Chris Kwiatkowski - Cross Country Coach - University of Washington Athletics

Chris Kwiatkowski

Title:
Assistant Coach, Distances
Email:
kwiatkow@uw.edu

Chris Kwiatkowski returned to his home state to assist Maurica and Andy Powell with the coaching and development of Washington’s distance runners. Specifically working with the men’s middle and long distance runners, Kwiatkowski has helped Andy Powell to build and coach a group that has won six NCAA Championships in just the past four years, and had a stunning 21 sub-four-minute milers, turning Seattle into “Mile City.”

Kwiatkowski and Powell’s distance men have produced 59 All-America honors in seven seasons. Washington also became just the second team to sweep every men’s distance title at the 2023 Pac-12 Track Championships.

A native of Bellingham, Wash., Kwiatkowski competed at Oregon, where he was coached by Andy Powell and earned All-America honors. He then began his coaching career at American University in Washington D.C. where he worked for six seasons before returning to the Pacific Northwest.

Kwiatkowski was named Recruiting Coordinator for the Huskies in 2019.

Washington's miler dynasty continued in 2025 as Nathan Green went out on top, winning the NCAA Outdoor 1,500m title in his final race as a Dawg, and making it four-straight Husky wins in that event, the longest such win streak since Villanova in 1968-71. Green was named Big Ten Outdoor Men’s Track Athlete of the Year, and also was runner-up in the mile at the NCAA Indoor Championships. UW also had one of its best 800m squads ever, with Justin O’Toole taking sixth in the NCAA Indoor final and Kyle Reinheimer setting the school record at 1:45.73 and taking 12th at NCAA Outdoors. Washington captured its first two Penn Relays titles in program history in 2025, winning both the 4xMile and the DMR. The DMR also made headlines indoors, when Ronan McMahon-Staggs, Bodi Ligons, Reinheimer and Green ran 9:14.10, the fastest time ever run by a DMR in the history of the world, indoors or out. Ten different Dawgs ran sub-four miles during the indoor season. Evan Jenkins also grabbed the first Big Ten outdoor title in school history, winning the 10,000-meters.

In 2024, Washington’s mid-distance superstars made it five-straight NCAA titles for the Dawgs in the mile/1500-meters, as Luke Houser won his second-straight indoor mile national title, and Joe Waskom got his second 1,500-meter title outdoors. Nathan Green and Waskom went on to place 5th and 7th in the U.S. Olympic Trials final. Washington won its second straight Pac-12 Men’s Track & Field Championship, with the distance runners doing the most damage, scoring 69 team points. Evan Jenkins burst onto the scene with a school record in the 10,000-meters, making the Olympic Trials as well.

The men’s distance Dawgs had an historic 2023 season. Washington won its first Pac-12 Track & Field team title, and first outdoor conference title of any kind in 95 years. They became just the second men's group ever to sweep the individual titles from 800-meters up. Sam Ellis won the 800-meters, Nathan Green won the 1,500-meters, Ed Trippas won the 3,000-meter steeplechase, and Brian Fay won both the 5,000-meters and the 10,000-meters. Washington finished a program-best fourth-place at the NCAA Indoor meet, with Luke Houser winning the men’s mile final. Outdoors, the Huskies finished ninth for the program’s first top-10 outdoor placing since 1979. Nathan Green and Joe Waskom went 1-2 in the 1,500-meters final.

The Dawgs made national headlines in 2023 by having eight men break four minutes in the mile, all in the same race, and they did it on two separate occasions. Washington had six of the 16 qualifiers for the mile at NCAA Indoors, and four of the eight finalists. Three of those eight milers would go on to make the 2023 World Championships in Budapest. Joe Waskom made Team USA after taking silver at the U.S. Championships, while Kieran Lumb won the Canadian Championships at 1,500-meters en route to Worlds, and Brian Fay broke the Irish National Record in the 5k on his way to Budapest.

2023 indoor track fourth

The 2022 season provided another milestone in the recruiting and coaching efforts of Kwiatkowski and Powell, as Joe Waskom captured the NCAA Outdoor title at 1,500-meters, in a final that featured three Huskies out of the 12 entries. Waskom became the first Husky to win the event since 1928 in a thrilling finish, and teammates Luke Houser and Nathan Green were right behind in fifth and seventh, respectively.

Waskom and Houser also went 1-2 in the Pac-12 1,500-meters final, a first in UW history. Brian Fay won the Pac-12 steeplechase title, and Kieran Lumb took second in the Pac-12 10,000-meters while breaking the school record. Green, in his first collegiate season, would go on from the NCAA Outdoor final to win the U.S. U20 Championship, and he placed fifth at the World U20 Championships in the summer of 2022.

Fay took sixth indoors and seventh outdoors in the 2022 NCAA 5,000-meter finals, the best finish ever by a Husky in that event. Waskom was named USTFCCCA West Region Men's Track Athlete of the Year. Fay also earned All-America honors in cross country in the fall, leading the Dawgs to a 13th-place NCAA Championships finish. UW was second at 2021 West Regionals with Kieran Lumb winning the individual title, and third at Pac-12s led by Fay and Lumb in the top-10 individually.

The 2021 indoor track season was highlighted by Sam Tanner who broke the overall NCAA record in the 1,500-meters, as he ran 3:34.72 at an indoor meet, hitting the Olympic Standard. Tanner would go on to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games for his native New Zealand in the summer of 2021. Andrew Jordan broke the school record in the 5k indoors, placing ninth at NCAA Indoors, and Isaac Green would shatter the 5k outdoor record in a 12th-place NCAA Outdoor finish.

The 2019-20 season ended too soon due to the Coronavirus pandemic, but the men's distance crew still had an outstanding year. Three different Huskies ran sub-four-minute miles, and a trio of Huskies qualified for the 2020 NCAA Indoor Championships: Tanner Anderson in the 5k, Jack Rowe in the 3k, and Mick Stanovsek in the mile, all earning All-America honors. During the fall cross country season, the Huskies finished 19th at the NCAA Championships, and Andrew Jordan became the first Husky ever to win the West Region individual title.

During his first year in Seattle, Kwiatkowski helped Powell lead the men's cross country squad to one of the best years in school history. The Huskies reached a program-best No. 6 in the national rankings and proved it with a sixth-place finish at the 2018 NCAA Cross Country Championships, the second-highest finish ever for the squad. Tanner Anderson and Tibebu Proctor earned All-America honors. The men also finished second at the Pac-12 Championships, their best finish in 24 years, and Talon Hull was the individual runner-up, the highest finish ever by a Husky male at Pac-12s. On the track, Fred Huxham and Mick Stanovsek advanced to NCAA Indoors in the 3k and the mile, respectively, while the men's DMR also made the top-12. Outdoors, Stanovsek advanced to the NCAA Championships 1,500-meters final, taking 10th.

Kwiatkowski began as a volunteer assistant coach at American before moving into a full-time assistant coaching role in 2016. Over his six seasons he helped guide American Eagles athletes to seven Patriot League titles and four school records.

By his senior season at Oregon, Kwiatkowski developed into one of the top 5,000-meter runners in the country, capped off by his first NCAA Outdoor Championships appearance in 2012 where he was 15th in the 5,000-meter final to earn All-America honors. He set a 5,000-meter PR indoors at Washington’s Dempsey Indoor when he was third in the MPSF Championships in 13:51.96. Kwiatkowski continued to train and compete as a post-collegiate, qualifying and racing at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.

At American, Kwiatkowski assisted Matt Centrowitz, father of his Oregon teammate and friend Matthew Centrowitz, the 2016 Olympic Gold Medalist at 1,500-meters. Kwiatkowski co-authored the elder Centrowitz’s memoir “Like Father, Like Son” published in 2017.

Kwiatkowski attended Bellingham High School where he was the Washington 2A State Champion at 3,200-meters as a senior in 2007. He earned his Bachelor of Science from Oregon in Human Physiology.