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Head coach Amy Seago continues to build the Cougars' cross country and track & field programs as she enters her 10th year at the College of Charleston.
Under Seago's tutelage, Charleston's athletes have captured 18 conference titles in six different individual events and earned three trips to the NCAA Outdoor Regionals.
In the 2011-12 season four different athletes won a combined seven Southern Conference Championships in the 3K, 5K, high jump, 3K steeplechase and shot put events. Senior Emily Smith won the indoor and outdoor titles in the high jump and qualified to compete in the NCAA East Prelim in Jacksonville, Fla.
In the 2011 cross country season Seago guided the women's team to a fifth-place finish, their best finish since 2006. Sophomore Dena O'Brien finished third-place in the race. O'Brien went on to the NCAA Southeast Regional where she set a school record in 20:40 for the 6K race and finished 11th.
In the 2010-11 track & field season freshman Dena O'Brien won the indoor and outdoor conference titles in the 5,000-meter run and advanced to the NCAA East Regional in Bloomington, Ind.
High-jumper Emily Smith finished eighth with a jump of 5'8½" at the 2009 NCAA Outdoor Regionals after being crowned the Southern Conference champion at both the indoor and outdoor conference championships. Smith was named the SoCon Freshman of the Year for the 2008-09 indoor season.
Seago also worked with thrower Chakosa Lance, who became the first College of Charleston athlete to compete at the NCAA Regionals in 2004, taking 24th place in the hammer throw. Lance returned to the NCAA Regionals in 2006 and posted a 20th-place finish in the same event. She was also a three-time SoCon champion in the weight throw and currently holds the conference record of 64'1¼".
Charleston's athletes have been named to all-conference teams 20 times since Seago took over the program in August 2003. Additionally, three rookies were named to the Southern Conference Indoor Track & Field All-Freshman Team while five garnered outdoor all-freshman honors in 2009.
Seago has also seen success with the Cougars' cross country teams. She has coached the women's team to a program-best fifth place at the SoCon Championships three times (2004, 2006, 2011). Ashley Arnold's fifth-place finish in the 2004 conference meet earned her a spot on the All-Southern Conference Team as well as Freshman of the Year honors. On the men's side, she has helped develop Trevor Sprague, who broke the school record in the 8K three times in 2009 and posted the third-fastest time in the 10K at the NCAA Regionals at Louisville.
Prior to coming to the College of Charleston, Seago served as the head women's cross country and assistant men's and women's track & field coach at Washington & Lee University for two years. Under her guidance, the Generals finished second at the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Championships in 2002 and went on to place seventh at the NCAA Southeast Championships. She also had four athletes earn All-ODAC honors as well as two all-state and all-region performers.
Working primarily with the distance runners during track & field season, Seago coached a conference champion in the mile at the ODAC Indoor Championships as well as five to all-ODAC performances.
Seago began her career as a graduate assistant at Pittsburg State in Kansas. She aided the coaching staff in developing a team that finished 12th at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships in 2000. Two members of the Gorillas were given All-America status. She also assisted in the coaching of a NCAA National runner-up in the steeplechase. Seago graduated with a M.S. in Physical Education.
Formerly Amy Schuckert, Seago was a track & field All-American at Allegheny College. A two-year captain of the cross country team, Seago qualified for the NCAA Cross Country Championships twice. Additionally, she was a six-time NCAA national qualifier in track and set the conference record in the 800m. She won 12 North Coast Athletic Conference titles and was named to the all-conference team 18 times.
Named the 1999 Allegheny College Female Athlete of the Year, the Canton, Ohio native graduated with a B.A. in English. She was recognized in 2004 when she was named to the North Coast Athletic Conference All-Decade Team for both cross country and track & field.
Seago is USATF Level II certified in endurance, throws and jumps. She and her husband, George Seago IV, were married in the summer of 2008 and currently reside in West Ashley. The couple have a baby girl Reese Blair Seago, born January 7, 2012.
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