Jennifer “Jay” Hartshorn completed her 17th season as head coach of women's cross country and track and field during the 2021-22 academic year, after leading the Bates women's cross country team to the NCAA Championship meet for the fifth time in her tenure.
She is now the head coach at Mount Holyoke.
In 2021, Jillian Richardson '23 and Tara Ellard '22 became the first duo to win All-America honors in the same season for women's cross country, giving Bates five cross country All-Americans during Hartshorn's tenure.
Through 17 years of coaching at Bates, Hartshorn has coached 25 Bates student-athletes to 49 indoor track and field NCAA All-America performances in 11 different events. In outdoor track and field, she has coached 11 student-athletes to 20 outdoor NCAA All-America performances in 11 different events, including one NCAA title.
She has led the Bates women's cross country team to the NCAA Championships five times, including four times in the past five years. In 2019, the Bobcats finished 14th at nationals for the best NCAA finish in team history; in 2018 the Bobcats placed 17th in the nation and Katie Barker '19 became the third Bates women's cross country runner to earn All-America honors under Hartshorn's tutelage.
A two-time NESCAC Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year honoree, Hartshorn and her staff swept the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) coaches' awards for women's cross country and track & field in the 2016-17 academic year.
Hartshorn received NESCAC Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year honors in 2016 after leading the Bobcats to third place at the conference championship meet, the program's best mark since 1987. Later the same year, Hartshorn and assistant coaches Art Feeley, Curtis Johnson, men's head coach Al Fereshetian, Al Kirkland and Rebecca Dugan '12 were named NESCAC Coaching Staff of the Year, following a program-best second-place finish at the 2017 NESCAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships. The Bates women's cross country and track and field teams capped a banner year in 2016-17 by collectively placing sixth in the Division III Program of the Year standings, according to the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
Hartshorn came to Bates from Syracuse University, where she served as the top assistant in the track and field program from 2001 to 2005. She coached the Orange cross country teams and led Syracuse’s distance runners in indoor and outdoor track and field.
Hartshorn, who has coached for the U.S. at the Pan American Junior Athletics Championship, holds USA Track and Field Levels I and II certifications.
From 1999 to 2001, Hartshorn was the assistant coach of cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field at Smith College, where she earned her master’s degree in exercise and sports studies. Previously, she was assistant indoor and outdoor track and field coach at Colby College, where she earned a bachelor's degree in government in 1995. At Colby, Hartshorn was an Academic All-American and NCAA qualifier in cross country; a three-time NCAA All-American in indoor and outdoor track and field; and captain of Colby’s indoor and outdoor track and field teams.
