Jay Stephenson Position: Head Coach Experience: 4th year

Coach Jay Stephenson enters his fourth year as Shorter College head cross country coach, and also serves as the middle distance and distance coach for Shorter's track team.

Stephenson was named the Southern States Athletic Conference cross country coach of the year in 2007 and 2008. He is a USATF certified level 1 track and field coach.

During the past three seasons, the men's cross country team has experienced increasing success culminating in a 13th place finish at 2008 Cross Country Nationals. At the meet, two athletes earned All-American status. On the women's side, Justyna Mudy placed 3rd (5k - 17:06) and on the men's side, Jared Carson placed 24th (8k - 25:06).

At the 2009 Outdoor Track and Field Nationals meet, the men's team placed 5th and the women's team placed 7th. The men's and women's track and field team has had 30 All-Americans in the short history of the program.

At the 2009 Track and Field Championships, Stephenson led freshman Justyna Mudy to a 1st place finish in the 3,000m steeple chase. Her time of 10:12.31 was a new NAIA record and the performance earned the honor of Women's Most Outstanding Performance. Stephenson also led seniors Martin Hernandez and Jared Carson to All-America status in the marathon and 10k, respectively.

Stephenson coached the men's cross country team to back-to-back SSAC championships in 2007 and 2008 where they scored a perfect 15 points. In 2008, the women's team came in 2nd by only 2 points.

The men's track and field team also won back-to-back Mid-South Conference titles in 2008 and 2009. The women's team won the Mid-South Conference title in 2009. The combined men's and women's teams had 25 individual wins in 2009 and 21 individual wins in 2008.

Stephenson also had four Academic All-Conference athletes and one Daktronics NAIA Scholar-Athlete in 2008-2009.

In 2008, Stephenson completed his Masters of Science in Exercise Science from Georgia State University. While pursuing his post-graduate studies, he was the graduate assistant for the Berry College cross country team. He also holds a Bachelor's of Science in Sports Marketing from Berry College.

As an athlete, Stephenson was a three time All-American at Berry College, twice in the 3000m steeplechase and once in cross country. Stephenson holds personal bests of 14:18 for 5k, 29:43 for 10k, 8:53 for the 3k steeplechase and 4:12 for the mile. In 2005, Stephenson was the USATF Club Track and Field National Champion in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.