| Title: | Assistant Coach |
Betsy Frens joined the Kalamazoo College cross country staff in 2014.
Betsy an abundance of experience competing and coaching at the highest high school, collegiate, and post-collegiate levels.
From her days as an eight-time high school All-State honoree, including an individual track state title and a runner-up finish in cross country; to her years as a seven-time NCAA III All-American at Calvin College, during which she earned seven All-MIAA awards, two MIAA Most Valuable Runner honors, and won an individual track national title in the 3,000m run; to her decade-and-a-half of post-collegiate achievements on the state and national road racing scenes, Frens has demonstrated the ability to compete and win throughout her running career.
An All-MIAA and All-American harrier in each of her four cross country seasons at Calvin, Frens led the Knights to the podium every year--her teams finished as national runners-up twice and placed fourth nationally her other two seasons.
Frens also attained lofty academic heights in college, amassing four MIAA Academic Honor Roll awards and two first-team CoSIDA Academic All-American honors. Of eight possible seasons of college cross country and track, the one in which Frens was conspicuously absent from the All-MIAA team came when she missed a spring of competition to go on a study abroad semester in Dénia, Spain. Frens was named the Kay Tiemersma Award winner, the highest honor for a Calvin College woman student-athlete, upon completion of her college career.
Since graduation, Frens has worked as a high school teacher and coach, most recently for the past ten years at Kalamazoo Christian.
"Having been involved in competing for the past two decades and coaching at the high school level for the past several years, I am thrilled to coach at the collegiate level and be a part of the Kalamazoo College community,” said Frens. “It is my desire that the athletes can set and work toward goals, push their bodies beyond what they could imagine, and experience the joy of competition and the benefits of belonging to a team and cross country program."
Besides running, Frens enjoys spending time outside with her family, traveling, hiking, and watching her girls' sporting events and various activities. She lives in Kalamazoo with her husband, Kent, also an NCAA III cross country All-American while at Calvin College, and her two daughters, Madelyn and Josie.