University of St. Thomas Athletics
Women's Track & Field
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Email:
- jvsweeney@stthomas.edu
- Phone:
- 651-962-5914
Joe Sweeney has built one of NCAA Division III's most successful cross country and track and field programs. The 2021-22 seasons was his 42nd as St. Thomas head coach for women's cross country/track and field. He holds the record for longest tenured head coach in St. Thomas athletics history.
Sweeney’s teams won a remarkable 85 of a possible 114 MIAC team championships in cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track through the 2019-20 academic year. That’s the most by any coach in Division III women’s sports.
Under Sweeney’s leadership, the Tommie women’s track and field team won its 15th consecutive MIAC outdoor title in 2019 and its 33rd in the last 35 meets held (2020 outdoor was not contested). The St. Thomas indoor team won the program’s 21st consecutive championship and 33rd in 36 seasons. UST cross country has won 17 of the 39 conference titles contested.
Sweeney was named the 1995 National Coach of the Year in track and field and been honored as MIAC Coach of the Year several times, most recently in 2020. A Chicago, Ill., native, Sweeney was a standout distance runner for the Tommies in the mid 1970s and was elected into the St. Thomas Athletic Hall of Fame.
Joe and wife Kathleen reside in New Brighton and have raised five children.
Besides the St. Thomas successes in CC and on the track, Sweeney's teams have been excellent students and active members of the campus scene.
The UST achievements under Sweeney's guidance include:
- 28 individual national championships (two in cross country, 26 in track & field)
- 16 top-7 national team finishes in cross country (five championships, five runner-up finishes)
- The lone Minnesota university to win an NCAA women's track relay championship (4x100 in 1997; DM Relay indoors 2010, 2015 and 2016)
- More than 165 All-American honors in cross country and track & field
- Eleven CoSIDA Academic All-America honors, four NCAA Postgraduate Scholars
- Top-5 national team placings in cross country, indoor and outdoor track 28 times
- UST has had a cross country All-America or a team in the national meet 30 out of 40 seasons
- Five impressive MIAC consecutive team championship streaks – 21, indoor track (2000-present); 14, outdoor track (1985-98); 15, outdoor track (2004-present); 9, indoor track (1989-97); and 9, cross country (1981-89). The Toms also swept the MIAC "triple crown" for CC, indoor and outdoor track titles in 2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2016-17.
- The top individual finisher in five of the last 25 conference cross country meets
- St. Thomas track and field sent a women’s or men’s relay team into the finals at outdoor nationals a remarkable 34 consecutive years before the streak ended in 2016.
