- 6th Season at Florida
- 5-time NCAA Division I National Champion
- 4-time SEC Champion
Chris Solinsky, enters his sixth season as an assistant coach for the Track and Field and Cross Country distance runners in 2022-2023.
The former American record holder and first non-African to break 27 minutes in the 10,000 meters, has helped the Gators turn in some of their most impressive distance seasons in quite some time, with Florida’s women leading the charge.
During the 2022 Cross Country season, Solinsky coached Parker Valby to a historic season where she finished first at the Arturo Barrios Invite, SEC Championship, and NCAA South Regional. Valby finished runner up at the NCAA Championships. Her SEC title performance of 18:25.87 was the fastest 6K time in school history and the fastest time ever recorded in a 6K at a championship event. Under Solinsky’s guidance Valby ran four of the five fastest times in school history in the 6K during the 2022.
For the 2022 Outdoor Track season, Solinsky helped guide Parker Valby to a National Runner Up finish in the 5000 meters. The Gators also received All-American performances from Imogen Barrett and Gabrielle Wilkinson in the 800 meters.
Florida medaled in two distance events at the SEC Outdoor Championships with Imogen Barrett (Gold) and Gabrielle Wilkinson (Bronze) in the 800 meters and Parker Valby (Silver) in the 5000 meters.
During the 2022 Indoor Track season, Solinsky helped guide Florida’s DMR teams to a pair of top-5 finishes at the SEC Indoor Championships. The women took fourth before the men scored a fifth-place finish.
Imogen Barrett and Sam Austin both finished third in the 800 meters at the SEC Indoor Championships before coming in 10
th at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Parker Valby broke the school record in the 3000 meters (8:53.89) before suffering a foot injury that ruled her out for the remainder of the indoor season.
In the 2021 cross country season, Solinsky helped coach two All-Region runners, one All-American and an SEC Freshman of the Year. Freshman Parker Valby had a standout year as she broke the program’s NCAA Championships 6k record with a time of 19:50.3 to place 27th at nationals. Leading the women’s team for the entirety of the season, Valby was the only Gator to run a sub-20 minute 6k race and finished second at the NCAA South Regional meet with a 6k time that stands alone as the program’s top NCAA South Regionals 6k time by almost 20 seconds. In addition to Valby, Stephanie Ormsby collected All-Region honors with a 16th-place finish at regionals, posting a 6k time of 20:18.03 to rank ninth in Florida’s all-time 6k regional marks.
In 2021, Solinsky helped guide the Gators’ Distance Medley Relay team to a runner-up finish at the SEC Indoor Championships. The team, formed by Gabrielle Wilkinson, Lauryn Ghee, Abbie Harrelson and Imogen Barrett, collected a silver medal after logging a time 11:00.31, the third-fastest time in UF history.
During the 2018-19 season on the track, Florida’s women won a pair of SEC titles and totaled four NCAA Championships qualifiers, two of whom were freshmen. On the cross country trails, Florida’s women took second at the SEC Championship—their highest finish since winning the title in 2012—and qualified for their first NCAA Championship since 2012.
Jessica Pascoe had a breakout season, winning SEC titles in cross country (UF’s first since 2009) and the 10,000 meters (UF’s first since 2008). Pascoe also broke a nine-year-old school record in the indoor 5,000 meters by a whopping 24.70 seconds, clocking 15:34.76 in Boston. The Aussie also joined Florida’s all-time top 10 lists in the 3,000 meters, outdoor 5,000 meters, and 10,000 meters, demolishing her personal records in each event.
Pascoe also garnered USTFCCCA Cross Country All-America honors with a 32nd-place finish at the NCAA Championship, took ninth in the 5,000 meters final at NCAA Outdoors (UF’s highest finisher since 2008), and became Florida’s first NCAA Indoors qualifier in the 5,000 meters since 2010.
Imogen Barrett made a dazzling debut with the Gators, as she became the first freshman since 2006 to win the 1,500 meters title at SEC Outdoors. Barrett was the only freshman qualifier in the 1,500 meters at NCAA Outdoors, and she was the first Gators freshman to qualify since Cory McGee in 2011.
Prior to Florida
Solinsky joined the Gators' coaching staff after three seasons at College of William & Mary (2014-17), three years at University of Portland (2012-14), a record-breaking professional career with Nike, and a standout collegiate career for University of Wisconsin (2003-07), where he was a five-time NCAA champion and 14-time All-American. Solinsky also helped the Badgers to wins at the 2005 NCAA Cross Country Championship and 2007 NCAA Indoor Championships.
After working as William & Mary's assistant men's and women's distance coach his first two seasons (2014-16), Solinsky was promoted to head men's cross country coach in 2016; he continued to serve as the assistant men's coach (distance) for the track and field team for the 2017 campaign.
Solinsky was named the 2016 Colonial Athletic Association Men's Cross Country Coach of the Year after leading the Tribe to their 17th consecutive team title.
On the track, Solinsky had a hand in six USTFCCCA All-America performances—all on the women's side—in his first two years with William & Mary. At the conference level, Tribe runners won the 1,500 meters, 5,000 meters, 10,000 meters, and 3,000-meter steeplechase titles at the 2017 CAA Championships, in addition to accounting for 21 of the 30 scoring spots in the 800 meters and four aforementioned events. That staggering number included a sweep of all six scoring spots in the 5,000 meters.
Solinsky's Coaching History
- Florida (2018-Present) – Assistant Men’s and Women’s Distance Coach
- William & Mary (2016-17) – Head Men's Cross Country Coach / Assistant Men's Track & Field Coach (Distance)
- William & Mary (2014-16) – Assistant Men's and Women's Distance Coach
- University of Portland (2012-14) – Volunteer Assistant Coach
- University of Wisconsin (2007) – Student Assistant Coach
Solinsky's Notable Running Achievements and Accolades
Solinsky is one of the most accomplished American distance runners in history, despite not making an Olympic team or earning a World Championships medal.
The highest note came on May 1, 2010 at the
Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif. It was there the Wisconsinite
demolished the American 10,000 meters record by 14.38 seconds (26:59.60). Solinsky had never run a 10,000 meters race prior to that evening.
Below are some of Solinsky's other achievements as a runner:
- First non-African to break 27 minutes in the 10,000 meters (May 1, 2010)
- 2009, 2011 IAAF World Championships qualifier (5,000 meters)
- Sponsored professionally by Nike for eight years (retired in April 2016)
- 5-time NCAA champion – University of Wisconsin (2003-07)
- 2007 indoor 5,000 meters
- 2006, 2007 outdoor 5,000 meters
- 2005, 2006 indoor 3,000 meters
- 14-time All-American (3 cross country, 11 track and field—school record)
- 2007 USTFCCCA National Indoor Runner of the Year
- 2007 NCAA Indoor Championships team champion
- 2005 NCAA Country Championships team champion (individual bronze medalist)
- University of Wisconsin Athletics Hall of Fame (Class of 2017)
- Eight-time state champion at Stevens Point (Wis.) Area Senior High School
Personal
Solinsky is a native of Stevens Point, Wisconsin. He and his wife, Amy Dahlin, a former Wisconsin pole vaulter, have a daughter, Ayla and sons, Archer and Easton.
