CROSS COUNTRY
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Email:
- ddopek@depaul.edu
- Phone:
- (773) 325-4474
The greatest sprinter in DePaul history, Dave Dopek was named head coach of the track & field programs on July 13, 2010 and was named head coach of the cross country program in early January of 2011. He enters his 28th season on the track & field staff in 2022-23 and his 13th heading up that program and his 12th as cross country head coach.
DePaul Track & Field wrapped up the 2019-20 indoor season just before the COVID-19 pandemic set in and canceled the outdoor campaign. The Blue Demons saw a highly successful indoor season with new school records, a handful of conference honors and a No. 12 USTFCCCA Midwest Region ranking for the men. On the women’s side, thrower Jade Gates added to her school-record mark in the weight throw and earned BIG EAST Field Athlete of the Week on two occasions during the 2019-20 campaign. At the 2020 BIG EAST Indoor Championships, the DePaul track & field team earned multiple trips to the podium, including six first-place finishes with 23 additional Blue Demons earning All-BIG EAST honors for finishing top-three in their respective events. Overall, the men finished third at the SPIRE Institute while the women closed out the competition with a fifth place finish.
The 2018-19 season saw the DePaul women’s squad post two runner-up finishes at both BIG EAST meets. Overall, the Blue Demons tallied a total of 16 Conference Individual and Relay winners while also earning 44 All-BIG EAST recognitions. Most notably, Jade Nolan, in winning the indoor and outdoor triple jump and long jump, was named Women’s Most Outstanding Field Performer while also earning the High Point Performer of the BIG EAST Indoor and Outdoor meets. The men’s squad posted a fifth place finish in indoor competition, while earning third place at the BIG EAST outdoor meet. Kyle Decker finished his career with a combined seven BIG EAST 60m/110m high hurdle championships. Brendan Van Voorhis, after winning the 200m, finishing 2nd in the 400m, and being on the championship 4x100 and 4x400m relays, was named Outdoor Track & Field Most Outstanding Track Athlete, as well as High Point Performer of the Meet.
A total of six Blue Demons qualified for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds. Henry Larkin advanced to the quarterfinals in the 400-meter dash with a 46.76 on day one of the event. On day two he set a new program record of 46.18, improving on the 25-year-old record of 46.46 seconds that he equaled a few weeks prior. Alexia Brooks also advanced to the quarterfinals in the 100-meter hurdles. Brooks posted a personal best and broke her own school record with a time of 13.38.
During the 2017-18 season, both the men’s and women’s programs competed at the top of the conference. At the indoor championships, the Blue Demon men finished third while the women finished fourth. Sprinter Kyle Decker added a conference title to his illustrious career. As a graduating senior in 2019, Decker had won four straight 60m hurdles titles at the BIG EAST ITF Championships. Decker was chosen as a winner of the 2018-19 BIG EAST Michael Tranghese Postgraduate Leadership Award, as unanimously selected by the BIG EAST Conference Academic Affairs Committee.
The Blue Demon squads continued their success during the 2018 outdoor season as they claimed strong finishes at the BIG EAST Outdoor Championships. The women finished second while the men finished third and DePaul sent three athletes to the NCAA West Preliminaries. Triple jumper Brian Mada advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Championships where he finished 12th, earning Second Team All-American status as well as setting a new school triple jump record of 15.89m.
In 2016-17, the DePaul men’s track & field team earned its first BIG EAST Championship at the BIG EAST Indoor Championships on March 3, 2017. "There is a lot more emotion about the championship this past weekend,” said Dopek after the team claimed the title. “When I won as an athlete, I just had a little fist pump because I thought I was supposed to win. It was more surreal as an athlete because I won a national championship unranked in my first time going there. I was celebrating that with my coach and family. But this was a little different. This was bringing a group of student-athletes and young men together, convincing them that we can win, making them believe that we can win, making them believe that in order to do that, we had to do it together, and then watching it unfold. They actually did it Friday and Saturday but my staff and I have been working on preparing them for it for six years now. There was a lot more emotion."
The DePaul’s men’s squad went on to sweep the conference championships as they also claimed the BIG EAST Outdoor Championships title in May. Thrower Trevor Kintyhtt advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Championships where he competed in the discus and finished 23rd.
The Blue Demons earned 15 All-Conference honors at the BIG EAST Indoor Championships in 2015 as the 2015-16 season progressed. As a team, the men finished third while the women earned a fifth-place finish, their best in program history. During outdoor season, Dopek’s athletes secured nine conference titles at the BIG EAST Outdoor Championships. A trio (Sattler, Whittler, and Mada) of Blue Demons advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Preliminaries.
During the 2014-15 season, the Blue Demons earned four first-place finishes at the BIG EAST Indoor Championships and collected 12 All-Conference honors. Senior thrower Matt Babicz advanced to the NCAA Indoor Championships and finished seventh in the shot put, earning him First Team All-American honors. Later in the season, Babicz advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene where he finished 19th. Babicz won four BIG EAST shot put championships from 2014-2015, was a four-time national qualifier and earned All-American honors twice.
The 2013-14 campaign saw a third place men's track and field team finish at the 2014 BIG EAST Indoor Championships and a runner-up finish at the Outdoor Championships. In addition, six individuals qualified for the 2014 National Championships, while senior thrower Matt Babicz advanced to the NCAA Finals in Eugene, Ore., in June 2014. On the women's side, the 2013-14 Blue Demons took fourth at the BIG EAST Outdoor Track and Field Championships and fifth at the Indoor Finals.
Dopek's impact on the program was evident during the 2012 track season where the Bllue Demons saw four NCAA Qualifiers. Tim Nedow qualified for the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in the shot put. In the outdoor season, Matt Babicz qualified for the NCAA Track & Field Championships in the shot put while Melissa Fraser and Alana Kovacs qualified in the javelin throw. Nedow was named the BIG EAST Conference's Most Outstanding Field Performer at both the indoor and outdoor meets in 2012. Nedow went on to represent Canada at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games where he finished 16th in the qualifying round.
During Dopek’s tenure, the Blue Demons have risen to become one of the top performing Division I programs in the nation in the classroom. DePaul cross country programs have earned a combined nine APR Public Recognition Awards under Dopek’s tutelage. The Blue Demons were most recently honored with USATFCCCA All-Academic Awards in 2020, marking the 12th straight year for the women’s team and 11th time in the last 12 years for the men. DePaul has garnered three Academic All-Americans during Dopek’s tenure and boasted five BIG EAST Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence Award recipients. Kyle Decker was chosen as a winner of the 2018-19 BIG EAST Michael Tranghese Postgraduate Leadership Award, a $5,000 scholarship, as unanimously selected by the BIG EAST Conference Academic Affairs Committee.
Before beginning his coaching career, Dopek inked his name into the DePaul history books. He became the school's first individual (or team) to win an NCAA championship when he captured the 200-meter title at the 1995 NCAA Indoor Championship at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis. Dopek also finished second in the 200 meters at the 1995 NCAA outdoor championships.
Dopek's success on the national scene continued when he won a gold medal in the 200-meter dash and was a member of the title-winning 4x100-meter relay team at the 1995 United States Olympic Festival. Dopek's experienced success continued on the internaitonal level when he took home gold at the World Univeresity Games in Fukuoka, Japan as a part of the 4x100-meter relay team. While there, Dopek also took home a silver medal in the 200-meters. The following year he participated (qualifying on to the semi-final round) in the 1996 U.S. Olympic Trials in Atlanta. In 1997, he claimed gold medals in both the 4x100 and 4x400-meter relays at the 1997 World University Games in Sicily, Italy.
During his four years as a member of the Blue Demons, Dopek was the staple of the program, winning seven individual Great Midwest Conference championships. The sprinter claimed individual titles in the indoor 200-meter dash in 1993 and 1995, indoor 400-meter dash in 1994 and 1995, the outdoor 400-meter dash in 1994 and 1995, and the outdoor 200-meter dash in 1995. He was also a member of the 4x400-meter relay team that took the outdoor titles in 1992 and 1995 and was a part of the 1995 4x100-meter relay championship squad. For his efforts, he was named the Outstanding Athlete of the 1995 Great Midwest Conference Outdoor Championships. He also earned DePaul's Most Valuable Performer in indoor track three times and was the outdoor MVP in 1995.
Dopek was also a member of the Great Midwest Conference All-Academic team in both the 1993-94 and 1994-95 school years.
On Jan. 30, 2010, Dopek was inducted into the DePaul Athletics Hall of Fame.
Dave Dopek By the Numbers (2020)
| BIG EAST Conference Champions (Individual/Relay) | 105 |
| BIG EAST Team Championships | 2 |
| NCAA Qualifiers | 25 |
| All-Americans | 7 |
| BIG EAST Most Outstanding Performers of the Meet | 18 |
| Academic All-Americans | 3 |
| BIG EAST Team Academic Excellence Award | 8 |
| BIG EAST Scholar Athlete-Sport Excellence Award | 5 |
| DePaul University School Records | 32 |
