Daniel Ireland

Biography

Daniel Ireland was named the Director of Cross Country/Track & Field in July of 2014, and the 2022-23 season will be his ninth season in charge of the Lions. Ireland came to Columbia with a solid pedigree of coaching that now, as he enters his ninth season in charge, includes 19 NCAA All-Americans; 92 individual NCAA qualifiers; 66 Ivy League Champions and with his nod as Ivy League Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year in 2018 and 2019, Ireland is a five-time Ivy League Coach of the Year, all of which he earned while in charge of the Columbia program. Ireland has also been a member of several organizations during his time as a head coach, starting in 2012 when he was the USTFCCCA Mid-Atlantic Region Women's Cross Country Representative, a title he held until the 2014 season. Currently he is the Ivy League Representative on the USTFCCCA DI Track and Field Executive Committee and since 2018 he has held the title of Vice President of the Metropolitan Conference. Under Ireland's tutelage three student-athletes have gone on to represent the United States with Brian Zabilski (2016) and Kenny Vasbinder (2017) each punching their tickets in cross country and Kali Hatcher (2019) throwing on the red, white and blue in the triple jump at the 2019 U21 Pan American Games. Columbia's cross country men posted their best finish since 2017 at the NCAA Cross Country Northeast Regionals, finishing fifth. The Lions also sent a pair of student-athletes to the NCAA Cross Country National Champi

Career Path