Matt Folk

Coach Folk's Conference Scorers

    Matt Folk, a two-time U.S. Olympic Trials qualifier and Youngstown State alumnus, enters his ninth season as assistant cross country coach and distance coach in track and field.
    In his 12 seasons with the Penguins as a coach and student-athlete, Folk has brought national recognition to the program and has been directly linked to 11 of YSU’s 14 conference championships.
    At the coaching ranks, Folk helped lead the Penguins to six Horizon League Track and Field Championships over a four-year span, and he was a part of five Mid-Continent Conference championship squads as a student-athlete.
    In his eight seasons as a track and field coach, Folk has coached an All-American, a Horizon League Athlete of the Year and 13 individual winners in distance events. He has also tutored four first-team all-conference selections in cross country and two Horizon League Newcomer of the Year selections.
    All-American Kurt Michaelis developed into the most decorated student-athlete to ever run at YSU under Folk. In 2003 Michaelis helped the men’s squad capture the school’s first-ever Horizon League Championship in any sport and was named the Horizon League Track and Field Athlete of the Year. He later became YSU’s first-ever Division I All-American in the mile with a ninth-place finish at the NCAA Championship. Michaelis retired as an eight-time conference champion.
    The women’s squad began a string of four straight Horizon League titles in the 2004 indoor season with distance runner Emily Schnitkey in the foreground. Schnitkey won the mile at the 2004 indoor meet and won two more titles at the 2005 outdoor meet. Schnitkey also became the first distance runner in YSU history to automatically qualify for the NCAA Mideast Regional when she hit the standard in the steeplechase in 2004.
    Andrea Cohol was also a two-time champion at the 2000 Mid-Con Championships under Folk, winning the 5,000m and 10,000m.
    Folk’s distance group has also been solid in cross country. Schnitkey was a three-time First-Team All-Horizon League selection, and Lisa Davies was the runner-up at the conference meet in 2003. Both were named the Horizon League’s Newcomer of the Year during their careers.
    The YSU men’s cross country squad has also finished third or better at the conference meet in six of his eight seasons.
    As a student-athlete, Folk qualified for the 1998 Cross Country National Championships and was YSU’s first male cross country runner to compete at the national level. He was a nine-time Mid-Continent Conference All-Academic selection and helped the cross country and track and field program to win five Mid-Con titles. Folk, who was a two-time individual conference champion, was also named The Vindicator’s Male Athlete of the Year in 1999. Folk currently holds three school records - the five mile run and in the 10K in cross country and the outdoor 10,000m.
    Folk continued to train after graduating and in October 2003 he qualified for the Olympic Trials in the marathon by running a time of 2:21.10. He reached the qualifying time again in the marathon in January 2007, running the Chevron Houston Marathon in 2:20.41.
    Folk graduated from YSU with a degree in accounting in 1999 and received a master’s degree in business in August 2001. Folk is currently employed at Second Sole Athletic Footwear in Boardman.