The 2014-15 campaign was Jennifer Fazioli's third full year working with VMI's distance runners, and her second as the team's head cross country coach following her July 2013 promotion.
2014-15 saw the Keydet men's cross country team finish third at the SoCon Championships, paced by a 10th-place finish by junior Avery Martin. The Keydets also earned their third regional ranking ever during the year, and the first under Fazioli, as well as winning back to back meets at George Mason and Western Carolina. On the women's side, Hannah Dickinson entered the program's all-time top-10 5K listing and also earned a SoCon Postgraduate Scholarship.
During the 2013-14 campaign, VMI cross country became the final Keydet program to host a Big South Championship, Sean Helmke earned all-conference honors and, during the track seasons, Dickinson set personal bests in four different events, doing so by as many as 20 seconds.
During her first season at VMI, Fazioli's proteges broke four school records. She helped mentor two breakout freshmen distance runners, Helmke and Kelsey Newcomb. Helmke was a key contributor during the cross country season, while Newcomb went on to break the school record in the 800-meters, both indoors and out, during the track campaigns. Other Fazioli proteges who had breakout efforts in 2012-13 included sophomore Hartnel Paultre, who had a 50-second personal best in the 10K to score at the Big South outdoor meet, and his classmate Dickinson, who posted personal bests in five different events during the track seasons.
The former Albany assistant replaced long-time distance coach Paul Spangler, who accepted a position at the University of Florida, in March of 2012.
Fazioli came to VMI with nearly seven years of collegiate administration experience, with her most recent stop having been the University of Albany. There, she served as the assistant XC/track coach for just under four years and also was the program’s recruiting coordinator during that time. Her recruiting efforts were instrumental in the Albany men sweeping the IC4A titles, both indoor and outdoor, during the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons. She was also recognized as part of the two-time America East Coaching Staff of the Year, following both of those campaigns.
While at Albany, Fazioli also was responsible for the coaching and development of long distance runners, as she saw her athletes post a trio of USATF Junior National qualifying marks in 2010. The newest Keydet coach assisted in the development of 15 NCAA regional qualifiers in 2008-09, and also aided in the coaching of 15 All-Conference or All-Region performers during her first year in Albany, 2007-08. Finally, Fazioli had 60 student-athletes named to the conference’s academic honor roll and nine named to the USTFCCCA All-American academic team. Two of those also earned America East Scholar-Athlete of the Year laurels.
Fazioli also spent just over a year as the assistant compliance coordinator at Oregon State University, and began her coaching career as a volunteer assistant at Delaware. She graduated with honors from the University of Colorado in May of 2002, having been a member of the 2000 NCAA Cross Country Champions, and shortly after, was the youngest qualifier for the 2004 Olympic marathon trials. During her time in Boulder, Fazioli was an eight-time member of the dean’s list and a four-time member of the Big XII All-Academic team.
Fazioli is a USATF Level I certified coach, and earned her Masters degree from Penn State in 2004.
