The Lewis University Athletic Department has announced that SUNY Cobleskill Head Cross Country Coach Mitchell Tomaszkiewicz, Class of 1985, will be among the newest inductees into the Lewis Academy of Coaches.
Tomaszkiewicz will join long-time North Chicago Baseball Coach Dan McCarthy, Class of 1974, in this year’s induction class.
The Academy of Coaches is a division of the college’s Athletic Hall-of-Fame that honors Lewis alumni who have gone on to have successful careers in coaching/athletic administration at all levels of competition.
The induction ceremony will take place during halftime of the Flyers’ men’s basketball game versus the University of Missouri-St. Louis on January 20.
“To be honored in such a way by one’s alma mater is very special, and I am forever indebted to Lewis University for this and how the institution helped prepare me for the profession,” said Tomaszkiewicz.
“I am also grateful to my family along with the many colleagues and student-athletes that I have worked with over the years who have helped make such a recognition possible.”
Tomaszkiewicz became the Cobleskill’s assistant men’s basketball coach in 1992 and working under NJCAA and New York State Basketball Coaches Association Hall-of-Fame head coach Kevin McCarthy, helped the Fighting Tigers to 16 20-win seasons, four Mountain Valley Conference Championships, three NJCAA Region III Championships and three appearances in the NJCAA Division III National Championship Tournament.
In 1993 he was appointed the Fighting Tigers cross-country coach and is now the longest serving head coach in SUNY Cobleskill’s Cross-Country history as well as the second longest serving head cross country coach in the SUNY System. During his tenure, Tomaszkiewicz oversaw the program’s move from the NJCAA level to the NCAA level of competition in 2008.
Under his direction, the Fighting Tiger men’s and women’s teams have won 110 invitational victories and 106 second place finishes in invitational competition at the NJCAA and NCAA levels including the 2000 NJCAA Division III Women’s National Championship along with four NJCAA Division III National runner-up finishes.
At the NCAA level of competition, the Cobleskill men’s and women’s teams were perennially one of the North Eastern Athletic Conference’s (NEAC) top programs with the men winning league titles in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2019 then capturing the North Atlantic Conference (NAC) title in 2021. The Cobleskill women team posted NEAC conference titles in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2019 prior to the college’s move to the North Atlantic Conference (NAC).
Individually, the men’s team has produced 67 All-NEAC Conference Team honorees, 12 All-NAC honorees, seven All-Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Team honorees, two All-New York State Collegiate Track Conference (NYSCTC) honorees, two NCAA Division III All-Atlantic Region Team honorees and three NCAA Division III All-Niagara Region Team selections.
Additionally, the Fighting Tigers have had five NEAC men’s champions along with a NAC men’s champion, five NEAC male Runners-of-the-Years and one NEAC Men’s Rookie of the Year with one NAC Male Runner-of-the-Year and a NAC Male-Rookie-of-the-Year along with one NAC Women’s Runner-of-the-Year and one NAC Women’s Rookie-of-the-Year.
For his team’s accomplishments Tomaszkiewicz has been honored by the NAC as the conference’s Men’s Coach-of-the-Year in 2021 and by the NEAC as the league’s Men’s Coach-of-the-Year in 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2019. He earned the league’s Women’s Coach-of-the-Year honors in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2019 after a junior college career that saw him honored as Mountain Valley Conference Men’s Coach of the Year in 1997 and Women’s Coach of the Year in 2000, 2003 and 2007.
He was also named the NJCAA Region III Women’s Coach of the Year in 2000, 2007 and 2008 as well as the NJCAA Division III National Coach of the Year in 2000.
At the junior college level, Tomaszkiewicz turned the Fighting Tigers into one of the premier programs in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division III ranks producing 37 individual NJCAA Division III All-Americans and 33 individual NJCAA Academic All-Americans. In 2003 and1998 the Fighting Tigers won the Pepsi Challenge for the best overall combined finish by men’s and women’s teams at the NJCAA Division III National Championships.
In 1997, Tomaszkiewicz’s Fighting Tiger men’s squad captured the Mountain Valley Conference Championship earning him Mountain Valley Conference Coach of the Year honors, and then placed second at the NJCAA Division III National Championships. The Fighting Tigers also placed second at the 2004 National Championships.
Under his direction Cobleskill men’s teams also placed third at the NJCAA Division III National Championships in 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2003, fourth in 2000 and fifth in 2005. The Cobleskill men made fifteen national appearances under his guidance compiling an impressive fifteen top ten finishes.
During the 2000 season, the Fighting Tiger women’s team posted an undefeated season on the way to capturing the Mountain Valley Conference Championship, the NJCAA Region III Championship and the program’s first NJCAA Division III National Championship, earning Tomaszkiewicz conference, regional and national coach of the year honors.
During the 2003 and 2006 Cobleskill also captured the Mountain Valley Conference Championship earning Tomaszkiewicz conference Coach of the Year honors, while winning the 2006 NJCAA Region III Championship earning him regional Coach of the Year honors and placed second at the 2003 & 2006 NJCAA Division III National Championships.
He was also named the NJCAA Region III Division III Women’s Coach-of-the-Year in 2007.
Under his direction the women’s program also placed third at the NJCAA Division III National Championships in 1997, 1998, 1999 and fourth in 2002 and 2007. The Fighting Tiger women’s team was also named the NJCAA Cross Country Coaches Academic Team of the Year in 1997, 1998 and in 2000 under his direction.
Tomaszkiewicz graduated from Lewis in 1985 with his degree in Journalism and Mass Communication and has served as the college’s Sports Information Director since 1996.
He earned his master’s degree from Loyola University of Chicago in 1989 in Higher Educational Administration/College Student Personnel.