Ithaca College Athletics

Jim Nichols has served as head coach of the men’s track & field team since 1986. He works primarily with the middle distance and distance runners, along with the pole vault and high jump competitors. He is also head coach of the men’s cross country team. Nichols coached the women’s track and field program from 1986 to 1993 and from 1998 to 2000.

Under Nichols the Bombers have won sixconference indoor and nin conference outdoor championships, including both during the 2007-08 season. Last year, Nichols was named Empire 8 Coach of the Year during both the indoor and outdoor seasons. Ithaca has placed in the top five at the NYSCTC indoor meet 15 times and has 17 top-five finishes at the state outdoor meet, including first-ever state titles during both seasons in 2000-01. For that accomplishment Nichols was selected as the NYSCTC Coach of the Year for each season. His teams have compiled dual-meet records of 19-14 in the indoor season and 16-4 in the outdoor season.

Nichols was selected by USA Track and Field and served on the staff for the 2002 World Cross Country Championships. He was the team leader for the U.S. junior men’s team that competed in Dublin, Ireland, in March of 2002. His duties included serving as the chief facilitator for the athletes, and handling aspects of competition and travel surrounding the event. He also assisted in the selection of the team at the trials.

Nichols has coached 29 all-Americans at Ithaca, including the 1992 national champion in the women’s outdoor 5,000-meter run. Before his arrival at Ithaca, Nichols served for two years as head cross country and track & field coach at Plattsburgh, where he coached the 1986 indoor 800-meter run national champion.

Nichols was an all-American cross country runner at North Central College and a member of that school’s national championship teams in 1978 and 1979. Following his graduation in 1979 he was an assistant track and cross country coach at North Central and later was a graduate assistant for both sports at Indiana University.

The Ithaca men’s cross country team has qualified for the NCAA championships five times during his career, including three of the past six seasons.