Chris Reed was named the Lewis & Clark College head men’s and women’s track & field head coach in August of 2023. He was elevated to the position of head men's and women's cross country head coach in July of 2024. Reed enters his third season as head coach at Lewis & Clark in the Fall of 2025.
Reed enjoyed a strong second year at Lewis & Clark. In his first year guiding the cross country programs, both teams finished fourth at the Northwest Conference Championship Meet. Senior Riley Buese won her second-consecutive NWC Title and junior Malia Heien and sophomore Evan Markelz each earned All-Conference honors. The trio would lead Lewis & Clark at Regionals – which the Pioneers hosted for the first time since 2007. Women’s cross country earned their highest-finish at Regionals since 2013, by placing seventh overall and Buese (second) and Heien (17
th) each punched their ticket to Nationals. Men’s cross country finished in ninth place, with Markelz earning his first trip to Nationals after finishing 10
th overall. At Nationals, Buese matched the best finish in program history by coming in 17
th place and earning All-American honors.
The Pioneers also enjoyed a strong track & field campaign in 2024-25. Lewis & Clark hosted the 2025 NWC Championship Meet at Eldon Fix Track. The women’s team finished fourth overall (71 points) and the men’s team placed seventh (49). Ten student-athletes took home All-Conference accolades with the group posting 15 total honors. Buese became the first woman in NWC history to win four-straight 10K Titles and the first woman to complete the 5K-10K double at NWCs three times. She set the school record for career All-American honors (eight) after being named an All-American five times as a senior. She placed third (5K) and eighth (3K) at Indoor Nationals to become only the second student-athlete in program history to earn West Region Track Athlete of the Year honors. Buese placed second (10K) and third (5K) at Outdoor Nationals to wrap up her career. She added a second-straight West Region Track Athlete of the Year award after the Pioneers finished first among all women's West Region teams (t-17th overall).
In his first season as head coach, Reed led the women's track & field program to their highest finish at the Northwest Conference Championship since 2013 (fourth place). The men's team finished in eighth place overall. Ten student-athletes earned All-Conference honors including five student-athletes who claimed their first career All-Conference accolades. Junior Riley Buese was named the Female Track Performer of the Meet after winning both the 5K and 10K. Buese also became the first Pioneer to earn Indoor Track & Field All-American honors since the 1980s and only the second student-athlete in school history to earn All-American honors in all three honors. As a team, Lewis & Clark set four program records during outdoor track & field.
Reed comes to Palatine Hill after spending the past decade at Seattle Pacific University. During his decade working with the Falcons, Reed served as the lead distance and cross country coach and was promoted to the status of associate head coach in 2019.
Over the course of his tenure, Seattle Pacific won the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) Indoor Track & Field Championship four times (2015, 2017-19) and the GNAC Outdoor Track & Field Title five times (2015-16, 18-19, 21). He also led the women’s cross country program to the NCAA DII National Championship Meet three times (2015, 18-19). In their most recent trip to Cross Country Nationals, Reed guided the Falcons to a 12th place finish out of 34 teams – which marked their best result at the National Championship Meet since 2009.
During his time in Seattle, Reed coached a multitude of conference champions and All-Americans in both cross country and track & field. He also took a leading role in coaching the programs pole vaulters from 2016-2018. Reed helped organize and run home meets including serving as the meet director for the 2022 NCAA DII Cross Country National Championship Meet.
He also took on a leadership role within the cross country coaching committee. Reed has served on the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) DII Cross Country Executive Committee since 2016. He was the vice president of the committee from 2019-2022, before taking over as president in 2022. Reed also worked as the chair of the USTFCCCA West Region Cross Country Poll from 2014-2023 and served as the GNAC Representative on the NCAA Coaches Connect program from 2018-2023.
Prior to his time at Seattle Pacific, Reed worked as an assistant coach at his alma mater: Western Oregon University. He mainly worked with the program’s distance runners and helped in the recruitment of NCAA DII record holder David Ribich. Ribich set the DII Indoor Track & Field record in the 1,000m and 3,000m and the Outdoor Track & Field mark in the 1,500m.
As a student-athlete himself at Western Oregon, Reed qualified for NCAAs five times and was named an All-American twice. He was named the 2011 USTFCCCA West Region Men’s Indoor Track & Field Student-Athlete of the Year and finished his career as the owner of five school records. He still sits first overall in Wolves outdoor program history in the 5,000m (14:21.14) and the 10,000m (29:44.77). Reed was inducted to the Western Oregon Hall of Fame in the Fall of 2024.
Track & Field Results at Northwest Conference Championship Meets
| School year |
Finish at NWCs (out of 9 Teams) |
Points |
| 2024-25 |
4th (W) / 7th (M) |
71/49 |
| 2023-24 |
4th (W) / 8th (M) |
75/50 |
Cross Country Results at Northwest Conference Championship Meets
| Year |
Finish at NWCs (out of 9 Teams) |
Points |
Regional Finish |
| 2024 |
4th (W) / 4th (M) |
90/108 |
7th (W) / 9th (M) |
