Heath Gibson begins his seventh season as assistant coach for men’s and women’s cross country and track and field at Otterbein University, his alma mater.
A 2011 Otterbein graduate, Gibson is an assistant for the fall cross country season and is in charge of coaching the middle distance runners during the indoor and outdoor track and field campaigns.
The Cardinal middle distance group has seen a great deal of success on both the conference and national scale since Gibson took the reins prior to the 2014-15 season. In his current role, Gibson has coached 14 individual OAC champions, 11 individual All-Ohio champions, 25 NCAA qualifiers, and 15 NCAA All-Americans.
Under his guidance, middle distance athletes have broken 10 school records in the 1000m, 1500m, 1 Mile, 3K, 5K and various relays. Gibson also played an integral part in coaching individuals that comprised the Otterbein men’s and women’s distance medley relay (DMR) squads that qualified for the NCAA Division III Indoor Championships in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.
Gibson was responsible for coaching former Cardinal standout and multiple-time All-American Claire Lamb throughout her historic 2017 and 2018 indoor and outdoor track campaigns. During those seasons, Lamb re-wrote the Otterbein record books, breaking four major individual school records in the indoor Mile (4:57.64), indoor 3K (9:46.76), outdoor 1500m (4:30.43) and outdoor 5K (16:37.71), while also earning All-American accolades over multiple years as the anchor of Otterbein’s record setting women’s DMR.
Prior to his return to Otterbein, Gibson spent three years (2012-14) as the recruiting coordinator for the Ohio Northern University track and field/cross country teams. He received USATF Level 1 certification in 2013.
Gibson graduated from Otterbein with a bachelor’s degree in sport management in 2011. The Liberty Township, Ohio native earned All-Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) honors three times in track and field as a member of the Otterbein distance medley and 4x800 relay teams; and earned Academic All-OAC honorable mention honors his senior season. He ranks seventh all-time in the 1,500-meter run at Otterbein in 3:56.32.
