After guiding the Hood College men's and women's track and field teams as a club program in his first two years with the Blazers, Brent Ayer now leads both squads at the varsity level.

Ayer, who has also built the Hood men's and women's cross country programs from the ground up starting with their inception in the fall of 2003, has been the impetus behind the track program which has grown from six athletes to nearly 30. In the spring of 2006, Hood participated in the Capital Athletic Conference Championships as a non-scoring guest.

In their first year as a varsity squad and a member of the CAC in 2007, the women finished with a 5-3 overall record, while the men faired 7-3. At the Goucher College Winter Warm-Up Meet, Hood's debut meet as a NCAA Division III team, the Blazers surprised their competition-the men placed first and the women came in second overall. Throughout the season, the Blazers set school marks in nearly every event, shattering 11 records at the CAC Championship meet alone. Hood ended its record-breaking season, placing sixth in the CAC.

Last season, the men's squad shattered 18 school records and crowned the program's first all-conference athlete in Ola Komolafe (second place-400 meters). The women's team bested 16 school standards and two Blazers earned all-conference certificates. Jessica Parrish won a pair of spring titles while Danielle Sgro took second in the 10,000 meters.

Ayer, who also holds USATF Level II Endurance Coaches Certification, won numerous awards and honors during his collegiate running career and held the records for every distance from one mile to the marathon competitions at Frederick Community College. His career bests include a 31:23 6-mile; a 2:36:38:0 marathon; and a 6:19:10:0 50-mile. Ayer has finished 17 marathons and three ultra-marathons. He was named a Masters All-America for the 3000-meter steeplechase in 1999 and the 3000-meter run in 2001 and Runner of the Year by Frederick's Steeplechasers Running Club in 1994.

As distance coach of the Frederick Striders Track and Field Club since 2000, Ayer has guided athletes to two national championships at the Amateur Athletic Union Junior Olympics. Of the athletes he's coached, 15 have been national qualifiers, 25 regional qualifiers and 10 state champions. In addition, he serves on a number of committees for USA Track & Field, the Olympic governing body of the sport.

Ayer is a graduate of Lewis University, where he briefly held the record for the 3,000-meter steeplechase. He holds a master's degree from Frostburg State University and has worked as a staff member for the United States House of Representatives for the past 29 years. Recently selected as the president of the Road Runners Club of America for the 2008-09 year, Ayer is married to Mary Catherine Keegan and they, and their three children, reside in Frederick.

Having compiled an impressive running and coaching background at numerous institutions on the East Coast, Scott Rippeon came on board as an assistant cross country and track coach at Hood in 2003.

The Frederick, Md., native qualified for the 1985 and 1986 NCAA Division III National Cross Country meet as a member of the Washington and Lee University squad. Since his graduation in 1987 from the Virginia school, he began his coaching career at All Saints Cathedral School in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, where he helped start the program in 1989 following Hurricane Hugo.

After a five-year stint at the Tower Hill School in Wilmington, Del., where he led the girl's cross country team to the 1993 state Independent School Conference championship, Rippeon came back to the area and founded the boy's cross country program at Urbana High School in 1995. Two years later, he began another program, this time at St. John's at Prospect Hall, and, in 2002 was named Coach of the Year by The Frederick News-Post and The Gazette (Frederick) for leading the girl's cross country team to the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland B Division title.

Rippeon, who ran on the prep level at nearby Gov. Thomas Johnson High School, is certified as a USATF Level I and Level II coach and is a USATF Official (Association Level).