Colgate Vice President and Director of Athletics Dr. Nicki Moore tabbed veteran track and field professional Harlis Meaders as Director of Track & Field and Cross Country.
Meaders initially served as a special assistant and interim director beginning in November 2019. He was named to the director's position in July 2020.
“As a former track and field student-athlete, I know it’s a beautiful and an important sport,” Moore said. “It brings people together from all backgrounds and has such a diversity of events, talent and people. It affords the opportunity for individuals to excel at the highest level, and to also be a part of a team, striving for excellence.”
Moore chose Meaders when she was faced with the dilemma of losing her previous head coach at an unusual time in the academic calendar.
“I reached out to Coach Meaders, a former colleague whose insight I valued. I thought, , maybe in the back of my mind, I might be able to convince him to come and lead our program at least on an interim basis,” Moore said. “And sure enough, we managed to work through the details and he agreed to come and provide that leadership, even though this was quite a different type of institution than he had been a part of before in quite a different region of the country.”
“We needed stability and we needed someone who I knew could lead in all kinds of situations, someone who I knew I could trust implicitly. And so the coach who we are announcing today has been with us actually since last fall.”
Moore calls Meaders incredibly experienced, having served at four different universities. He has graduated top scholar-athletes throughout his career and coached 57 NCAA All-Americans while also serving on the USA coaching staff at the World University Games.
“This coach knows how to coach; he knows how to lead,” Moore said. “He knows how to care about student-athletes. He embodies our virtues of thoughtful, driven, cohesive, enthusiastic and bold. I am thrilled to announce him as our new director and head coach of track and field and cross-country.”
At Colgate
Despite the abbreviated season, both track & field teams saw success in the 2020-21 campaign. The women’s track & field team saw two Academic All-League honors, four broken school records and the most points at the Patriot League Outdoor Championships since the 2014-15 season. The Raiders’ season was highlighted by strong second-place finishes at the Colgate Invitational and Patriot League Pod Meet. Two athletes on the women’s team also represented Colgate at the ECAC/IC4A Championships.
On the men’s side, the team earned an Athlete of the Week honor from the Patriot League while having a successful outdoor season as the Raiders placed ninth at the Patriot League Outdoor Championships. Colgate also notched two second-place finishes at both the Colgate Invitational and the Patriot League Pod Meet.
Meaders in his first season, along with his staff, helped Warren Carter to a record-setting senior year. On his way to Colgate Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors, Carter lowered the program record in the 60-meter hurdles several times during indoor season.
The senior captain went on to finish second at the Patriot League Championships, marking Colgate's highest finish in any event since 2013.
Meaders now earns the chance to continue building the Colgate programs.
“This is the accumulation of over 20 years of being in the sport and having the opportunity to work at fantastic universities under exceptional leadership,” Meaders said. “Nicki’s leadership and the leadership of President Casey were two of the reasons I really chose to return to Colgate. It is a fantastic institution, and I've really grown to love the village and love the kids that make up the student body.”
Meaders called his Colgate student-athletes exceptionally talented, driven and motivated to represent the university at the highest level. He also expects them to help elevate the cross-country and track and field programs.
“I truly believe Colgate University has the structure to be an exceptional track and field program, that we can compete at the highest level,” Meaders said. “That's going to take the continued support of our president, the department and our alumni.
“I'm excited to meet the alumni and excited to get back to Hamilton and embrace our kids as soon as it's safe to do so. I'm also excited to lend my voice in any way that I can supporting the university as we go through meeting the challenges that we have, whether that's coronavirus or the social things that are going on in this community and in our nation.”
Tradition of Coaching Excellence
Meaders (pronounced MED-ers) arrived at Colgate last October after seven years as head coach and director of track and field and cross country at the University of North Carolina. In 28 years of collegiate coaching, Meaders has coached 57 All-Americans, 49 ACC Individual Champions, three NCAA Individual Champions, an Olympian and a Rhodes Scholar. He has been a part of 17 league championship teams and three NCAA championship teams in his coaching career.
Meaders returned to coach at his alma mater, UNC, in 2012 after an 18-year stint at Florida State. While with the Seminoles, Meaders rose to the program's associate head coach in 2004 while coaching the throwers and coordinating recruiting operations.
Among Meaders' coaching awards through the years are 2019 USATF World University Games Throws Coach, 2014 Southeast Coach of the Year and 2005 Regional Assistant Coach of the Year. He was an integral part of the coaching staffs for NCAA championship teams in 2006, 2007 and 2008, and contributed to 16 ACC title-winning teams.
Meaders is a 1992 UNC graduate in speech communications who competed in the discus, shot put and 35-pound weight throw. He won back-to-back ACC outdoor titles in the discus in 1991 and 1992 as well as an indoor conference crown in the weight throw in 1992.
Meaders was a high school All-American who became an NCAA and Olympic Trials qualifier with the Tar Heels. He set the school record in discus with a throw of 186-10 (56.95 meters), a mark that stood for 23 years and now ranks second on the UNC all-time list. Meaders also was a captain on the 1992 track and field team that won the ACC outdoor title.
The Monroe, North Carolina, native began his coaching career at Western Carolina, where he spent three years as an assistant coach and earned his master's degree in physical education. While in Cullowhee, Meaders also instructed courses in the physical education department. He coached several Western Carolina track and field athletes to multiple Southern Conference individual titles.
2011 & 2012 National Program of the Year
During his 18 years at Florida State, Meaders helped the Seminoles win the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association’s NCAA Division I Men’s Program of the Year Award in 2011 and 2012. As the throws coach, Meaders guided 11 different Florida State throwers to 22 All-America honors and 22 ACC titles.
The male and female athletes he coached established more than three-quarters of the top-10 school bests in the discus, javelin, shot put and weight throws during his tenure.
In 2005, Meaders was named the East Regional Assistant Coach of the Year for his success with the Seminoles throwing corps.
Meaders also coached two-time NCAA champion Garrett Johnson, who is widely considered the greatest student-athlete in Florida State history. In the fall of 2005, Johnson was honored as the second Rhodes Scholar in school history as well as the first student-athlete.
In the spring of 2005, Johnson claimed NCAA indoor and outdoor titles in the shot put for the first Seminoles national championships in that event. Johnson also set school, conference and NCAA East Regional records that year and went on to compete in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials, rising to 14th in the world.
Erin Simmons was a Rhodes Scholarship Finalist under Meaders, and Dorian Scott was a 2008 and 2012 Olympian in the shot put and a two-time Commonwealth Games Silver Medalist.
Meaders and his wife, Judith, are the parents of sons Ryan and Jeremy, along with many of the kids he has coached over the years who he considers a part of his family.
