Karen Boyle
	Position: Assistant Coach Experience: 25th Year at Navy Alma Mater: Bowling Green '79

Karen Boyle, who also serves as the head coach of the Navy women's cross country squad, enters her 25th year as an assistant track coach in 2011-12.

Navy has had a very successful distance team under Boyle's watch, highlighted by Marty Shue's title in the indoor 1,500-meter run at the NCAA Championship.

Boyle has enjoyed much success as Navy's cross country coach, guiding her teams to a 123-20 (.860) mark over her career.

During Boyle's tenure, six Navy cross country runners have competed at the NCAA Division I Championship. Boyle's first national championship qualifier came in 1992 with Kerry O'Neill, followed by Jackie Hayes in 1995, Rebecca Cline in 1997, Melissa Foon in 2000, Amy Watson in 2008 and most recently Jess Palacio in 2011. Boyle led the cross country team to the 2011 Patriot League Championship, her third since 2007 and has been named the Patriot League Cross Country Coach of the Year three times.

Boyle has led the Mids to significant honors on both the Division II (1987-1990) and Division I (1991-present) levels. In Navy's last-four years of Division II competition, Boyle coached the cross country team to three-straight undefeated seasons and four-consecutive top-five finishes in the NCAA Division II Championship, with five runners garnering All-America honors. Boyle was named Eastern Region Coach of the Year in three-straight seasons (1988-90).

Boyle guided the program into the Division I ranks in 1991, and the Mids immediately achieved success by capturing the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championship in cross country. In 1997 and 2007, Boyle was named Navy's Fall Coach of the Year after she led Navy to an undefeated season. In 2007 and again in '08, she was recognized as the Patriot League Coach of the Year.

In 1995, Boyle was selected as team leader for the USA Ekiden International Marathon in Beijing, China. She was also selected to help rewrite the level I track & field certification curriculum at the USA Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. In 1999, she received her C.S.C.S. certification as a nationally accredited certified strength and conditioning specialist. The summer of 2001 saw Boyle serve as an assistant track & field coach for Team USA in the Deaf Track & Field World Games, held in Rome, Italy.

Boyle, a 1979 graduate of Bowling Green, received her degree in physical education and earned her master's degree in athletic administration and recreation from her alma mater in 1982. Athletically, she competed in both track and lacrosse, specializing in the 400 and 4x400-meter relay on the track and was a leading scorer for the Falcons' lacrosse squad.

Her coaching career began at Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio, where she coached the women's cross country and track & field teams from 1984-86, developing two national champions and nine All-Americans. Boyle is a tenured professor in the Naval Academy's Physical Education Department, teaching personal conditioning, rock climbing, kayaking and triathlon training. Boyle also participates in road races and triathlons.

Administratively, Boyle served as the president of the NCAA Division I Women's Intercollegiate Cross Country Coaches Association (1999-2001), as well as a committee member on the USA Track & Field Coaching Education Board and the United States Track Coaches Association Long Distance Advisory Board.