Tommy Barksdale begins his second season as head women's cross country coach. He is the second head cross country coach in program history.

Barksdale led the team to the NCAA Championship last season for the first time in program history. The Falcons dominated the Peach Belt Conference Championship winning by 30 points and had the individual champion who won the race by over 30 seconds. UM posted four of the top-10 all-time fastest 5k times in program history in 2011 and posted seven of the top-10 fastest 6k times in program history. The Falcons went on to finish second at the NCAA Southeast Region Championship which earned them a trip to the NCAA Championship.

Barksdale was named the Southeast Region Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year while three of his athletes were named All-Region. His team received a USTFCCCA Academic Award while four of the runners were named to the USTFCCCA All-Academic list. 

Barksdale came to Montevallo after spending the previous two seasons as head cross country and track and field coach at Division I Morehead State University. Prior to his time at MSU he spent two seasons as assistant coach at Division I Troy University, one season as an assistant at Wallace State Community College and one season as a volunteer assistant coach here at Montevallo as he helped get the women’s program started.

During his time at MSU, coach Barksdale helped 33 athletes set personal bests in cross country and 37 athletes hit personal records in outdoor track. Both of his teams placed in the top-6 at the Ohio Valley Conference championships during his tenure. His teams won two conference Sportsmanship Awards and earned two All-Academic team honors from USTFCCCA.

While at Troy he helped guide both the men’s and women’s cross country teams to top-seven finishes at the Conference Championships. He guided both teams to All-Academic Team awards during his time as well.

During his stay at Wallace State the team had two NJCAA Indoor All-Americans and three Outdoor All-Americans. The men’s cross country team finished as the Region XXII Runners-up.
As an athlete, Barksdale competed at Bevill State Community College for two years before transferring to Division I Mississippi State University. While at Bevill State he was team captain of the NJCAA National Championship winning team, he was named All-Region and was elected as a representative to the USOC Running Camp.

Barksdale graduated from Mississippi State University with a bachelor’s of arts in political science in 2002. He is USA Track and Field Level I certified and took part in the USTFCCCA Convention in 2010 and the Super Distance Summit in 2010 and 2011.

Julia Marquardt begins her first season as assistant coach of the University of Montevallo women's cross-country program.

Michael Marquardt begins his second season as assistant coach of the University of Montevallo women's cross-country program.

Marquardt served as the head coach of the women's cross country team at Montevallo for seven seasons before stepping down to pursue other career opportunities.

The program became the tenth intercollegiate varsity program at Montevallo in the Fall of 2004.

A graduate of Birmingham-Southern College, Marquardt was a two-year letter-winner for the Panthers, qualified for the 2001 NAIA Outdoor Track National Championships, named team captain, and was named Academic All-Big South Conference in 2001. He earned his bachelor's degree in History with a minor in Sociology from BSC in 2002.

Prior to BSC, Marquardt was a two-year letter-winner at Bevill State Community College in Hamilton, named Academic All-American in 2000 and was part of teams that qualified for the NJCAA National Championships in 1998 and 1999.

Marquardt currently resides in Calera with his wife Julia and their two children, Owen and Elise.