Jay Weaver is in his third season as the director of operations of Utah State’s track & field and cross country programs. Weaver is entering his first year as an assistant coach and the recruiting coordinator for the Aggies.
During the 2020-21 campaign, which saw the cancelation of the indoor track & field season due to COVID-19 and a shortened cross country season that was moved from the fall to spring of 2021, the Aggies still enjoyed a wealth of success, both academically and athletically.
On the men’s side the cross country team earned its best-ever finish at the NCAA Division I Cross Country National Championships as the 21st-ranked Aggies scored 351 points to place 11th overall, surpassing their previous best championship finish of 16th in 2019. Highlighted by an All-American (28th place) performance from Caleb Garnica. On top of that, Camren Todd was the recipient of the Elite 90 award for the 2020 NCAA Division I Men’s Cross Country Championships. Todd is the first Utah State student-athlete to ever garner the Elite 90 award, which was established in 2009-10.
Prior to earning All-America honors, Garnica captured the men’s 8-kilometer race at the 2020 Mountain West Cross Country Championships. For his efforts, he was tabbed the MW Men’s Student-Athlete of the Year, to go along with earning first-team all-MW honors. Todd and Haydon Cooper also garnered first-team all-league honors, while Bridger Altice earned a second-team citation.
On the women’s side, Katie Haviland earned second-team all-MW accolades by placing eighth in the 6K race with a time of 20:22.1. She then received an at-large bid to the NCAA Cross Country Championships, where she placed 43rd, narrowly missing out on an All-American citation.
In his first year with the Aggies, the men’s cross country team won its first-ever Mountain West title with 42 points in 2019. Utah State was led by Dallin Farnsworth, who became the first Aggie to ever win an MW Championship race. His time of 21:14.2 broke the MW Championship record, surpassing the previous record by 20 seconds. Farnsworth, a native of Pocatello, Idaho, also earned MW Men’s Student-Athlete of the Year honors. The Aggies also racked up an additional two first-team all-conference honors in Luke Beattie (fifth) and James Withers (sixth) and a second-team all-conference performance in Caleb Garnica (14th). Additionally, head coach Artie Gulden was named the MW Coach of the Year, the first Aggie coach to ever earn that honor.
Utah State’s men earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Cross Country Championships after the team finished fourth and had five runners earn all-region honors at the NCAA Mountain Regional Championships.
At the NCAA Cross Country Championships, the 19th-ranked Aggies scored 428 points to place 16th overall, surpassing their previous best championship finish of 27th in 2017.
Prior to joining the Aggies, Weaver served as the Director of Operations for the men’s and women’s track & field and cross country programs at Princeton University. While at Princeton, the men’s program won the Ivy League triple crown (Cross Country, Indoor and Outdoor). The men’s cross country team were crowned Mid-Atlantic Region champions and received an automatic qualifying bid for the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships in Louisville, Kentucky.
In the three years preceding his joining Princeton, Weaver worked as the Assistant Director of Game Operations and Event Management for Olympic sports at Appalachian State University. Prior to Weaver moving into athletic administration, he also worked as a volunteer coach with the cross country and track programs at Appalachian State. In his two-year stint as a volunteer coach, Weaver coached six first-team all-conference performers, two NCAA East Preliminary Championships qualifiers, and two USATF junior outdoor championship qualifiers.
A native of North Carolina, Weaver was born into the sports of track & field and cross country. His father, John, was a long-serving coach of Appalachian State (42 years), both as the head women’s coach and eventually the Director of Track & Field and Cross Country once the programs combined. In August, John was announced as an inductee into the 2021 USTFCCCA Hall of Fame.
As an athlete, Weaver was a part of the back-to-back-to-back Southern Conference Championship triple crown winning teams with Appalachian State amassing a total of 10 of the 12 conference championships during that period.
In 2012, Weaver graduated from Appalachian State with a bachelor’s of science degree in health and exercise psychology. He then went on to earn a master’s degree in higher education – university leadership and administration from Appalachian State.