BOWLING GREEN, Ky. –  WKU Director of Cross Country/Track & Field Brent Chumbley announced the hiring of Lee Wood on Friday. Wood will lead the WKU Cross Country team and coach the distance runners for track and field.

Wood comes to The Hill from Drury University where he has served as the head coach since 2021. 

"Coach Wood is a proven recruiter and dynamic coach from the 800 to the 10k," Chumbley said. "He brings great excitement and energy that will elevate our distance group. I expect to see an immediate impact. I want to welcome Coach Wood and his family to The Hill!"

"I'm super excited to have this opportunity to come in and to lead this program to new heights," Wood said. "I'm a very passionate coach that's ready to challenge the athletes. I'm ready to hit the ground running to get this program to a very high level!"

Wood started his coaching career at Rogers High School and Heritage High School, winning seven state championships in 12 years including a Triple Crown in 2005 with Rogers. Following his stint at the high school level, he was hired to help lead NCAA Division II national distance powerhouse Western Colorado University where he helped lead men's and women's teams that finished on the podium year after year. As an assistant he helped coach over 25 All-Americans and coached numerous individual national champions and the national champion DMR team (2018).

In 2021, he took the position as head men's and women's cross country/ track and field coach at Drury University where he came in and changed the culture of the team, while also leading athletes to over 70 school records. He guided the 2023 men's and women's team to the highest finishes in the conference in school history with the women finishing runner-up and the men finishing third. 

While with Drury, Wood coached three All-Americans: Claire McCune (Cross Country), Katie McCune (800 indoor and outdoor), and Bradley Weimer (Cross Country) who also won a conference championship in cross country in 2022. Weimer was also a national qualifier that season.

How to Follow XC/Track and Field: For complete information on WKU XC and T&F, follow the team on Twitter at WKUXCTF. The team is also on Instagram and Facebook.