Portland State University Athletics

2004 Olympian and American record holder in the mile and high school mile, Alan Webb returned to the Park Blocks as a volunteer assistant coach ahead of the 2018-19 academic year. Webb has a strong tie to the Park Blocks, as he also served as a volunteer assistant for the Portland State cross country team during the fall of 2013, and completed his Bachelor’s degree in economics at Portland State in 2016.

Webb has made an instant impact on the Park Blocks since re-joining the Vikings' coaching staff. Taking a direct role in the Viking middle-distance runners, Webb led freshman Chase Lovercheck to a surprise third-place finish in the men's 800 meters at the Big Sky Outdoor Championships.

Lovercheck ran the finals of the 800 meters in 1:50.92, four seconds faster than his personal best in the 800 coming into the Big Sky meet. Lovercheck's time was the best by a Viking freshman in the past 16 years by more than a second.

Luke Ramirez also set the best time by a Viking freshman in the men's 1,500 meters while running the prelims of the 1,500 meters in 3:56.26 at the Big Sky Outdoor Championships.

Webb also assisted the general distance group at Portland State, which saw Sarah Medved repeat as Big Sky champion in the steeplechase and qualify for her second straight NCAA West Prelims in the event.

Kaila Gibson joined Medved at the 2019 NCAA West Prelims after she qualified in the women's 10,000 meters. Gibson qualified after running the 10k in 34:12.51 at the Stanford Invitational, a time that marked a 70-second personal best for Gibson and moved her up third all time in the outdoor 10k at Portland State.

In the fall, Webb helped lead the Vikings to their best cross country season in program history in 2018. The Viking women tied their highest team finish ever at the Big Sky meet with a fifth-place finish, after being picked to finish in a tie for ninth. Additionally, the Vikings' fifth-place finish came in the 11-team Big Sky Conference, making it the Vikings' best finish ever within the conference relative to the size of the field. The Viking women followed it up with a 15th-place finish at the NCAA West Regional, their highest finish at the meet since they placed 11th in 2002.

Medved and Gibson led the Viking women to their historic performances throughout the year, as they traded off going first and second all season. Medved and Gibson became the first Viking teammates – male or female – to place in the top 40 together at the NCAA West Regional, just under two weeks after they became the first Viking teammates to place in the top 10 together at the Big Sky Conference meet. The Vikings had never had two runners place in the top 50 of the NCAA West Regional before Medved and Gibson, let alone the top 40.

Medved led the Vikings with a 39th-place finish at the NCAA West Regional, the second highest finish ever by a Viking women's runner, behind only Melissa Telford's 28th-place finish in 1999. Medved broke the school record in the 6k with her finish at the NCAA West Regional meet, while Gibson also broke the previous record while finishing only three-tenths of a second behind her. Gibson broke the school record in the 4k earlier in the season.

Medved became only the second two-time All-Big Sky honoree in program history while finishing 10th at the Big Sky meet behind Gibson at ninth. Medved and Gibson finished with seven top-10 finishes between them during the season, including at the Cougar Classic where they each placed in the top five to lead the Vikings to their first-ever team win at a meet hosted by a Pac-12 school (Washington State). The Vikings upset regionally-ranked Washington State and Idaho at that meet, moving them into the USTFCCCA West Region rankings at 15th. The Vikings remained ranked 15th for three straight weeks, the longest period of time that the Vikings have ever been ranked in the poll.

The Viking men, meanwhile, recorded their second-best finish ever at the Big Sky meet relative to the size of the conference, as they placed eighth out of 11 teams after being picked to finish dead last before the season. The men also recorded their best finish at the NCAA West Regional meet since 2003 with a 21st-place finish.

Freshmen Max Norman and Drew Seidel led the Viking men to their strong finishes at both meets. Norman and Seidel placed 31st and 32nd, respectively, at the Big Sky meet, making them the Vikings' first pair of freshmen men's runners to place in the top 35 of the Big Sky meet since 2002.

Norman and Seidel also led the Vikings with 98th- and 99th-place finishes at the NCAA West Regional, making them the first freshmen teammates to place in the top 100 together at the regional meet in program history. The Viking men hadn't had two runners of any classification finish in the top 100 of the NCAA West Regional since 2003, when Michael Devenport and Blake Flanders placed 56th and 93rd overall, respectively. Norman's 98th-place finish also marked the highest finish by a first-year Viking men's runner at the regional since Devenport placed 64th overall in 2002.
 
Webb brings a wealth of experience running at a world-class level to his role at Portland State.
 
Webb announced himself as a world-class athlete in high school, when he broke Jim Ryun’s 36-year old American high school record in the mile at the 2001 Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore. Webb finished the mile in 3:53.43 to beat Ryun’s old record of 3:55.3 by nearly two full seconds. Additionally, Webb became the first American high schooler ever to crack four minutes in the indoor mile while breaking the national high school record with a time of 3:59.86 at the New Balance Games in 2001. Webb broke the American high school record in the indoor 1,500 meters in the same race, as he came through the 1,500 mark in 3:43.27.
 
Webb ran collegiately for the University of Michigan during the 2001-02 season, winning the Big Ten cross country title while also winning the Big Ten title in the outdoor 1,500 meters. Webb was a two-time All-American while at Michigan, as he placed 11th at the 2001 NCAA Cross Country Championships and fourth in the 1,500 meters at the 2002 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
 
Webb turned pro after the 2002 collegiate season, signing with Nike where he would stay until his retirement from professional running in 2014. Webb became an Olympian in 2004, when he won the 1,500 meters at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Sacramento. Webb won the U.S. title in the 1,500 meters again in 2005, and went on to make the finals of the 1,500 meters at the World Outdoor Championships in Helsinki, Finland later that year.
 
2007 marked Webb’s best season professionally, as he won his third U.S. title in the 1,500 meters and placed eighth in the finals of the event at the World Championships in Osaka, Japan. Webb broke the American record in the mile in the leadup to the World Championships at a meet in Brasschaat, Belgium on July 21, 2007. Webb set the record with his finish in 3:46.91, breaking a 25-year-old record that Steve Scott set at 3:47.69 in 1982.
 
Webb also ran a lifetime best of 3:30.54 in the 1,500 meters – the fourth-fastest time ever by an American at the time – at the IAAF Golden League meet in Paris, France on July 6, 2007.
 
Webb began his coaching career in 2003, when he was an assistant cross country coach at South Lakes High School in Reston, Va. Webb next served as a volunteer assistant for the University of Virginia cross country team in the fall of 2011, before serving in the same role for the Vikings in 2013.
 
Webb coached as a cross country assistant for Westview High School in Portland in the fall of 2015, and started as a Nike volunteer/running coach at that same time. Webb was a guest run coach for the Every Athlete *2.0 Product Test Training Program earlier in 2018, as well as a guest coach for Nike’s Marathon Kids and the WHQ Sport Center Noon Track Group. Additionally, Webb was a guest coach/speaker for the Nike Run Club in August of 2015, and was a sports marketing volunteer at the Nike Elite Camp in May of 2016.
 
In addition to coaching, Webb has been a guest speaker at several camps and clinics. Webb delivered the keynote address at the 2018 Virginia High School Track Coaches Association in 2018. Webb also addressed the California University of Pennsylvania running camp in 2016, as well as the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse cross country camp in 2014. Also in 2014, Webb presented during the distance running session of the Wisconsin Track Coaches Association Clinic.