Cross Country
- Title:
- Assistant Track & Field Coach- Head Cross Country Coach
James Croft is in his fifth season at Kent State. He joined the track & field / cross country program as an assistant coach on September 27, 2019. Croft serves as head coach for the men’s and women’s cross country teams, and works with the middle and long distance student-athletes during the indoor and outdoor track & field seasons.
The Golden Flashes’ men’s team saw their return to the Great Lakes regional ranking in XC, reaching as high as 12th during the regular season. Sophomore’s Baidy Ba and Joe Farley finished in the top 10 at MAC aiding the men to a 5th place finish, the women repeated their performance from 2021 finishing 8th. Ba went on to finish 7th at the Great Lakes Regional running the fastest 10k in Kent State history. He qualified for the NCAA Championships, the first Golden Flash to do so since 2012. He finished 126th in the nation.
On the track, records continued to fall as Ba broke the two oldest records on the boards; held by Hall of Famer Sam Bair. Ba becoming the first Golden Flash to break four minutes in the mile indoors, running 3:59.4 and 3:40.8 outdoors in the 1500m. Ba also ran an indoor 5000m school record with a 13:58.49. At Indoor MAC the men won their first DMR title in school history, and Freshman stand-out Karsyn Spears took third in the women’s 800m. Outdoors Karsyn would better her indoor placing with a runner-up finish in a lifetime PR.
The 2021-22 year saw Kent State’s first Mid-American Conference Freshman of the Year award in cross country, as Baidy Ba placed 17th at the conference meet. Drew Johnson raced to All-MAC Second Team honors for the second straight year by finishing 11th. The women’s team had its best MAC performance since 2014, finishing eighth. Individually, Stephanie Ward posted the highest finish for a Golden Flash at the MAC (17th) and NCAA Great Lakes Regional (71st) meets since 2015.
On the track, both distance squads contributed to 14 top-10 school performances, highlighted by Nick Stricklen’s outdoor 5,000m school record of 14:06.57. Led by two runner-up finishes from Stricklen, the distance men contributed 32 points towards Kent State’s first men’s MAC outdoor championship since 2004.
In the shortened 2020 cross country season, Croft coached Alex Stamper to fifth place at the MAC Cross Country Championships. Drew Johnson also ran to a 13th place finish, giving the Golden Flashes multiple All-MAC runners for the first time since 2011.
Croft joined the Golden Flashes after four years on staff at the University of Texas. The Longhorns men and women teams combined for six NCAA Cross Country Championships berths during his time in Austin. Croft was a part of ten Big 12 Track and Field Championship teams, never finishing worse than runner-up.
A native of Central Point, Oregon. Croft received a bachelor's degree in biology from Western Oregon University in 2014. He and his wife Brooke reside in Lyndhurst
