MIT Cross Country and Track and Field

Coaching Staff

Head Coach: - retired, working final season part-time
Halston Taylor

Halston Taylor will be entering his 15th campaign at the helm of both the men’s and women’s cross country programs at MIT (15 for the women, 40 for the men). In 14 seasons with the women, the Engineers have captured all 13 NEWMAC titles (minus the COVID year in 2020), earned 12 consecutive top 10 finishes at the NCAA Championship and had 14 runners collect All-America honors.

The men have never lost a NEWMAC Conference championship, winning every title since its inception in 1998. Frequently qualifying for the NCAA Division III championship, the men have qualified every year since 2013, placing among the top 10 teams three times in those years.

Taylor was named the Conference’s Coach of the Year for the 26th time overall while also garnering his eighth United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) New England Region Coach of the Year honor.

In 2019, MIT's women ended their season in seventh at the NCAA Championship, while the men finished in ninth.

Before arriving at MIT, Taylor coached the women’s track club at South Carolina and was the boy’s track coach at both Granby and Mohawk Regional high schools in Massachusetts.

A native of Columbia, S.C., Taylor is a graduate of the University of South Carolina where he was a four-year letter winner and a 4:05-miler. After receiving his undergraduate degree in Physical Education, Taylor entered UMass-Amherst to study and receive his Masters in Exercise Science.

Riley Macon will serve as the assistant coach for the 2021 season while also coaching the mid-distance and distance runners on the track and field teams. Macon previously worked as a volunteer assistant at MIT for the 2018 cross country season and is currently an adjunct professor in the Department of Exercise Science at Middle Tennessee State University.

In addition, Macon has also served as the deputy director of the Boulder Running Camps since January 2017, where he has planned and executed three camp sessions totaling approximately 350 campers each summer.

He is a 2016 graduate of the University of Minnesota, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in kinesiology. As a student-athlete at Minnesota, Macon was a two-time Academic All-Big Ten Cross Country Scholar-Athlete, a two-year varsity letter winner and is currently pursuing his Master of Science degree in exercise science from Middle Tennessee State University.