Mike Blackmore is in his ninth year of leading the Linfield cross country program. Since joining the staff, he coached two athletes to berths in the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championship. Kaelia Neal went on to claim NCAA Division III All-America honors in the fall of 2017 and Courtney Beard achieved the same honor in 2018.
Blackmore came to Linfield from Lane Community College where he spent four seasons in a similar capacity. At Lane, he elevated the program from seventh place to second in the Northwest Athletic Conference. Each spring, he serves as assistant track and field coach at Linfield, specializing in the distance events.
Blackmore also spent five seasons as head cross country coach and assistant track coach at Churchill High School.
An NCAA All-American in both cross country and track and field at the University of Oregon, Blackmore was a member of UO’s 1984 outdoor national championship track team and 1983 cross country squad which placed third at the NCAA Championships. Individually, he placed fourth nationally in the 5,000 and was the Pac-10 Conference runner-up in cross country. He was inducted into the UO Athletics Hall of Fame in 2010.
A sub-four minute miler with a career-best of three minutes, 57 seconds, Blackmore competed on three USA teams and was a World University Games silver medalist in the 5,000 meters in 1987.
The Prosser, Washington, native has competed as an amateur nationally and internationally, recording personal-best times of 4:03 in the 1,500, 15:16 in the 5,000, and 31:46 in the 10,000. In 2010, he captured amateur national championships in the 800 and 5,000 and more recently claimed a national title in his age group at the U.S. Half Marathon Trail Championships.
Blackmore earned a master’s degree at Oregon in athletic training and has worked as a licensed massage therapist since 1998. He worked for many years with Steens Mountain Running Camp and has been a featured speaker at the JA Summit, a prestigious coaching clinic.