Emory Names Jordan Schilit Cross Country/Track & Field Assistant Coach

Emory Names Jordan Schilit Cross Country/Track & Field Assistant Coach

Emory University Head Cross Country and Track and Field Coach John Curtin has announced the appointment of Jordan Schilit as assistant coach for the cross country and track and field programs.

Schilit comes to Emory after a three-year stint as an assistant coach at Middlebury College.  While at Middlebury, Schilit worked mostly with the distance runners and coached over 30 NCAA All-Americans.  He helped guide the men’s distance program to the NCAA Division III national record in the Distance Medley Relay (DMR) of 9:46.95, as well as the first NESCAC team track championship in school history.  Both the men’s and women’s cross country squads qualified for nationals each year. Schilit was heavily involved in recruiting, designing training plans, directing home meets, and coordinating operations work for the program. He was the New England representative for Men’s Cross Country on the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division III Executive Committee. In addition, he was the Head Coach for Team USA Junior Track & Field at the 20th World Maccabiah Games in Israel.

Prior to Middlebury, Schilit was an assistant coach with “Team Run Eugene”, a semi-professional club based in Oregon.  Several of TRE's athletes qualified for global championships (including the Olympics and IAAF World Championships) and many of the athletes competed at the USATF Outdoor Track & Field championships and U.S. Olympic Trials. In addition, Schilit had the opportunity to travel with athletes on that team to international competitions such as the Southeast Asia Games held in Singapore. Schilit competed professionally as a distance runner for the prestigious Nike Oregon Track Club Elite – also based in Eugene, Oregon. Before heading west, he competed at the 19th World Maccabiah Games in Israel.

“Coach Schilit was a great hire for our program," said Curtin. "We had a lot of interest in the position but Jordan showed me he just wanted it more.  He is a proven winner as an athlete and as a coach.  He has hit the ground running since arriving on campus and I and all the distance guys are excited about working with him.”

Schilit graduated from Haverford College in 2013 where he was a six-time NCAA Division III All-American in both cross country and track & field. He was the NCAA runner-up at the 1,500-meter and 5,000-meter runs, and was voted as the Mideast Region top track performer three times by the USTFCCCA. He won seven Centennial Conference championships as an individual, and is the only person in conference history to win all three distance events at the outdoor conference meet in the same year (1,500m, 5,000m, and 10,000m).  

Schilit's name is sprinkled throughout the record books at Haverford. He holds both the program and conference record in the 5,000m (13:59.21), which is currently ranked in the top-10 all-time in Division III.  His indoor personal record (14:12.77) was on the top-10 all-time list for Division III while he was in college.  In 2010, Schilit helped Haverford
to the D-III title in cross country, the school’s first-ever NCAA team championship, and was on the 2011 and 2012 squads that finished runner-up at nationals.

Schilit was a scorer at nationals all three of those years. He’s the only runner in Haverford history to score on three teams that all placed in the top-two spots at the cross country national championship. Schilit was also part of Haverford's NCAA Scholar Team of the Year.

A native of Tampa, Florida, he graduated from Tampa Jesuit High School in 2009, where he was a state champion and school-record holder in the 4x800m Relay.

Schilit currently holds a United States of America Track & Field (USATF) Level 1 coaching certification.