Cross Country
- Title:
- Director of Track and Field and Cross Country
- Email:
- nfanger@kent.edu
- Phone:
- 330-672-2546
Long regarded as one of the top throws coaches in the country, Kent State graduate Nathan Fanger ’00 was named Director of Track/Field and Cross Country in July 2022.
Fanger has been part of the program since arriving to campus as a student-athlete in Fall 1996. He joined the coaching staff immediately after an outstanding four-year career and was promoted to associate head coach in 2015. Fanger has helped the Flashes capture 16 Mid-American Conference team championships during his time on the coaching staff and has twice been named U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Great Lakes Region Assistant Coach of the Year.
With the Kent State program already widely regarded for success in those events, Fanger has taken the team to new heights during his tenure on the coaching staff. Under his guidance, 82 throwers have won MAC championships, 89 have qualified for NCAA Regional meets, 63 have qualified for the NCAA Championships and 34 have earned All-America status.
Fanger has trained several Flashes who have gone on to success at the international level. Most recently, Danniel Thomas-Dodd placed fourth in shot put at the 2017 IAAF World Championships in London while representing Jamaica. Just two months earlier, Thomas-Dodd won a national championship in the event at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. At that same meet, Reggie Jagers III led the men's discus heading into the competition's final round of throws with a school-record heave of 205'-1" and finished as runner-up. Matthias Tayala, who also claimed a NCAA national title under Fanger’s guidance, placed sixth at the 2016 U.S Olympic Trials. Kent State softball-standout-turned-javelin thrower Kim Hamilton competed at the U.S. Olympic trials in 2012 and 2016.
Following the 2014 indoor season, Coach Fanger was named the Great Lakes Regional Women’s Indoor Assistant Coach of the Year by the United States Track and Field/Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). Under the direction of coach Fanger in the 2013-14 season, the Golden Flashes’ throwers had six school records broke, four indoor and outdoor National Qualifiers with a NCAA Runner-Up in women’s discus and a NCAA National Champion in the men’s hammer throw.
Fanger directed Matthias Tayala to a National title in the men’s hammer throw at the NCAA Outdoor National Championships in May, where he reset his own hammer throw school record to 241’ 4”. Fanger guided Danniel Thomas-Dodd to a second place in the women’s discus at the outdoor championships in Eugene, Oregon.
In Fanger’s time here at Kent State as a coach, since 2001, he has directed 40 females to the Kent State Top-10 All-Time Top Performers List including the school records in four-of-six events while he has coached 28 males to the Kent State Top-10 All-Time Top Performers List including school records in four-of-six events. Fanger still holds the school record in the men’s outdoor discus with a mark set in 2000 at 194’ 3”.
In 2010-11, for the sixth time in his coaching career, Fanger guided both a men’s and women’s student-athlete to the NCAA Championships. The result was an All-American honoree in the women’s hammer throw, the sixth of Fanger’s coaching career.
The 2009 season was one for the history books for Fanger, as five athletes captured conference titles with his assistance. That year, Fanger coached five athletes to conference championships, including former softball standout Kim Hamilton in the javelin. Hamilton had only nine months of training under her belt when she finished fifth in the javelin to earn All-American accolades at the 2009 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Since his arrival on the Kent State campus, Fanger has aided the Golden Flashes in capturing 17 MAC team championships, including the 2000 men’s outdoor title as a student-athlete.
Fanger, a 2000 graduate of Kent State, was a standout athlete for the Golden Flashes in his own right. He is the only four-time discus champion in MAC history and is one of three Kent State athletes to have won an individual event at the MAC championships in each of their four years. Twice he qualified for the NCAA championships in the discus and he holds the Kent State school record in the event with a throw of 194'-3."
A native of Kalispell, Montana, Fanger graduated from Kent State in Dec. 2000 with a degree in education and resides in Brimfield with his wife, Lori. The couple are the proud parents to sons Jonathan and Adam, and daughter, Savannah.
Fanger by the Numbers
• 26 seasons at Kent State
• 16 MAC championships
• 2 USTFCCCA Great Lakes Region Assistant Coach of the Year awards
• 1 MAC Assistant Coach of the Year award
• 2 individual NCAA Champions
• 5 individual NCAA runners-up
• 34 All-Americans
• 63 NCAA Championships qualifiers
• 82 individual MAC Champions
