Connecticut native Dillon Bell will enter his second season as the Head Men's and Women's Cross Country Coach this fall after being named to the position in January 2024.
After graduating from Bethel High School back in 2017, Bell would go on to compete in Cross Country for five years at Houghton University along with their Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field programs before becoming a graduate assistant coach with the programs in 2022 while pursuing his Masters in Business Administration with a focus on Non-Profit Management.
As an athlete, Bell worked his way into the top 20 on several occasions starting in 2018 at the Allegany County Classic in which he finished second with a 9:31.15 in the 3,000 Meter Run and a few days later was 3rd in the 10,000 Meter Run at the Golden Wolves Open with a 34:54.93 finish. In total that spring, Bell tallied five consecutive top 20 finishes heading into the Empire 8 Outdoor Track & Field Championships where he added two more 10th place finishes in the 5,000 and 10,000 Meter Runs.
Bell set a personal best at the Empire 8 Cross Country Championships (6K) with a time of 19:46.20 in 2021 which gave him 9th overall and was only 38 seconds off of the leader. A couple of weeks later, Bell set another personal best in the AARTFC Outdoor Track & Field Championships in the 10,000 Meter Run with a 32:44.75 which placed him seventh overall.
That same fall, Bell shattered his personal best once more in the 2021 Empire 8 Cross Country Championships which he finished 10th in with a 26:41.10 that left him only 1:02 off the pace of the leader before he went on to the NCAA Division III Niagara Region Cross Country Championships only two weeks later.
In his two years as a graduate assistant, Bell was tasked with the creation and execution of athlete training cycles as well as practices, recruitment, meet management, and budgeting for the programs.
Bell currently resides in Brookfield, Connecticut.
