Lisa H. Owens joined the Centre coaching staff in 1998. During her time at Centre, Owens’s cross country and track & field teams have won 28 conference championships.
Owens has coached three cross country Regional Championship teams and nine of her cross country squads have qualified for the NCAA Championships. Owens’s athletes have individually qualified for the NCAA cross country or track and field championships on 164 occasions, picking up 71 combined All-America honors.
Additionally, Owens has coached athletes who have won 11 individual national championships, as Chrys Jones ’11 won four national titles during his career, while Annie Rodenfels ’19 won three and JP Vaught '23 has won four. She has also coached three US Championship Track & Field qualifiers and one Olympic Trials qualifier.
Between the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, the Southern Athletic Association, the Kentucky Track and Cross Country Coaches Association and the NCAA, Owens has earned 50 separate Coach of the Year honors throughout her career.
Owens graduated from Berea College in 1996, earning a bachelor’s degree in physical education and a minor in nutrition. While at Berea, Owens earned varsity letters in cross country, track, and tennis. The three-time high school state track champion also once held nine school records in track at Berea. In 1995, Owens was invited to compete on the NAIA International Track & Field team where she toured and competed in Europe. She earned a master’s degree in Sports Administration from Eastern Kentucky University in 2000.
Coach Owens married her husband Scott in June of 1998. They have one daughter, Meghan and one son, Cameron.
