Ryan Chapman enters his 10th season in 2025 as the Wartburg head men's & women's cross country coach and assistant track & field coach, leading the distance runners. Since then, he has led 17 Wartburg cross country teams to the NCAA Championships, including a 2022 and 2024 second place men’s finishes for the program's best finish all-time as well as tied a program best finish on the women's side finishing third overall. The women's team has won the four NCAA Central Region titles. The men have also won NCAA Central Region titles in 2018-19 and again in 2021 and 2024. Chapman has coached 22 Knights to All-American finishes at the NCAA cross country national championships.
In 2024, the Wartburg men and women both captured the American Rivers Conference title for the seventh and sixth consecutive seasons respectively. It also marked the seventh-straight season with an MVP finish for the men as Isaiah Hammerand took first place in 2024. In 2024, the Wartburg men set a school-record perfect score of 15 points.
In 2023, both Lexi Brown and Christopher Collet were named Central Region MVP after each setting course records in the NCAA Regional hosted in Waverly. Hammerand also earned the nod in 2024.
Chapman is a four-time USTFCCCA men's Cross Country Central Regional Coach of the Year (2018, 2019, 2021, 2024) and a two-time USTFCCCA women's Cross Country Central Regional Coach of the Year (2021, 2022). In 2021, he guided the distance runners to a combined six All-American finishes between the men and women, including a national title for Aubrie Fisher in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase, the first national championship for the event in Wartburg history. He was named the USTFCCCA Central Region and USTFCCCA Outdoor National Men's Assistant Coach of the Year. Chapman was also named the USTFCCCA Central Region Men's Indoor Assistant of the Year in 2019, 2022 and 2024. He was also named the USTFCCCA National Assistant Coach of the Year in 2022.
He has also coached 13 CoSIDA/CSC Academic All-Americans.
Chapman came to Wartburg from Aurora University in Aurora, Ill., where he served as the head men's and women's cross country and head indoor and outdoor men's and women's track and field coach for eight years. In the Spring of 2015, he was named the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Midwest regional women's Coach of the Year. He also earned 10 Northern Athletic Collegiate Conference (NACC) men's conference Coach of the Year awards and 12 on the women's side in cross country and track combined.
Aurora won 22 NACC championships and Chapman coached 22 All-Americans during his tenure. The Spartans won the men's cross country title in 2012, 2013 and 2015; women's cross country championships in 2008, 2012, 2013 and 2014; men's indoor track championships in 2013, 2014 and 2015; women's indoor track championships in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016; men's outdoor track championships in 2014 and 2015 and women's outdoor track championships in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.
In addition to coaching all cross country and track and field programs at Aurora, Chapman was an English professor, faculty adviser to the Athletics Department and served on the Athletic Academic Advisory Committee.
He is a member of the USTFCCCA and is a Level 1 certified coach.
The Eureka, Ill., native earned a bachelor's degree in English literature from Augustana College in Rock Island in 2004 and a master's degree in creative writing from Washington University in 2007. He was a four-time letter winner as a member of the cross country and track and field teams.
Wartburg Cross Country Under Chapman:
Conference MVPs: Women (6), Men (6)
All-Region: Women (40); Men (46)
All-Americans: Women (11); Men (11)
| Season |
Conference Finish-Men |
NCAA Qualifiers |
Conference Finish-Women |
NCAA Qualifiers |
| 2016 |
3rd/9 teams, 70 pts. |
Team |
2nd/9 teams, 54 pts. |
Individual |
| 2017 |
2nd/9 teams, 41 pts. |
Team |
2nd/9 teams, 47 pts. |
Team |
| 2018 |
1st/9 teams, 32 pts. |
Team |
2nd/9 teams, 51 pts. |
Team |
| 2019 |
1st/9 teams, 19 pts. |
Team |
1st/9 teams, 36 pts. |
Team |
| 2020 |
1st/9 teams, 27 pts. |
N/A (NCAA Championships canceled) |
1st/9 teams, 24 pts. |
N/A (NCAA Championships canceled) |
| 2021 |
1st/9
teams, 20 pts. |
Team |
1st/9
teams, 20 pts. |
Team |
| 2022 |
1st/9
teams, 26 pts. |
Team |
1st/9
teams, 20 pts. |
Team |
| 2023 |
1st/9 teams. 27 pts. |
Team |
1st/9 teams, 27 pts. |
Team |
| 2024 |
1st/9 teams, 15 pts. |
Team |
1st/9 teams, 41 pts. |
Team |
