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XC Rylan Hincher (3) Edited Head Shot

Rylan Hincher

Rylan Hincher was named the head coach for the Montreat College men’s and women’s cross country teams and an assistant coach for the men's and women's track & field teams in April of 2024. He enters his second season with the Cavaliers during the 2025-26 academic year.

YEAR-BY-YEAR HIGHLIGHTS

2024 (Men's Cross Country)
  • Coached Ethan Stamey to a new program record individual 8k time (24:02.5) and to the program's best individual finish at nationals (16th).
  • Finished runner-up at the AAC Cross Country Championships (2nd; 43 points).
  • Qualified for nationals as a team for the seventh consecutive year.
  • Placed 21st at the NAIA Cross Country Championships (501 points).
  • Ranked as high as 10th in the NAIA Men's Cross Country Coaches' Top 25 Rating.
  • Named the AAC Men's Team of Character.
  • Named a USTFCCCA All-Academic Team.
  • Appeared in the Jack Hazen Program of the Year standings for the fifth straight year (21st; 129.5 points).
  • Highest GPA among Montreat College men's athletic programs (3.49 GPA).
  • Athlete achievements: 1 NAIA All-American, 4 All-AAC athletes (2 First Team All-AAC, 2 Second Team All-AAC), 1 AAC Runner of the Week, 1 AAC Colonel John Sullivan Male Student-Athlete of Character, 1 CSC Academic All-America® Second Team selection, 5 CSC Academic All-District® Team honorees, 5 Daktronics NAIA Scholar-Athletes, 11 AAC All-Academic Team members, 5 USTFCCCA All-Academic Athletes.
2024 (Women's Cross Country)
  • Coached Heather Murphy to a new program record 5k time (17:18.5) and 6k time (20:33.5).
  • Set a new program record team 5k time (1:29:51) and team 6k time (1:48:08).
  • Finished runner-up at the AAC Cross Country Championships (2nd; 34 points).
  • Coached Heather Murphy to the program's first AAC individual title and the program's first USTFCCCA NAIA Athlete of the Week recognition.
  • Qualified for nationals as a team for the fifth consecutive year.
  • Placed fifth at the NAIA Cross Country Championships (176 points).
  • Set three program records at the national meet: highest team finish (5th), highest individual finish (Heather Murphy in 4th), most All-Americans at a single national meet (3).
  • Ranked as high as No. 5 in the NAIA Women's Cross Country Coaches' Top 25 Rating, a program-best.
  • Named a USTFCCCA All-Academic Team.
  • Achieved the program's best finish in the Fred Beile Program of the Year standings (4th; 23 points).
  • Highest GPA among Montreat College athletic programs (3.82 GPA).
  • Athlete achievements: 3 NAIA All-Americans, 1 USTFCCCA South Region Athlete of the Year, 1 NAIA Runner of the Week, 2 USTFCCCA NAIA Women's Athlete of the Week, 2 AAC Runner of the Week, 1 AAC Champion, 1 AAC Runner of the Year, 1 AAC Freshman of the Year, 7 All-AAC athletes (2 First Team All-AAC, 5 Second Team All-AAC), 1 AAC All-Freshman Team, 1 AAC Colonel John Sullivan Female Student-Athlete of Character, 2 CSC Academic All-America® First Team selections, 5 CSC Academic All-District® Team honorees, 9 Daktronics NAIA Scholar-Athletes, 12 AAC All-Academic Team members, 7 USTFCCCA All-Academic Athletes.
 
PRIOR TO MONTREAT

A graduate from Montreat, Hincher returned to his alma mater following a 4-year-long stint at fellow NAIA member Tabor College in Hillsboro, Kan. He was originally a graduate assistant in 2019 before being promoted to head coach in fall of 2020. While the head cross country coach for the Blue Jays, Tabor achieved its first national rankings, and the women’s team became the first Tabor cross country squad to qualify for nationals this past fall.

Hincher claimed the KCAC’s Men’s Indoor Track Assistant Coach of the Year honor in 2021 prior to earning back-to-back KCAC Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year awards in 2022 and 2023. In Tabor’s athletic department, Hincher was selected as the Head Coach of the Year for the 2022-23 school year.

Before his coaching career, Hincher ran cross country and track at Montreat from 2015 through 2019. As a cross country athlete, the North Wilkesboro, N.C. native was on the 2015 Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) All-Freshman Team, was all-conference twice, was part of a conference championship in 2018 and was on the national qualifying team the same year. In track, Hincher qualified for nationals in the outdoor marathon four years, was all-conference twice and won two indoor AAC team titles.

Hincher, who earned his undergraduate degree in exercise science from Montreat in 2019 and his MBA from Tabor in 2021, will make the move back to the area from Hillsboro, Kan. with his wife, Lindsay.