NEW YORK - Columbia Director of Cross Country/Track & Field, Middle Distance & Distance Daniel Ireland announced the hiring of (Bryan) Cole Hester as the new Assistant Coach for Cross Country and Track & Field, effective as of Jan. 24, 2020.

"I am very excited to add Cole as a member of the Columbia Cross Country and Track and Field coaching staff," said Ireland.  "Cole is a young coach that is very motivated to work hard to help this program continue to develop. He has competed and coached at a very high level and that experience should help him and our student athletes in the months and years ahead. With his dedication and desire to doing everything possible for our program to excel, his impact on all of our student athletes will be tremendous."

Hester comes to Columbia after spending the previous two seasons at Notre Dame as a member of their cross country and track & field coaching staff.

During his time at Notre Dame, Hester worked with the men's cross country and distance teams, and during his first season on the staff (2018), he helped the men's cross country squad take its first ACC Conference Cross Country title in program history.  Following the ACC Championships, Hester coached the men's team to a second place finish at regionals and a 14th place finish at the NCAA National Championships.

This past fall, Hester was a part of a men's cross country squad that finished second at the ACC Championships, second at the regionals and eighth at the NCAA National Championships.  Overall while on the coaching staff at Notre Dame, the Irish had three student athletes crowned All-Americans.

On the track, during the 2018-19 indoor season, Hester, helped the men win the One-Mile Run at the ACC Championships and he coached the men's Distance Medley Relay squad that won the ACC Championship, and qualified for the NCAA Indoor Track & Field National Championships by running the second fastest DMR time in NCAA history.  At nationals, the Notre Dame DMR squad won the 2019 Indoor National Championship.

During the 2019 outdoor season, Hester helped qualify eight men for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships and he assisted Yared Nuguse to a national championships in the 1,500-Meter Run.

A native of Indianapolis, Indiana, Hester graduated from Purdue in 2018 where he competed in cross country and track & field.  A four-year letter recipient at Purdue, Hester was a member of what was at the time, the highest Big Ten and NCAA Regional finish in over 20 years at Purdue.

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