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On Thursday, The Stride Report confirmed via multiple trusted sources that Texas men's distance coach Pete Watson has been hired as Boston College's next Director of Track & Field and Cross Country.
Watson will be leaving the University of Texas after spending four years as the head coach of the Longhorns' men's cross country program while also leading the men’s distance group on the track.
It is unclear to The Stride Report who the next distance coach at Texas will be.
The soon-to-be Director of the Boston College Eagles had an immediate impact on the Texas men in his short time with the program, elevating an already-strong team to even greater heights.
In 2019, the Longhorns finished 25th at the NCAA XC Championships, their best team finish since 2013 and a six-place improvement from their 2018 national meet performance. Then, at the 2021 fall national meet, we saw a massive leap as the Longhorns finished 14th overall.
All signs have pointed to another strong season in 2022 as the Texas men were recently ranked at TSR #18 in our preseason cross country rankings.
And on the track, Texas has been even better.
This past winter, the Longhorns won the national title in the DMR. In the same season, they had four men run 1:47 or faster for 800 meters, five men run sub-four minute miles, two men run sub-eight minutes in the 3k and three men run sub-13:42 in the 5k.
On the outdoor oval, three men ran sub-28:40 for 10,000 meters and the Longhorns also went on to win the prestigious 4xMile at the Penn Relays.
Watson was also voted as The Stride Report's "Best Distance Coach" for the 2022 indoor track season.
Watson will now move into a role where he is guiding the direction of both the men's and women’s programs at Boston College. This will mark the first time that he has overseen a women’s team at the NCAA level.
Watson inherits a Boston College men’s distance team that finished 13th at the ACC XC Championships and 28th at the Northeast Regional XC Championships last fall. On the other side, the women finished 6th and 8th at their respective championships before their season ultimately came to an end.
As Watson ventures north, he will be tasked with retooling these respective rosters in order to emerge as a more competitive program in the powerhouse conference that is the ACC.
It should be noted that the Boston College men do not offer scholarships for track and field or cross country. That, however, could be changing with Watson's hiring, although that is only speculation at this time.