The 2017-18 athletic season will be Tom Peterson’s fourth with the reigns of the La Salle men’s and women’s cross country/track programs.
Peterson guided two cross country runners to All-Conference finishes in 2016 as Kaitlin Poiesz finished 2nd for the women and Francis Ferruzzi finished 6th for the men at the A-10 Cross Country Championship in October. Ferruzzi also went on to earn All-Region honors at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regionals.
The track & field season expanded the record book as Justin Guerre set new school records in the 60m and 300m events while Stephen Lewandowski won the 1500m event at the A-10 Track & Field Championships in May. For the women, Jessica Bryant was named A-10 All-Rookie after setting new school records for the Indoor and Outdoor Triple Jump. Other school records that fell for the women were the Indoor 300m (Amber Jenkins), Indoor 60m Hurdles (Mone’t Gist), and the 4x100 Relay (Ariel Mitchell, Jessica Bryant, Desirae Osley and Amber Jenkins).
On the academic side this past year, the women’s cross country along with both the men’s and women’s track and field teams earned NCAA Academic Progress Rate Public Recognition Awards.
During the track season of 2016, Peterson coached men’s team standout Chris Sanders to a sixth place finish in the 800 meter at the NCAA Final and guided him to competition in the U.S Olympics trials for Rio in the 800 meter. Saunders captured a silver medal at the NACAC U23 Championships in El Salvador under Peterson to continue his remarkable season. Peterson coached the men’s team to a third place finish in the Atlantic 10, which was the highest finish in the program since 2008. Additionally, Peterson saw an Atlantic 10 gold in the men’s 4x800m Benjamin De Venezia, Nick Smart, Sanders and Stephen Lewandowski, who defended their title for the seventh time. Peterson saw success in DeVenezia, who was honored as the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year.
Peterson saw an eleventh place finish for the women’s team in the Atlantic 10 in 2015, where Morgan Szekely defended her A-10 title in the 1500 meter and continued on to compete in the NCAA East Preliminary Championships. Szekley was named to the Academic All-Atlantic 10 Outdoor Track Team.
In his first year as head coach, Peterson led the women’s cross country team to a second place Atlantic 10 finish and coached the A-10 individual champion in freshman Morgan Szekely. Fellow freshman Megan Connell also earned a spot on the Atlantic 10 All-Conference team thanks to her 12th place finish. Szekely went on to finish fifth at the Mid-Atlantic Regional and qualify for the NCAA Championships. Connell finished the season by finishing 11th at the 2015 USA Cross Country Championships to earn a spot on the USA team at the APA Pan American Cross Country Cup in Colombia.
On the men’s side Nico Greco finished sixth at the Atlantic 10 Cross Country Championship and earned Academic All-Conference honors. Katie Boligitz was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District 2 First Team while both the cross country teams and track and field teams were named USTFCCCA All-Academic Teams.
During the 2014-15 track season Peterson saw two individual conference champions and a relay championship. Chris Sanders defended his title as the Atlantic 10 Outdoor 800 meter champion and the 4x800 meter relay team win the crown for the sixth straight year. Szekely won the Atlantic 10 1500 meter crown. Four school records were set as Amber Jackson set the indoor long jump and triple jump school records while Szekely set the 800m time and the 4x800 women’s relay team set the indoor school record. Sanders and Szekely ended their seasons at the NCAA East Preliminary Round while Vince Perozze was named Atlantic 10 Academic All-Conference during the indoor season.
As an assistant with the Explorers, Peterson helped guide the men’s and women’s cross country programs to three Atlantic 10 Championships. In addition to the team championships; Nico Greco and Alfredo Santana won the Atlantic 10 individual crowns in 2013 and 2011 respectively. On the women’s side Michelle Capozzi and Meghan McGlinchey qualified for the NCAA Cross Country Championships in 2013 and 2012 respectively.
Prior to La Salle, Peterson served as a volunteer assistant at the University of Wisconsin. He was a member of the coaching staff which enjoyed a 2009 Big 10 championship in cross country.
Prior to his time with the Badgers, Peterson served a two-year stint at Appalachian State University from 2007-09. At ASU, Peterson competed his first year as a graduate student, then was a graduate assistant coach the following year.
As an assistant coach for both men's and women's middle distance and distance athletes, he helped the Mountaineer men to the Southern Conference cross country title in 2008. During his tenure, the Appalachian State men's track team also claimed the 2009 indoor conference championship while the women earned the 2009 outdoor conference title.
Peterson also ran collegiately at Iona College under current Wisconsin head coach Mick Byrne. While at Iona, Peterson earned All-MAAC conference honors in the 3000-meter steeplechase and won All-Southern conference honors in the same event while at Appalachian State. He was also an Iona College Academic Excellence Scholarship recipient in all four years.
A native of Centereach, N.Y., Peterson earned a Bachelor of Science in biology from Iona College in '07 and a Master of Science in exercise science from Appalachian State in '09. He is a member of the National Strength and Conditioning Association.
