Greg Phillips
	Head Coach gphillips@whittier.edu (562) 907-4975

Greg Phillips has become the face of Whittier College cross country as he enters his 25th season at the helm in 2009. Phillips has coached 41-out-of-50 inductees to the Whittier College Cross Country Hall of Fame and numerous student-athletes to All-Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference honors.

In 2008 Phillips guided freshman Michele Callaway to one of the most successful cross country seasons in Poets' history. Callaway earned first-team All-SCIAC accolades, was recognized as an All-West Region runner and was the lone Poet to qualify for the NCAA Division III Championships in Handover, Ind. She finished 96th-out-of-279 runners as she was the first WC woman national qualifier since Claudia Murillo accomplished the feat in 1996 under Phillips' tutelage.

The'08 campaign brought even more firsts for Whittier as Callaway and junior Darlene Partida became the first one-two combination to early All-West Region honors since 1997.

Phillips saw the women's team earn NCAA Division III All-Academic honors after it held a 3.21 cumulative grade-point-average.

The men's rise from a seventh place finish in 2007 to a fifth place finish last year was made possible by the duo of Sean Arps and Thomas Martinez. The two combined to hold the top five best performances of the year. The highlight of the season came at the Cowboy Jamboree in Stillwater, Okla., where the finished ninth-out-of 27 teams.

Orgininally from Anaheim, Calif., Phillips graduated from California State University, Fullerton, in 1982 with a Bachelor's degree in Physical Education. He competed intercollegiate for the Titans in both cross country and track & field and earned his Master's degree in Kinesiology in 1987.

Phillips began his coaching career while studying at Cal State Fullerton. He was an assistant coach for the 1983 and 1984 season before he began at Whittier prior to the start of the 1985 season.

During his tenure at Whittier he had a SCIAC best 23 women's all-conference performances between 1990 and 1994 which includes two-time national qualifier Tara Barnhart (1992 and '94) and the '94 SCIAC Runner of the Year, Helen Garcia.

The '94 women's team also became the first women's team, in any sport, to qualify for the National Championships in school history.

The men tasted success before the women's five-year run of dominance and soon there after. In 1990 Phillips had Jeff Henderson place fourth at the NCAA West Regional, good enough to qualify for the NCAA Championships. This was followed by Edward Yuh's two national appearances in 1991 and 1993.

In 1997 Whittier placed six on the All-West Region team and in 1998 Juan Rodriguez captured the SCIAC title en route to his second appearance at nationals (first coming in 1996). The 1999 team was arguably one of the best in school history as Matthew Stuart claimed the SCIAC crown and advanced to nationals while Luis Ibarra became one of the few runners to earn all-conference honors all four of his years at Whittier.

In addition to his duties as the head coach of the cross country team, Phillips is also an assistant coach for the track & field program where he works with the long distance runners.