Todd Harbour Head Cross Country

Todd_Harbour@Baylor.edu  
254-710-3490
Baylor University 

An 11-time Southwest Conference champion, Todd Harbour begins his second season as cross country head coach and his third season working with the Baylor track program. Harbour came to Baylor after a 15-year coaching career at Riesel High School in Riesel, Texas.

Baylor saw success in Harbour’s first season at the helm of the cross country program. The men’s team finished third at the NCAA South Central Regional, while the women’s team placed fourth. Junior Kara Newton was the top individual performer, earning all-conference and all-region honors. She finished fifth at the Big 12 Championships and sixth at the regional to earn a trip to the NCAA National Championships. There, she battled 17-degree temperatures and a minus-11-degree wind chill to place 63rd in a field of more than 250 athletes.

Harbour joined the Baylor track program during the winter of 2000. That year, he saw Baylor’s 4x800-meter relay team of Jon Capron, Damian Davis, Jonathan Pike and Floyd Thompson establish a school-record time of 7:17.55 in a third-place finish at the Drake Relays.

Last spring, the 4x800 team turned heads again. Davis, Pike, Nick Devenport and Thompson combined for a meet-record time of 7:25.40 at the 74th annual Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays. The 4x1,500-meter team also turned in a good performance at the Texas Relays. Ferenc Bekesi, Capron, Matt Chance and Devenport ran a school-record time of 15:40.08 to place fourth. That foursome teamed up again at the Drake Relays, placing fourth in the 4x1-mile relay at 16:47.79.

However, the crowning moment of the Baylor distance program came at the 2001 NCAA Championships. There, Floyd Thompson turned in a fifth-place time of 1:47.77 in the 800 meters. Thompson also claimed the 800 title at the Big 12 Championships, the Cardinal Invitational, the Michael Johnson Classic and the Tellez Invitational, and he placed second at the Drake Relays.

On the women’s side, Lanie Millar emerged as one of the top half-milers in the Big 12. After finishing fourth in the event at the indoor conference meet, Millar second at the outdoor championships. Along with four first-place finishes in the 800, Millar established a school-record time of 2:06.66 at the Cardinal Invitational.

During the 2001 indoor season, Harbour guided Baylor to strong finishes in several events. Most noteable was the school-record performance of the distance medley relay team at the Tyson Invitationl. Devenport, Michael Smith, Davis and Bekesi turned in a third-place clocking of 9:43.10, more than 11 seconds faster than the previous mark set just eight months earlier. Devenport, Thompson, Davis and Bekesi also combined for a meet-record and first-place time of 9:57.36 at the Southwest Indoor Classic.

One of Baylor’s most legendary track athletes, Harbour holds the school mark in the 1,500 meters and the mile. He remains the collegiate world record holder in the mile more than two decades after he established his time of 3:50.34.

During his collegiate days, Harbour was the Southwest Conference Champion in the 1,500 meters in 1978, 1979, 1980 and 1981. He claimed the NCAA 1,500-meter runner-up title in 1979, 1980, 1981, the only athlete to ever win three consecutive runner-up titles in that event. Harbour won the silver medal at the Pan Am games in 1979 and was ranked ninth in the world in the 1,500 meters in 1982.

After graduating from Baylor, Harbour ran professionally for Nike and was one of the top milers in the world. In 1985, Harbour headed to Riesel, Texas, where he found another profession that would eventually lead him to Baylor.

Harbour began teaching history at Class 2A Riesel High School, then found himself coaching the junior track and field teams. From there he became involved with the varsity football program and eventually ended up as the head football coach and athletic director.

His success at Riesel included numerous district and regional championships in football and track and field. His track and field teams claimed district championships from 1987-90 and 1993-97 and produced Regional championships in 1988, 1989 and 1994. Harbour coached eight individuals state champions in track and field and led his cross country teams to a regional championship and a state runner-up position. Harbour was the 1995-96 chairman of the track advisory committee for the Texas High School Coaches Association.

Harbour’s varsity football teams compiled a 51-24-4 record and advanced to the Bi-district playoffs four times, and the area playoffs once in his in his six years at the helm. Those accomplishments earned him District 16A Coach of the Year, Central Texas Coach of the Year, District 14A Coach of the Year and Lay Witness for Christ Ministry Coach of the Year honors.

Harbour and his wife Cindy have three boys, Jonathan, 19, Stephen 17, and Aaron 13. Jonathan is a redshirt-freshman on this season’s team.