Stan Rosenthal Position: Assistant Coach (Distance/Cross Country) Experience: 8th Season Alma Mater: Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 1975

As head cross country coach, Stan Rosenthal enters his eighth year at South Carolina, looking to continue building on the success he began in 2001. Rosenthal also coaches the distance runners during track and field season and was instrumental in coaching the South Carolina women's team during its 11 consecutive NCAA outdoor top-10 finishes from 1996 to 2006. In 2007, Rosenthal's team earned USTFCCCA All-Academic Team honors, posting the sixth- highest GPA in the nation.

At South Carolina, Rosenthal has coached his athletes to 11 All-America honors and three NCAA championships. In 2002, he coached Otukile Lekote to two NCAA titles (800m indoors and outdoors) and on the second leg of USC's NCAA champion 4x400m relay team. Additionally, Rosenthal oversaw the men's sprint medley relay team that was ranked No. 1 in the United States and the NCAA that year. His 2005 women's squad accomplished the same feat.

Rosenthal has also coached eight SEC champions between Lekote and Shay Shelton. Lekote earned seven titles from 1998 to 1999, and in 2006 Shelton added to Rosenthal's total by claiming the indoor league crown in the 800m. Johnny Baez and Shawn Cunningham found success in the 800m as well. Baez qualified for the NCAA East Regional meet, and Cunningham was an SEC finalist and scorer. William Emase was a three time SEC scorer and a two time NCAA qualifier.

The year prior, Rosenthal coached Jenny Lake to a record-breaking 3000m performance at the SEC Indoor Championship. Lake, who ran 9:41, broke her own school indoor record, originally set in 2003, with a fourth-place finish. Rosenthal also coached the distance medley relay team to a second-place finish at the SEC Championships.

With Rosenthal's assistance, the women's team finished fifth indoors at the NCAA Championships, while capturing the SEC outdoor and NCAA East Regional titles and finishing runner-up at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 2005. Rosenthal also coached the 2002 South Carolina team that finished fourth at the NCAA Indoor Championships and won the SEC and NCAA Outdoor Championships, giving the Gamecocks their first national team title in any sport.

Rosenthal's runners have achieved success from the conference level to the world championship level. Two of his freshman runners earned spots on the USA Junior Team and competed in the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, where they placed 40th and 43rd. Three other runners competed in the USA Olympic trials. Many of his runners have qualified for the NCAA Track and Field Championships, while numerous student-athletes won individual conference championships. During his seven years as a high school coach in Virginia, two runners qualified for the Kinney/Foot Locker National Cross Country Championships.

Rosenthal has served on several USA international coaching staffs. He coached on three USA staffs for the IAAF World Cross Country Championships and was a coach at the USA Olympic Festival. In 2001, he was appointed to the NCAA Track and Field Committee. As a member of the Executive Committee for the Women's Cross Country Coaches Association, Rosenthal acted as the Southeast Region representative. He earned USA Track and Field Level I and II certifications for the endurance events.

Academic success is very important to Rosenthal. His student-athletes have achieved individually and as a team. In 2007, Rosenthal's cross country team placed four runners on the SEC Academic Honor Roll and six on the President's List. The cross country team had a cumulative GPA of 3.72, the sixth-highest mark in the nation and tops in the SEC. Also in 2005, Lake was named the university's Scholar Athlete of the Year, a McWhorter Scholar and the recipient of an NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship. The first-team Academic All-American graduated with a 4.0 GPA and with honors from South Carolina's Honor College as a mathematics major.

Four of the women's cross country teams coached by Rosenthal were ranked in the NCAA Division I top 20, and seven student-athletes were selected as conference Scholar-Athletes of the Year. During his coaching career, over 90 percent of the student-athletes he has recruited and coached have graduated. Many later earned graduate level degrees, including four who are currently in medical school or doctors.

Prior to joining the South Carolina staff, Rosenthal was the head men's and women's cross country and track and field coach at UNC Asheville. During his seven-year tenure, the women won four Big South Conference championships. In the three years the women did not win, UNC Asheville finished as runner-up. The men's cross country team was Big South Conference runner-up in three of his last four years.

In addition to his coaching stint at UNC Asheville, Rosenthal coached at Long Beach State, Georgia, South Alabama and was a graduate assistant coach at Tennessee. He also coached at Albemarle High School in Charlottesville, Va., and in Spotsylvania, Va., where he started his coaching career in 1976.

Rosenthal earned his master's degree in education from Tennessee in 1983. His undergraduate degree came from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1975, where he majored in history and elementary education. While at IUP, he was a four-year varsity letterwinner. In 1973, Rosenthal competed in the six-mile run at NAIA. He also was a member of two national-qualifying cross country teams for IUP in 1970 and 1972.