Kyle Chandler enters his seventh year in helping lead the Southern Virginia University Cross Country and Track and Field teams. Since his arrival, the Knights have amassed 20 team conference championships and produced 11 National Qualifiers including four All-American performers.
Working diligently with the coaching staff and admissions team, the combined men’s and women’s programs have tripled in the number of team members. This growth has helped propel both teams from meager beginnings to becoming competitive in each event area. Individual conference championships have been won by student-athletes in every event area - XC, Throws, Jumps, Hurdles, Sprints, and Distance with record books rewritten countless times – and several of these SAs earned athlete of the week and/or conference performance of the year awards.
In XC, Chandler has coached the individual conference champion for men (Kaelen Ruder, 2024; Dylan May, 2023, 2022, 2021; Michael Myers, 2019) and women (Jill Westman, 2019) and Rookie of the Year (Carter Johnson / Will Collett, 2022; Dylan May, 2021 and Bayleigh Redd, 2021). At the Regional Championships, May (three times), Myers and Ruder punched their tickets for the XC National Championships.Â
While Redd just missed qualifying for 2021 Nationals in XC, she won the indoor Mile, 3K, and 5K individual championships and went on to become the first Outdoor T&F National Qualifier (3K steeplechase) in program history. Chandler guided Heidi Barton-May to an historic 2025 outdoor campaign where Barton-May won the 1500m and 800m Conference crowns. Her 800m school record time of 2:09.45 was the top mark in the NCAA DIII South Region propelling her to the Outdoor T&F National Championship; joining Murray Bingham, who was the first Indoor T&F National Qualifier and NCAA DIII All-American (2019-20 800m, 1:51.89) in program history.
In five XC, Indoor and Outdoor seasons, Chandler has directly coached:
- XC: 34 running performances (20 men and 14 women) to Top 10 Conference XC finishes including 6 individual champions (Westman, Myers, May 3xs, Ruder) and three Rookies of the Year (Redd, May &Â Johnson/Collett);
- Indoor: 49 running performances (27 men and 22 women) with 9 DMR (5 men and 4 women) relays to Top 3 Indoor Conference T&F finishes including 19 (11 men and 8 women) event champions including 14 Conference meet records; and
- Outdoor: 40 running performances (23 men and 17 women) to Top 3 Outdoor Conference T&F finishes including 14 (8 men and 6 women) event champions including 3 Conference meet records;
For Track & Field the past four years the Knights Coaching Staff helped:
- Indoor: 125 individual performances (62 men and 63 women) in every event area with 13 relays (7 men and 6 women) achieve Top 3 Conference finishes including 41 event champions (21 men and 20 women) and 34 Conference meet records; and
- Outdoor: 141 individual performances (72 men and 69 women) in every event area with 11 relays (5 men and 6 women) achieve Top 3 Conference finishes including 54 event champions (26 men and 28 women) and 13 Conference meet records.
Academically, the XC and T&F SAs and the program as a whole consistently earn high marks through earning United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-Academic honors by virtue of their top athletic performances and having a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.30 on a 4.0 scale. Dozens of XC/T&F SAs have chosen to serve missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and are supported by the coaching staff through appropriate
communications while serving the people in the areas to which they are assigned.
Chandler joined Southern Virginia after a decade coaching at the NCAA Division I level as the Head XC/Assistant Track & Field coach at Arkansas State University (Sun Belt Conference) and volunteer assistant XC/Track & Field coach at Washington State University (Pac-12 Conference). Chandler earned XC Coach of the Year honors during his tenure at Arkansas State and helped guide the program’s first-ever women’s XC SBC Championship with nine consecutive top-15 rankings in the NCAA Division I South Central Region.
On the track the athletes he coached earned 188 Conference Championships, All-Conference Honors, and National Championship Qualifiers, including an SBC record champion. He has consulted/coached two post-collegiate runners to two U.S. Olympic Trials and one Canadian National Championship. Prior to coaching collegiately, Chandler headed the XC and Track & Field programs at Mountain View HS in Loveland, CO. With Mountain View his teams tallied four team state XC and Track & Field championships - including two nationally-ranked teams - and he was named All-Classification Coach of the Year by the Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News and the Colorado High School Coaches Association (CHSCA) on five occasions, in addition to ten conference and Sason Sharify Young Coach of the Year Awards.
Chandler is a USATF Level 2 Endurance and Level 2 Sprints/Hurdles/Relays registered coach, earned his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado–Boulder, and was an NAIA Scholar-Athlete All-American at Midland University. He served a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in St. Louis, Missouri. He and his wife, Jamie, have eight children.
