Scott Tanis enters his first year as head coach for Augustana’s men’s and women’s cross country and track and field teams in 2024-25.
Tanis served as the assistant men's and women's cross country and track & field coach at Augustana for seven seasons and returned to the university in 2022 following a season as the head coach at St. Catherine's in St. Paul, Minnesota. Before Augustana, Tanis spent one season at Duke University after graduating from Lewis University in the Spring of 2013.
Tanis touts a multitude of accolades from his time with the Vikings as an assistant, earning NSIC Women's Assistant Coach of the Year three times. Under his leadership, Augustana collected six NSIC Cross Country team Championships, five NCAA Central Region Championships along with 12 top-20 finishes at the NCAA Championships.
He has coached 39 first and second-team All-Americans, two United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Region Athletes of the Year, and 156 USTFCCCA All-Region honorees. The Vikings tallied 16 school records, eight NSIC Championship records, totaling 192 All-NSIC performances. In the classroom, Tanis led his squads to 22 USTFCCCA All-Academic Team honors, 66 USTFCCCA All-Academic selections, plus two CoSIDA Academic All-Americans.
In addition to his coaching duties, Tanis served as the program's academic liaison and managed the team's fundraising efforts and cross country summer camps. He was also the university's faculty advisor for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and was an active member of the USTFCCCA national rankings committee.
During his time at Duke, Tanis worked primarily with the men's distance runners guiding the Blue Devils to a sixth-place team finish at the ACC Cross Country Championships and an eighth-place team finish at the NCAA Regional meet. In his time there, his athletes collected two USTFCCCA All-Academic team awards, nine All-ACC Academic honorees, one All-ACC performer, and one All-America second-team selection.
Prior to his coaching tenure, Tanis competed as a Division II student-athlete on the cross country and track & field teams at Lewis University in Romeoville, Ill. He was a two-time Great Lakes Valley Conference champion in the 1,500-meter and mile runs and collected CoSIDA Academic All-America honors in 2011-2012 and 2012-13. He also was awarded the Br. David Delahanty Award for Academic Excellence at Lewis, three times for cross country and twice for track & field.
Tanis obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in Sport Management from Lewis University with a minor in business administration and coaching. He also holds a Master of Arts in Sports Administration and Leadership from Augustana.
