E-mail Coach Duesing (ld22@cornell.edu)
The Alan B. '53 and Elizabeth Heekin Harris Coach of Women's Track & Field and Cross Country
Louis J. Duesing, Jr. enters his 19th year at Cornell, and his sixth as The Alan B.’53 and Elizabeth Heekin Harris Coach of Women’s Track & Field and Cross Country.
Duesing’s 18th year as head coach was one where records continued to be broken. Under his leadership, Cornell track and cross country continues to flourish and distinguish itself as a consistently strong, consistently competitive program within the Ivy League, as well as regionally and nationally.
The 2007 cross country season saw an inexperienced group continue to improve throughout the season, with its most competitive races at the end of the fall. While a seventh place finish at the Heptagonals was unexpected, the team rebounded with a very competitive seventh at the NCAA Regional Championships, and an impressive third at the ECAC Championships. Stephanie Pancoast ’10 earned All-Region honors and was joined by Katie Sullivan ’11 in earning All-East honors. Pancoast also impressed in the classroom in being recognized as a coaches association Academic All-America, as did the entire team for the 15th consecutive year.
On the track, the 2008 team competed well in a hotly contested Indoor Heptagonal Championship in Barton Hall. While the third-place finish behind Princeton and Brown was not what the team had wanted, they learned valuable lessons which were manifest at the ECAC Championships with a seventh place team finish, and subsequent performances throughout the outdoor campaign. Jeomi Maduka, the Heps indoor athlete of the meet, added to her ever-growing list of accomplishments with an All-America performance in the long jump at the NCAA Championships.
The team added to the championship legacy at Cornell in winning the outdoor Heptagonal title for the seventh consecutive year – a Heptagonal record. What was particularly impressive about this win was the team’s determination in coming back from a 51-point deficit well into the second day of competition to pull away from Princeton with a 24-point victory. The outdoor team went on to finish third at the ECAC Championships and eighth at the NCAA East Regional Championships. Maduka shared the outdoor athlete of the meet award with Penn’s Stacy Kim with an amazing four Heptagonal Champion performances, along with a meet record in the long jump. There were eight new school records set this year, along with two freshmen records to go along with 15 NCAA Regional qualifying marks.
Twelve women competed at the East Regional, with two (Maduka and Maria Matos) automatically qualifying for the NCAA Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. Both women competed well, with Maduka earning another All-America award in the long jump. Maduka went on the U.S. Olympic Trials where she was the top collegian in the long jump and competed in the final of that event. By virtue of her outstanding season she represented the United States at the North America Central America Caribbean (NACAC) Championships in Mexico City, earning a gold medal with her personal best performance of 21-11.
Duesing’s 18 years at the helm of the Big Red women’s programs has been marked by more Heptagonal Championships than any other team in the league. This past year’s outdoor title brought the overall number to 23. That level of excellence has been characterized by very strong teams. In cross country, depth and consistent improvement has meant four championships and, also unprecedented in the league, three consecutive top-four finishes at the NCAA cross country championships. On the track, the teams have been deep in many events as well as competitive in virtually every event contested at the league championships. Very strong team spirit and sense of cooperation and support has been complemented by hard work and dedication, and a determined competitive drive to achieve excellence. The 2007-08 team personified those values.
Duesing has coached 52 All-Americans in cross country and track and field (39 at Cornell), 187 Heptagonal champions, three Penn Relays champions, one NCAA champion and has had five individuals place in the top 10 at the NCAA cross country championships. Five of Duesing’s student-athletes have won NCAA postgraduate scholarships, six have earned Phi Beta Kappa recognition and 10 have been named CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, most recently, Emily Bartlett ‘09. Ginny Ryan ’95 was a finalist for the Walter Byers Scholarship, was a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-American, earned an NCAA postgraduate scholarship and earned a full scholarship to medical school.
In 1998, Duesing was appointed to the prestigious NCAA Track and Field Committee for a four-year term. He was also honored by his peers in serving as the team leader and head coach for the USA women’s cross country team that competed in South Africa at the IAAF XXIV World Cross Country Championships in March of 1996. In 1989, Duesing was the head coach of the USA women’s cross country team, which won a bronze medal at the IAAF XVII World Championships in Stavanger, Norway. He has also been a coach at the U.S. Olympic Festival.
Duesing has a TAC Level II certificate and has served as an instructor for that program in the endurance events and was instrumental in developing its curriculum. He has been an instructor with the TAC Junior Elite Male and Female Development Clinic since 1983 and was one of the coordinators for the USA Track and Field men’s 5,000-meter development program.
A 1969 graduate of Lafayette College with a bachelor of arts degree in history, Duesing also received an M.A.T. degree (history) from the University of New Hampshire in 1974 and an M.S. degree (performance assessment) from Penn State University in 1984. He also served as an officer in the U.S. Navy from 1969-72. Duesing attended Bishop Hendricken High School in Warwick, R.I.
He is married to Laura Toy and resides in Ithaca.
