BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. – Gardner-Webb Track & Field and Cross Country Head Coach Brian Baker announced his retirement from coaching on Friday after 22 years with the program.
 
A national search to find the next leader of the programs will begin immediately.
 
Baker joined the Gardner-Webb family in 2001 as an assistant coach in charge of distance runners. He took over as head coach in 2004.
 
Baker was named 2006 Atlantic Sun Conference Coach of the Year after leading the Gardner-Webb Men's Track & Field team to their first conference title that spring in Clermont, Fla. GWU won seven individual outdoor titles at the meet and saw 19 men earn All-Conference honors. Baker coached 87 individual conference champions during his time in charge of the program.
 
Baker is a 1994 graduate of the University of Arkansas, where he provided a major impact on Razorbacks' teams dominance on the track. He was a part of nine team national championships, including triple crowns (cross country, indoor and outdoor) in 1992-93 and 1993-94. Baker won two individual national titles in 1994 as a senior, taking first in the Distance Medley Relay and the 5,000-meter run.
 
He was an alternate for the 1996 Olympic Team in the 5,000-meter run and finished ninth in the 3,000-meter run at the 1999 World Indoor Track & Field Championships held in Japan. In 1995, he placed 10th in the 5,000-meter run at the World University Games. Baker is also a former member of the U.S. World Cross Country Team (1996 and 1997) and finished third, receiving a bronze medal at the Pan American Games.
 
Baker was inducted into the Arkansas Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2004.