Tulane Cross Country’s Adrian Myers Named South Central Region Coach of the Year
Tulane’s Director of Cross Country/Track & Field, Adrian Myers, has been honored with The 2026 Johnny Morriss Award.
In his fifth year as head coach at Tulane, Myers led the Green Wave to the team title at the South Central Region Championships with 44 points. The team also finished 21st at the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships in Columbia, Missouri, on November 22. Earlier in the fall, the men’s team was the runner-up in The American Conference Championships, accumulating 41 points.
Regional Coach of the Year for Myers
The Johnny Morriss Award is presented annually to the Men’s South Central Region Coach of the Year. Myers’s leadership helped Tulane’s men’s team finish No. 21 nationally in the final U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) rankings following the NCAA Championships.
Throughout the season, the Green Wave maintained a consistent national presence, appearing in all eight polls—including six regular-season rankings, a preseason ranking, and the final postseason poll.
Cheruiyot Leads the Way on the Men's Side
Leading the team was Bernard Cheruiyot, who finished 29th overall with a time of 28:59.3 in the 10K at the NCAA Championships. His top-40 finish earned him All-American honors for the first time in his cross country career, making him Tulane’s first-ever male All-American in cross country. This also marks Cheruiyot’s second All-American accolade, having previously received the honor in last season’s outdoor 10,000-meter race.
Silas Kiptanui also delivered a strong performance, placing 47th with a time of 29:11.6. Other notable finishes included Illia Kunin (154th, 29:59.3), Gilberto Rono (206th, 30:32.6), Tommy Rice (214th, 30:36.9), Rogerio Amaral (225th, 30:49.7), and Zach Van Houten (228th, 30:53.5).
This marks Tulane’s second consecutive year qualifying its men’s team for the NCAA Championships, following a 28th-place finish last season.
On November 14, Tulane made history at Argi Park by capturing the NCAA South Central Regional Championship for the first time in program history. The men’s team delivered a dominant performance, earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships.
Tulane’s men demonstrated exceptional depth, with all seven runners finishing in the top 25 and earning All-Regional honors. The team totaled an impressive 44 points, with an average time of 29:41.40, outpacing regional powers such as Arkansas, Texas A&M, and Texas. This victory marks only the second time since 2008 that a team outside Texas or Arkansas has won the South Central Regional.
Standout performers included Cheruiyot, who finished second in 28:51.3, and Kiptanui, who took third in 29:11.2—both earning All-Regional honors. Additional key contributors were Rono (11th, 30:01.4), Amaral (12th, 30:04.3), Kunin (16th, 30:20.2), Van Houten (21st, 30:29.7), and Rice (24th, 30:40.9). All five of these runners also earned All-Regional honors.
Their collective efforts propelled Tulane to a second-place finish in the American Conference, with all seven runners finishing in the top 21, including five All-Conference selections: Cheruiyot (2nd), Kiptanui (4th), Kunin (7th), Rice (13th), and Amaral (15th).
Doug has covered a gamut of sporting events in his fifty-plus years in the field. He started doing sideline reporting for Louisiana Tech football games for the student radio station. Doug was Sports Director for KNOE-AM/FM in Monroe in the mid-80s, winning numerous awards from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association for Best Sportscast and Best Play-by-Play. High school play-by-play for teams in Monroe, Natchitoches, New Orleans, and Thibodaux, LA dot his resume. He did college play-by-play for Northwestern State University in Natchitoches for nine years. Then, moving to the Crescent City, Doug did television PBP of Tulane games and even filled in for legendary Tulane broadcaster, Ken Berthelot in the only game Kenny ever missed while doing the Green Wave games. His father was an alumnus of Tulane in the 1940s, so Doug has attended Tulane football games in old Tulane Stadium, the Superdome, and Yulman. He was one of the 86,000 plus on December 1, 1973, sitting in the North End Zone to seeTulane shutout the LSU Tigers, 14-0. He was there when the Posse ruled Fogelman and in Turchin when the Wave made it to the World Series. He currently is the public address voice of the Tulane baseball team.