Todd Witzleben - Associate Head Coach, Men's Distance - Cross Country Coaches

Todd Witzleben

Title:
Associate Head Coach, Men's Distance
Email:
toddwitz@buffalo.edu
Phone:
716-645-6320

Todd Witzleben enters his 15th year as the Buffalo men's cross country, middle distance and distance coach in 2024 – 2025 year. He was elevated to Associate Head Coach for the 2013 cross country season.

The 2022 – 2023 season saw several new school record set under the direction of Witzleben. Indoors, Evan Hilbert smashed the 1-Mile School record in a time of 4:05.78, while Ryan Buzby edged out the 5000m school record by two seconds, running 14:18.60. Additional Top-10 All-Time marks were set in the 600m, 1000m, Mile and 3000m during the indoor season. In the 2023 outdoor season, Buzby again set a new record in the 5000m, running 14:03.84, taking 10 seconds off the previous record set by Ben Cardamone. Evan Hilbert also set a school record in the 1500m running 3:42.64 while winning the prestigious Bucknell Bison Open 1500m race. Buzby also earned All-MAC Honors in the 2022 Cross Country Season with his impressive 5^th place finish in a time of 23:48 for the 8k distance. The Men’s Cross Country Team earned All-USTFCCCA Academic Team Honors as well.

In 13 seasons as the men's cross country coach, 17 athletes have earned All-MAC honors. The Bulls had their best finish as a program in 2011, 2016, 2019, and 2020 placing third at the MAC Championships. UB has claimed a program-best seventh-place finish at the NCAA Northeast Regional twice (2011 and 2018). Top individual accomplishments include Zach Ahart’s MAC Championship in 2013 and Caleb Covell’s runner-up performance in 2019. In 2018, both Covell and Liam Hilbert earned All-Region Honors at the NCAA Northeast Regional hosted by Buffalo.

Coach Witzleben’s middle distance program has produced some of the top 800m talent in the Northeast Region including four different athletes that have broken 1:50 in the 800m. Leon Atkins raised the profile of Buffalo’s middle distance program in 2019 when he became the first men’s distance runner to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Final Championship. He earned Second Team All-America honors by placing 16^th in the nation.

2017 was a banner year for the men’s distance program. Under Witzleben’s direction, the middle distance squad of Crimmins, Scheving, Kaiser, and Meehan placed 6^th in the 4x800 at the Penn Relays Championship of America establishing an impressive record of 7:23.00. Buffalo also placed 7^th at Penn in the DMR with a record 9:35.72. Craig Kaiser won the 2017 Indoor MAC Championship in the 800. Tyler Scheving set a new school record in the 800 with a 1:48.37 and won the 2017 Outdoor MAC Championship in the 800m. Brian Crimmins qualified for the NCAA Regional in both the 800 and 1500. Barrett Kemp set records in the indoor 5000 (14:20.01) and the outdoor 10,000 (29:48.24). The distance squad scored a record 27 points at the Outdoor MAC Championship to help the team place 3^rd as a team.

Witzleben led the men's team to a third place finish at the MAC Championships in 2016. Barrett Kemp raced to a seventh place earning first team All-MAC honors. The Bulls had their best race of the season at the NCAA Northeast Regional where they placed 8^th and had all five scorers in the top 80.

The 2016 track season was highlighted by Brian Crimmins who established an impressive school record of 3:42.66 in the 1500 during the outdoor season. Indoors, Crimmins ran the #3 time in the NCAA in the 1000m with a school record of 2:22.74. That time ranked him #10 in the USA in 2016.

During the 2015 season, Witzleben's Bulls clocked five new school records. Scheving recorded two indoors (800 & 1,000) and Brian Crimmins accounted for a pair outdoors (800 & 1,500). The duo was joined by Cameron Bruce and Trayvon Mask in winning the indoor DMR at the conference championships.

The men's track & field team set nine school records in the distance events during 2014. The team scored 16 points in the distance events at the Outdoor MAC Championships. Tyler Scheving qualified for the NCAA Championships, Round 1 in the 800-meter run and the DMR established a new school record while winning the event at the Indoor MAC Championships.

Under Witzleben's direction, Zack Ahart became the first men's cross country runner in UB program history to win an individual MAC Championship in 2013.

In 2013, Crimmins set a school record in the indoor 1,000. His time of 2:24.16 was the 14th-best time in the NCAA and the 22nd-best by an American that season. Later that year, Scheving set the 800 school record clocking a time of 1:50.32. He went on to place seventh at the USATF Junior National Championships.

In 2011, Witzleben coached Ryan Bloom to a MAC title in the steeplechase. He also guided UB to a runner-up finish in the DMR and John Inzina to a second-place finish in the 3,000.

Witzleben was an assistant coach at his alma mater, La Salle, from 2007-10 assisting with the distance runners. He coached Sean Quigley to a third-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the 5,000. Quigley went on to run a 28:03 10K, the seventh-fastest time by an American in NCAA history. In 2010, La Salle set a school record of 7:23 in the 4x800 relay. He also worked with Rachel Papin as she ran 33:15 in the 10,000.

In 2006-07, Witzleben served as the head cross country and distance coach at Temple, helping to rebuild the distance program after a 20-year hiatus. He got his start in collegiate coaching as a graduate assistant at The College of New Jersey. During his tenure, TCNJ had Jeff Zodda win the NCAA Division III Indoor Championships in the 800, while at the outdoor championships, Zodda earned a runner-up finish in the 800 and Brian Donovan had a second-place showing in the 10,000.

A Western New York native, Witzleben graduated from Orchard Park High School where he won the 1999 state championship in the 3,200. He twice qualified for the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships while competing in cross country and track & field at LaSalle University and won six individual Atlantic-10 Conference titles. He was also a four-time Academic All-American and was named the 2003 La Salle University Student-Athlete of the Year. Witzleben was a 2010 inductee into La Salle's Hall of Athletes.

As professional runner, Witzleben was sponsored by Nike Team Run LA. He starred in Nike's Run Barefoot "Chariots of Fire" commercial and placed seventh at the 2005 Freescale Austin Marathon in 2:21.23.

Todd earned his Bachelor's and MBA degrees in business administration from LaSalle. As an expert of middle distance training, Todd was invited to speak at the 2020 Virtual T&F Coaches Clinic with a topic called “Lessons from the Greats”. He and his wife, Megan, reside in Williamsville with their sons, Charlie and Miles, and their dog, Abby.