Portland State University Athletics

Stephanie Ross joined the Portland State cross country and track & field coaching staffs as a volunteer assistant in August 2019, and will serve her second year with the Vikings during the 2020-21 school year.

Ross joined the Viking program in their second year since shifting to a distance-events focus, and helped led the Vikings to one of the program's best cross country seasons in the fall of 2019. The Viking men set a program-best finish at the Big Sky Championships, finishing seventh out of 11 teams. The Viking men also placed three runners in the top 100 of the NCAA West Regional for only the second time in program history.

Tom Richardson led the Viking men with a 54th-place finish at the NCAA West Regional, the third-best individual finish ever by a Viking at the meet. Richardson's time of 31:00.2 also marked the second-best ever by a Viking in the cross country 10k. Josh Snyder and Max Norman joined Richardson in the top 100 at 95th and 96th, respectively. Norman became only the second Viking men's runner to place in the top 100 in back-to-back years, joining one of the program's all-time greats in Michael Devenport.

All that amounted to a 20th-place team finish for the Viking men, the first time they've placed in the top 20 of the NCAA West Regional since 2003. The Vikings were a bit unlucky to not finish even higher, as only 46 points separated the Vikings from the 13th-place team at the meet.

The Viking women, meanwhile, placed two runners in the top 75 at the NCAA West Regional for the second straight season. Hunter Storm and Delaney White led the Viking women at 70th and 72nd overall, respectively. Storm led the Vikings at every meet during the season, and moved into the all-time top five in the cross country 4k and 6k. Storm came within 3.3 seconds of the school record in the 6k while finishing in 20:51.4 at the Bronco Invitational.
 
Ross is making her collegiate coaching debut at Portland State, though she’s remained closely tied to the track & field and sports worlds while working for apparel companies Columbia Sportswear and Nike since 2012.
 
A native of Burleson, Texas, Ross competed in track & field for Texas Tech from 2004-07, graduating with a degree in advertising from the school in 2008. Injuries cut Ross’ collegiate running career short, but Ross says that disappointment is what’s motivated her to become a collegiate coach.
 
The injuries forced Ross to find new ways to combine her love for running with her professional life. Ross has worked as a freelance writer / online media producer since 2007, covering both collegiate track & field events as well as professional marathon and road races for various publications. Ross’ past client list as a freelancer includes NBC, ESPN, Pac-12 Network, the NCAA, USA Track & Field, Flotrack.org, RunnerSpace.com, LetsRun.com, among others.
 
Ross moved to the Portland area in 2012, when she started a job at AA Sports Ltd as a Marketing Assistant/Office Manager. Ross moved to Columbia Sportswear later that year, where she worked as an E-Commerce Customer Service Representative II for the Columbia, SOREL, Mountain Hardwear and Montrail brands.
 
Ross worked at Columbia until May of 2016, when she started a new job at Nike as a Technical Designer for Global Digital Commerce. At Nike, Ross has helped with campaigns surrounding the 2016 Summer Olympics, Air Max Day and the Breaking2 effort. Ross has also managed content for Nike.com, the Nike+ App and Launch Calendar to enhance the design and online retail experience.
 
Since September 2018, Ross has also coached as a volunteer assistant for the Nike Bowerman Track Club Youth program. Additionally, Ross was a coach for the Mountain Home High School and Middle Schools in Mountain Home, Idaho, in 2010.