’68 in the director’s position.

During his tenure at Yale Shoehalter has focused on the sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers on both the men’s and women’s teams. He has coached multiple Bulldog student-athletes to All-Ivy, All-East and All-American honors, including Yale's first IC4A champion in the hurdles since the 1970s and All-American Jihad Beauchman ’06 in the high jump. Under Shoehalter’s guidance, many Bulldogs have broken records in the sprints, jumps and hurdles. He also coached Joslyn Woodard ’06 to eight consecutive titles and a total of 20 career titles at the Ivy League’s Heptagonal Championships.

Shoehalter’s student-athletes have also excelled in the classroom. In 2009-10 the Yale men’s track and field team posted the highest GPA in the country among Division I programs (3.43). During the 2012-2013 season, the Yale men's cross country team was named to the USTFCCA's All-Academic list after posting a team GPA of 3.56--third in the nation and tops in the Ivy League.

The Yale program has made dramatic strides in many areas during Shoehalter’s time, including the renovation of Coxe Cage in 2005 that included the dedication of the William Clay Ford '48 Track & Field Center and a new banked indoor track named after Frank Shorter ’69, the former Yale cross country captain, NCAA champion, and two-time Olympic medalist.

In addition to his contributions as a coach at Yale, Shoehalter has also reached out to the larger track and field community. He is a member of the USTFCCCA Executive Committee. He has been the secretary of the Heptagonal Games Coaches Association for 12 years and is currently the second vice president of the IC4A Track and Field Coaches Association.

A 1989 graduate of Penn with a degree in history, Shoehalter captained the Quakers as a senior and was a scorer in the hurdles and the pentathlon at the Heptagonal Championships. He earned multiple medals in the hurdles and as a member of the 4x400-meter relay team for the USA in the 1989 World Maccabiah Games. He then spent a season as a volunteer coach at his alma mater, working with Penn’s high jumpers in 1989-90.

Prior to coming to Yale Shoehalter was an assistant coach at Lafayette College from 1990 to 1994. He coached the sprinters, jumpers and hurdlers.

Marc Davis enters his 14th season at Yale and was recently named Men’s Head Track and Field Coach.  Davis works primarily with the Bulldog men's and women's sprinters.  Davis began his coaching career in the fall of 1995 at his alma mater, Lafayette College, where he was a volunteer assistant coaching the sprints and hurdles.  In January of 1997, Davis moved on to coach at Millersville University as a graduate assistant for sprints, hurdles, and jumps, and he helped to guide numerous athletes to the NCAA Division II national championships and to All-East performances.  From “The Ville," Davis joined the Bulldog staff in the 2000-2001 season to coach the sprints.  Under the guidance of Coach Davis, the Yale sprinters have seen a great deal of success and have virtually rewritten the Yale track and field record books to establish themselves as a perennial threat in the East.

Since the winter of 2001, Davis has coached Ivy League Champions in the 60-meter dash, 100-meter dash, indoor and outdoor 200-meter dashes and the 4x100-meter relay. He has teamed with Coach David Shoehalter to coach All-Ivy performers in the 400-meter run as well. Davis’ sprinters have garnered school records in the 60-meter dash, men’s and women’s 100-meter dash and men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor 200-meter dashes.  Many of Davis’ athletes are also among the top 10 in school history in the sprints and sprint relays.

Davis continues to bring a wealth of technical knowledge and enthusiasm to the Yale program. He competed as an undergraduate at Lafayette under the tutelage of current Yale coach David Shoehalter. He was a two-time Patriot League champion in the sprints and was an all-East performer at 200 meters indoors. Currently, Davis is an active member of USATF Connecticut. 

Coach Davis graduated from Lafayette in 1995 with a degree in Sociology.

Amy Gosztyla joined the Yale staff as women's cross country, middle distance and distance coach in the summer of 2011.

Gosztyla (pronounced goz stilla) spent three years as an assistant at Harvard prior to coming to Yale. There, she worked primarily with the men's and women's middle distance and distance runners. During her time with the Crimson Gosztyla coached six NCAA Championship qualifiers, 13 NCAA Regional/First Round qualifiers, 97 ECAC/IC4A qualifiers and five Ivy League Heptagonal champions. Her runners set 10 school records, and under her guidance the women's cross country team finished as runners-up at the 2009 Ivy League Heptagonal championships.

Prior to joining the Harvard staff, Gosztyla was the assistant women's cross country and track and field coach at her alma mater, New Hampshire. In her one season as an assistant with the Wildcats, 2007-08, she helped develop the program's first women's cross country All-American in nearly 15 years. The UNH women's cross country team also won the ECAC University Championships. On the track, Gosztyla worked with the long sprinter and middle distance athletes. During the indoor and outdoor seasons, the Wildcats finished second in the America East Championships and were the New England Outdoor Championships runners-up. She coached the America East indoor 500-meter champion and 400-meter runner-up, as well as the school record-setting women's outdoor 4x400-meter relay team.

From 2005 to 2007 Gosztyla was the assistant men's and women's cross country and track and field coach at Stony Brook. She and head coach Andy Ronan were named America East Women's Cross Country Coaching Staff of the Year in 2005 and 2006, and the women's cross country team developed into an NCAA qualifier in 2007. Individually, Gosztyla helped coach four NCAA Regional qualifiers, 46 ECAC/IC4A qualifiers and three America East champions. Her runners set 20 school records, and the women's cross country team finished as conference runners-up twice.

Gosztyla was named America East Student-Athlete of the Year in 2002, and was honored by UNH that same year with the Jim Urqhart Award as the school's female student-athlete of the year. She was also named Most Outstanding Track Performer at the America East Outdoor Track and Field Championships and was the New England outdoor 1,500-meter champion that year. Gosztyla was a four-time America East all-conference selection in cross country, and earned All-Northeast Region accolades as a junior in 1999.  She was a six-time America East champion in indoor and outdoor track, and at one point held seven school records. She served as team captain from 1998 through 2002.

Gosztyla graduated magna cum laude from New Hampshire in May 2001 with a bachelor's degree in nutritional sciences. She earned her master's degree in exercise science summa cum laude from the same school in May 2004, earning the school's Basil Mott Leadership Award along the way.

last updated Aug. 4, 2011

Paul Harkins, who spent four seasons as an assistant coach at New Mexico State, was named men’s cross country, middle distance and distance coach at Yale in the fall of 2011.

Harkins helped the New Mexico State women’s cross country team to the first WAC championship in school history in 2009, just two years after he took over a team that had finished seventh in 2006. He was also a part of the men’s cross country team’s highest finish in school history -- second place in 2010. The men were coming off a seventh-place finish when Harkins arrived in Las Cruces in 2007. Prior to his time at New Mexico State, he coached at Brown, making Yale his second Ivy League stop.

Harkins was named the WAC Conference Women’s Coach of the Year in 2009 at New Mexico State after leading the Aggies to the league title. That same season, he coached the WAC Women’s Cross Country Freshman of the Year. In 2009 and 2010, he coached the WAC Women’s Cross Country Athlete of the Year. All told, Harkins coached five individual WAC champions and 53 all-conference honorees, including the Aggies’ first male cross country runner to earn back-to-back all-conference honors since 1971-72. His runners set nine school records and made 60 additions to the school’s top 10 list. Harkins’ teams also achieved success in the classroom, as both the men and the women were recognized as USTFCCCA All-Academic teams in 2009 and 2010.

Prior to joining the New Mexico State staff, Harkins spent a season as an assistant at Brown and two seasons as an assistant at Missouri State. He coached at Nathan Hale High School in Seattle, Wash., from 2001 to 2004.

In his brief time at Yale, Harkins has coached many middle-distance and distance athletes to great success, and students like Kevin Dooney, Tim Hillas, Ryan Laemel, John McGowan, Matt Nussbaum, James Shirvell and Matt Thwaites all emerged as regional stars under his coaching. Over the past couple years, the middle-distance and distance events have become the strengths of Yale's track team, while the cross country team has achieved its usual success.

Harkins coached his first Bulldog to the Division I NCAA Cross Country National Championships in 2013, helping sophmore Kevin Dooney overcome some early-season injury issues to place to earn All-Region and second-team All-Ivy honors and become just the sixth Yale runner to compete at Nationals since 1991.

Harkins received a B.A. in economics from the University of Washington, where he ran cross country and track, in 2000. He also has a Master’s of Science in health promotion and wellness management from Missouri State.

John Ybarra, a 2012 US Olympic Trials competitor who has also competed in the shot put at the last three USA track and field championships, joined the Yale track and field staff as throws coach in the winter of 2012-13.

Ybarra came to Yale with an impressive list of accomplishments both as a competitor and as an assistant coach. He finished fifth at the 2011 USA Indoor National Track and Field Championships and finished 2010 ranked in the top 20 in the shot put in the United States. He was a five-time Division II All-American in the shot put at Adams State College, where he also earned Academic All-American honors.

From the spring of 2008 through the spring of 2012, Ybarra served as an assistant coach at Adams State, helping the men’s team win the NCAA Division II team championship indoors in 2010 and outdoors in 2012. He coached the 2009 indoor national champion in the shot put, and his throwers earned 14 All-American honors. One of his female throwers had the fifth-furthest discus throw in NCAA Division II history (180’9”). In addition to coaching a 2008 Olympic qualifier in the women’s discus, Ybarra coached his athletes to 32 NCAA Division II national qualifying marks. Ybarra also spent time as the team’s recruiting coordinator, and was part of the staff when Adams State hosted the 2010 and 2011 NCAA DII Indoor Track and Field Championships.

Since Ybarra took over as throws coach, Yale has continued to achieve great success in all of the throw events. Apart from star Mike Levine, several other athletes have emerged as scoring threats, and the discus and hammer throws, especially, have emerged as strengths of the team.

Ybarra earned his B.A. in human performance from Adams State in 2007, then earned an M.A. in that same field from Adams State a year later. He earned the 2008 NCAA DII Post-Graduate Scholarship Athlete of the Year Award. In 2011 he added an M.B.A. in public administration from Adams State.

Ybarra has been working as a sports performance trainer at MVP Sports Holland since September. He was Director of Strength and Conditioning at Adams State from Jan. 2011 through May 2012, and also served as a strength and conditioning coach there from August 2008 through December 2010.