Daniel Caulfield enters his 11th season as the head coach for the Cal U cross country programs and also his fourth year as the head coach of the track & field programs.
Caulfield has mentored a combined 15 NCAA All-Americans during his time at Cal U in cross country and track & field with All-America honorees in the 800m, 1500m, 1 mile, 3K, 5K, 10K and the steeplechase. Additionally, the programs have combined for over a dozen Academic All-Americans in the last eight years and five recipients of the PSAC Champion Scholar Award, which was initiated in fall 2011.
Last fall, Caulfield helped lead the Vulcans to unprecedented success in women’s cross country. Cal U registered its best finish at the PSAC Championships in 35 years before claiming the program’s first-ever title at the NCAA Regional Championships. Following the regional crown, the Vulcans made their first team appearance at the NCAA Division II National Championships.
Cal U continued the success in the winter, as the women’s track & field team posted a top-five finish at the indoor PSAC Championships for the third-straight year. In the spring, both the men’s and women’s track & field programs matched their best-ever finish at the league championships. A trio of Vulcans were selected to compete at the NCAA Championships last year with Julie Friend (steeplechase) and Summer Hill (1500m) both earning All-America laurels.
Additionally, Alex Zanella concluded her career as one of the most decorated athletes in program history. Zanella repeated as a First-Team Academic All-America selection and competed at the NCAA Championships in the 1 mile. As a senior, she won a combined four titles at the indoor and outdoor PSAC Championships to finish her career as an 11-time league champion.
Former standout Aaron Dinzeo became the first student-athlete in school history to be named the Academic All-American of the Year in the spring of 2015. During the fall, he finished second overall at the NCAA National Championships as a senior to earn All-America status in cross country for the third time. Dinzeo set the all-time PSAC record in the 10K (28:40.88) at Stanford in 2014 before garnering All-America laurels in both the 5K and 10K later that spring.
A native of Ireland, Caulfield also helped Christopher Clark develop into one of the top runners in PSAC history. Clark was a five-time NCAA All-American at Cal U after previously being a standout under Caulfield at Clarion. In 2007, Clark became the first track & field All-American in over two decades and eventually was named the PSAC Athlete of the Year in both cross country and outdoor track & field as a senior.
Clark was selected in the Cal U Athletic Hall of Fame in spring 2016. Clark and Dinzeo are the only two runners in the PSAC to post a sub-14:00 time in the 5K over the last decade.
In 2015, the Cal U women’s track & field finished fourth at both league championships. Zanella helped the Vulcans achieve their highest-ever finish at the indoor league championships by winning three titles and was named the Most Outstanding Track Athlete of the PSAC Championships. During the spring, Cal U narrowly missed out on a top-three finish and Zanella was named both Most Valuable Athlete and Most Outstanding Track Athlete at the outdoor event.
Dinzeo helped lead the Vulcans to an impressive fall campaign in 2014, as the cross country programs combined to feature three individual qualifiers for the NCAA National Championships. Dinzeo won both the conference and regional titles, while helping the men’s program place fifth at the regional championships for the best finish in program history. Friend finished seventh overall in the women’s regional race to help the Vulcans finish fifth in the standings, which was just two weeks after the program placed 12th at the league championships.
Caulfield was named the Cal U head track & field coach prior to the 2014 season and he made an instant impact. The women’s program, which finished 12th at the previous indoor league meet, placed fifth at the PSAC Championships and featured the Most Outstanding Track Athlete in Hill. During the spring campaign, Friend was selected the PSAC Freshman of the Year and earned All-America laurels in the steeplechase.
During the fall of 2013, both Cal U cross country program reached milestones at the league meet. The men’s team tied its best-ever finish at the PSAC Championships by finishing fourth in the standings, while the women’s team posted its then-best finish in a decade. Dinzeo and Zanella each later qualified as individuals for the NCAA National Championships with their performances at the regional meet.
The Vulcans boasted a trio of Academic All-Americans in 2012 just three years after Clark became the program’s first Academic-American in either cross country or track & field. In the spring of 2011, Caulfield helped Matt Kroetch claim the 10K league championship after competing in just four previous meets that spring.
During the 2010 outdoor season, Clare McSweeney earned All-America laurels in the 800m after winning the event at the PSAC Championships and establishing a meet record (2:08.75). She also anchored the 4x400 relay at the league meet, as the Vulcans captured their first league relay title in 25 years.
Caulfield mentored the PSAC Freshman of the Year in the fall of 2009, as Erin Kling became the first women’s runner to earn All-PSAC honors since the mid-1980s. Kling eventually was selected an Academic All-American as a senior in 2012.
Caulfield started his coaching career at Adams State, his alma mater, in Alamosa, Colorado. While serving as a coach, the Grizzlies won four NCAA women’s cross country national championships and two men’s titles.
During his college career, Caulfield was a 10-time All-American and two-time NAIA National Champion. He helped lead the cross country program to NCAA National Championships in 1993 and 1994 after placing in the top five during both championship races. Caulfield also was the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) record holder in the 800m and 1500m. He was named to the inaugural RMAC All-Time Men’s Cross Country Team in 2009.
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Caulfield earned his bachelor’s degree from ASC in exercise physiology and in 1996 returned to Ireland to work in the exercise physiology department of the Blackrock Clinic, one of the country’s most established healthcare facilities. He returned to ASC in 1998 to complete his master’s degree and coached there until December 2004.
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He held the Irish national indoor record in the 800 meters for over a decade and was among the top 50 in the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World rankings.
Caulfield, who is a two-time European Cup champion (800m and 1500m), was also a two-time runner-up at the Millrose Games in Madison Square Garden and was a top-10 finisher at the 2001 World Indoor Championships in Lisbon, Portugal.
He and his wife Jackie, an assistant coach for the Vulcans, reside in California with their daughter, Ellie.
