Rachel Barends
Title: Head Men's & Women's Cross Country Coach
Phone: (614) 236-6979
Email: rbarends@capital.edu
Rachel Barends became the Head Men's and Women's Cross Country Coach at Capital University in 2007.
In 2011, the Crusaders' Emma McCarron became the first runner, male or female, in program history to qualify for the NCAA Division III Championships. An All-Great Lakes Region and All-Ohio Athletic Conference athlete, McCarron finished in the top 60 percent of the NCAA field to cap a standout campaign. Barends also mentored four other regional qualifiers, including one woman and three men.
After taking over a program with nine student-athletes in 2007, Barends' program dressed 30 runners in 2011. Barends molded the youngest Division III team in Ohio in 2009 into a competitive unit by season’s end. The team’s growth was epitomized at the Wilmington Invitational, where a combined 11 runners ran personal best times en route to both the men’s and women’s squads finished in the top-15 at the meet.
In 2010, Barends had her first All-Ohio Atheltic Conference selection in sophomore Emma McCarron, who finished as a second team All-OAC runner. Barends also overlooked a men’s 2008 team that boasted a school-record five runners that ran a sub 28-minute time for the 8-kilometer race.
In 2009 and 2010, Barends guided the men to consecutive victories over rival Muskingum at the OAC meet, while the women have upended both Muskingum and Heidelberg at the league meet over the past two years.
The women’s distance coach on Capital's track & field team, Barends has coached senior Sarah Trick to three straight the OAC Championships in the indoor track 800 meter run. Trick has also won that same event on two occasions in the OAC outdoor meet.
As a student-athlete at Capital University, Barends qualified for the NCAA Track & Field Championships in the 4x100 meter relay in 2004, making it the second event in school history to qualify for the national meet. An eight-time All-OAC selection, she is a former conference champion in the long jump and the 4x100 relay, who still holds indoor school-records in the long jump, triple jump and 4x200 meters and outdoor records in the long and triple jump.
The Belleville, Ontario, native was an assistant cross country coach at Capital in 2004 and spent the last two years as an assistant track & field and cross country coach at Muskingum College. She earned a bachelor's degree from Capital in Health & Fitness Management in 2005 and a master's degree in Adult Education in 2007 from Muskingum.
She also holds Level II USATF Coaching Certification and will teach classes in the Health & Sport Science department at Capital.
Barends resides with her husband, Fred, and her three children in Bexley.