CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Harvard track & field and cross country welcomes Judy Pendergast '22 and Victoria Huggins to the coaching staff as new assistant coaches. A former standout student-athlete for the Crimson, Pendergast will coach the women's and men's distance/middle distance groups, while Huggins will work with the women's and men's sprints & hurdles and horizontal jumps student-athletes.

 "I'm thrilled that Judy and Victoria will be working with our program and I'm confident our student-athletes will benefit from their coaching, mentorship and perspectives," The William W. "Bill" McCurdy Director of Track and Field/Cross Country Jason Saretsky said. "Both bring valuable experiences, and I can't wait to get to work continuing to build on the legacy of academic and athletic excellence being established with Harvard T&F/XC".

The team captain for the 2021 Harvard women's cross country team, Pendergast returns to Cambridge after serving as the assistant cross country/distance coach for the University of Tennessee for the 2023-24 season. The Volunteers enjoyed an excellent season with Pendergast on the staff, as Tennessee's men's and women's cross country squads finished in first place at the 2023 NCAA Cross Country South Regional Championships. Benefiting from Pendergast's guidance, Tennessee's women's team finished in sixth place at the 2023 NCAA Cross Country Championships, matching the best finish in program history.

Prior to her arrival in Knoxville, Pendergast worked with Harvard track & field and cross country as an assistant coach for the cross country team and distance groups for the 2022-23 season. During Pendergast's initial stint as a coach with the Crimson, Harvard's women's team won the 2022 Ivy League Cross Country title, and the men finished in 17^th at the 2022 NCAA Cross Country Championships.

Huggins joins the Crimson after holding various positions throughout the college athletics landscape. From 2017 to 2019, Huggins was the associate head track & field coach at Rutgers-Camden, as she worked closely with the sprinters, hurdlers, and jumpers. Along with her experience at Rutgers-Camden, Huggins served as the head coach at Woodrow Wilson High School and was a member of the coaching staff at Camden High School.

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