This is Ben's 12th year at the helm of the Men's and Women's Cross Country teams and 2004 will mark his second year as head coach of Track & Field team.

In that time, he has guided the men's team to the NAIA National Cross Country Championships 11 out of the last 12 years, where they have finished in the top 20 seven times and the top ten four times, including a second place finish in 2002; in 1993 and 2000 the men placed 6th and in 1994 they placed 8th.

In route to the national meet, the men have won two NAIA District II Championships and nine straight Cascade Conference titles, earning their coach two NAIA District II, nine Cascade Conference, and three NAIA Regional Coach of the Year honors.

The 2002 season also mark a milestone in Eastern Track history as the men's team claimed their first-ever conference track & field title.

On the women's side, Coach Ben has guided the team to near the top of the NAIA cross country ranks. In 1995 Eastern's women's team earned their first national ranking in school history, and in 1996 qualified for their first trip to the NAIA National Championships. The 1997, 1998 and 1999 teams all advanced to the national meet where they finished 6th, 9th, and 3rd. Along the way the team five won consecutive Cascade Conference titles from 1995-1999 and earned Coach Ben five conference Coach of the Year awards, one women's conference All-Sport award, and one NAIA National Coach of the Year honors.

On the track, both the men and women have set over twenty school records, rewritten Eastern's top 5 performance lists and qualified forty -five athlete's for the NAIA Indoor and Outdoor National Championships. Coach Ben has seen 21 of his runners earn performance All-American honors, including 7 Academic All-American awards, as well as two men's and two women's Academic Team Awards in Cross Country.

Prior to coming to Eastern, Coach Ben spent three years as the Men's Cross Country and Track Coach at Highline Community College in Des Moines, Wash. and two years at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS. as an assistant cross country and track coach.

Coach Ben and his wife (and assistant coach) Talia have three children: Amanda, Nick, and Bennett.