Dr. Mark Thompson begins his first year at Regina as the cross country and track and field head coach. He received his Doctorate (2006) and Masters (2003) at Aurora University, and his Bachelors (1995) at the University of Illinois - Champaign. He is currently employed with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). Prior to coming on board to Regina, he was the head boys track and field coach at Chicago (Harlan) High School, where he developed one of the state's top underclassmen hurdlers in only a few months. He has also coached at Elgin, Barrington, and Champaign (Central) high school - his alma mater.

Dr. Thompson began his track and field head coaching career at his alma mater Champaign (Holy Cross) grade school, where he developed several state champions in the Illinois Elementary School Association (IESA) from 1991-1995. As the head cross country coach for Champaign (St. Matthew) grade school, he developed from scratch one of the top cross country teams in IESA history in only two seasons. After finishing second in the state championship in their inaugural season in 1993, the 1994 team went undefeated with their top 5 usually consisting of three 6th-graders and two 7th-graders. In IESA girls cross country history, St. Matthew became the youngest team ever to win a state championship, the first team to have 7 girls run 13:00 or better for 3200 meters, the school with the lowest enrollment to win a single class state championship, and the only non-Chicago area school to win a single class state title. At Dundee (Emmanuel Lutheran), his boys track and field team won the school's first Lutheran state championship in 1999, after finishing 3rd in 1998.

In 1992, Dr. Thompson started the Champaign Hurricane Running Club which later evolved into the prolific Illinois Teen Runner Running Club after a student teaching assignment relocated him to the Chicago area in 1995. Between the fall of 1996 and the spring of 2000, his running club alumni won 75% of the IHSA Girls Class AA individual state titles between the 800, 1600, 3200, and cross country races. His running club alumni include an Olympian and World Championships qualifier, three Olympic Trials qualifiers, one NCAA champion, one World Junior Cross Country qualifier, three High School 1st team and one 3rd team Footlocker Cross Country All-Americans, one USATF Track and Field Youth girls national record holder, and several AAU and USATF team and individual national champions. In all, his running club alumni secured 13 individual IHSA Girls Class AA state titles and more than 100 All-State performances by both boys and girls in both Class A and AA Cross Country and Track & Field in only five years. At the end of the century, Dr. Thompson suspended the running club to pursue personal and educational interests.

PICTURES

Dr. Thompson's St. Matthew girls' Cross Country team won the IESA state championship in 1994, the same year Associate Head Coach Greg Fedyski's MacArthur boys' team won the IESA state title led by Olympian Jorge Torres' course record.

Dr. Thompson developed arguably the most successful private distance running club in the nation. His Illinois Teen Runner Hurricane Running Club alumni include four Footlocker All-Americans and one World Junior Cross Country qualifier between 1996 and 1999, including 2008 Track and Field Olympian Christin Wurth-Thomas (#457).