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Will Palmer, who joined the Crimson Tide track and field/cross country coaching staff in August 2018, works with the Alabama women's distance crew.
Palmer coached Mercy Chelangat to her second NCAA title at the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Championships, where she took top honrs in the 10,000 meters by 12 seconds, adding that title to her 2020-21 NCAA Cross Country Championship. In addition to her NCAA titles, she also took second in the 2021 NCAA 10,000 meters and the 2021 NCAA Cross Country Championships.
During the 2020-21 cross country season (the NCAA Championships were held in the spring due to COVID-19 pandemic mandates) Palmer coached Chelangat to the individual NCAA Championship, while Amaris Tyynismaa finished third and Esther Gitahi earned All-America honors, pacing Alabama to an eighth-place team finish, the second-best in program history.
The first Alabama runner to win an individual NCAA cross country title, she also earned the 2020-21 Honda Award for Cross Country, which goes to the national runner of the year. Chelangat came back to finish runner-up at the 2021 NCAA Cross Country Championships and was a finalist for the 2021 Honda Award for Cross Country.
During the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Championships, she finished runner-up in the 10,000 meters and earned All-America honors in the 5,000 meters.
At the conference level, Chelangat is a two-time SEC cross country champion (2020 and 2021), the SEC indoor champion in the 5,000 meters in 2021 and the SEC outdoor 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter champion in 2021.
Palmer brings seven years of coaching and administrative experience to Tuscaloosa, with coaching stops at Georgetown (2016-18), Western Kentucky (2015-16) and Iowa State (2013-15) and two years as the operations director for the track & field and cross country teams at Oklahoma (2011-13).
In two years with the Hoyas, Palmer’s women's middle distance and distance runners garnered 43 All-BIG EAST nods across cross country (11), indoor (18) and outdoor track & field (14).
With Palmer, Georgetown boasted 27 competitors at the 2017 and 2018 NCAA east prelims across the middle distance and distance events. The Hoyas’ Jonathan Green also earned Mid-Atlantic Region Men’s Athlete of the Year in 2017.
At the national level, the Hoya’s men’s and women's distance and middle distance runners earned All-America honors in the women’s mile, men’s mile, men’s 1,500 meters, 10,000 meters and the distance medley relay and men’s cross country between 2017 and 2018. Palmer was also part of the 2016-17 Hoya staff that led the track & field and cross country teams to a No. 6 ranking in the USTFCCCA Men's Program of the Year standings.
Palmer arrived at Georgetown after a one-year stint as an assistant coach at Western Kentucky. He was responsible for the women's cross country resurgence as the team turned in its best overall season in five years in 2015-16. On the track, his middle distance and distance athletes contributed to a pair of C-USA team championships (2016 men's indoor and outdoor) and a pair of C-USA podium finishes (second – 2016 women's indoor; third – 2016 women's outdoor). He also coached Endalow Takele to the men's 10,000-meter title at the C-USA outdoor championships.
While working with the Hilltoppers, Palmer performed a number of duties, including: event coach for women's cross country, event coach for men's and women's middle distance and distance, domestic and international recruiting for middle distance and distance as well as team travel. He also oversaw the academic performance of the distance and field event athletes and performed administrative tasks as WKU hosted the 2015 C-USA Cross Country Championships.
Prior to his time at Western Kentucky, Palmer spent two years as an assistant at Iowa State University from 2013-15. During those two seasons, the Cyclones captured a pair of Big 12 women's cross country team championships and turned in a runner-up performance at the 2014 NCAA Women's Cross Country Championships.
In addition to his coaching and recruiting duties with the Cyclones, Palmer was tasked with reenergizing the Iowa State Classic, now a premier indoor track meet on the NCAA circuit with high performance middle distance and distance races geared toward achieving NCAA-qualifying performances. In two years, 45 athletes who competed in Ames went on to race at the NCAA indoor track & field championships. In the process, 10 new meet and six new facility records were established. Palmer also helped host a trio of Big 12 Championships (2014 indoor, 2015 indoor, 2015 outdoor) and the 2013 NCAA Midwest Region Cross Country Championships.
Palmer got his start in collegiate track & field as the director of track & field and cross country operations for the University of Oklahoma for two seasons (2011-13). During his time with the Sooners, he worked for Martin Smith, who would go on to give Palmer his first collegiate coaching job at Iowa State.
The Bethesda, Md., native made the most of his undergraduate experience while at Williams College, interning with both the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association and Team Indiana Elite, a professional distance running training group based in Bloomington. He was a four-year letterwinner on the men's cross country and track & field at Williams and received his Bachelor of Arts in mathematics from the school in 2011. Palmer is married to the former Samantha Bluske.