Ben Gall was introduced Dec. 6 as California Baptist University's new cross country/distance track head coach.

Gall led the Lancers through the 2012 distance track season, coaching five NCCAA individual champions and 19 NCCAA All-Americans at both the indoor and outdoor championships.

Gall spent the past 10 years as the associate head cross country/track coach at Northwest Nazarene University, an NCAA Division II institution in Nampa, Idaho. He was the head cross country coach.

This past year, Gall led the Crusaders' men's team to a fifth place finish out of 17 teams at the NCAA Division II West Region Championships, narrowly missing out on a berth to the national championships by one spot. It was the best finish in program history. Individually, Barak Watson earned All-American honors, finishing eighth as an individual at the national championships.

The Crusader women finished 13th out of 24 in the region meet.

During his time in Nampa, Gall helped coach two national champions, 17 All-Americans, 16 Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) champions, 45 All-GNAC recipients, 21 Scholar-Athletes and 110 Academic All-Conference honorees.

Perhaps most notably, Gall coached Ashley Puga to NCAA Division II titles in the 800 meters at both the NCAA indoor and outdoor championships in 2009. She also ran the sixth fastest time ever for an NCAA Division II athlete at the Mt. SAC Relays. She went on to earn 2009 NCAA Division II track athlete of the year and was a finalist for NCAA Woman of the Year.

A 2002 graduate of Eastern Oregon University in LaGrande, Ore., Gall earned his bachelor's in psychology and then completed his master's in elementary education in 2003 at Eastern Oregon. He is ABD (all but dissertation) on his Ph.D. in educational leadership and management from Capella University, expected to finish in 2012.

Gall, who also is an assistant professor of kinesiology at NNU, holds a USATF Level Endurance Coach certification.

In 2007, Gall was elected to the Nampa School Board. He was a kindergarten teacher for the Notus School District from 2003-06, and he has also served as a camp speaker and coach at numerous Fellowship of Christian Athletes camps across the country.