Cross Country

Varsity Cross Country

Fall Season, August - October
Practice M-F, 3:30-5:30pm

Coaching Staff

Brian Roth, Head Boys' Coach

Hello Amundsen Families,

My name is Brian Roth and I am the Varsity Boy’s Cross Country and Varsity Girl’s Track Coach. I am also a diverse learner teacher in the Social Studies Department.

My athletic career started with wrestling in middle school, I was part of the wrestling team from 7th grade until my senior year. I was briefly a member of the football team my sophomore year. My running career did not start until my senior year of high school. I joined the cross country team to get into shape for the wrestling season. Much to my surprise I was pretty good at distance running.

I ended up making varsity my first year without training over the summer. I ended up quitting wrestling my senior year to run track in the spring. I ran a 4:30 mile during that year.

My distance career did not end with high school, I ran both D-3 and D-1 cross country and track. After my service in the US Navy, I attended UIC where I ran for 2 years before injuries ended my career prematurely.

I have been coaching Cross Country and Track since I started my student teaching at Amundsen in 2005. During the past 4 years coaching at Amundsen, I have seen this program grow immensely. I have really enjoyed the family atmosphere of our team and love being part of the Amundsen Athletic Program. We have seen some of our runners move on to college to compete. We are incredibly proud of our runners and their accomplishments. During the past two years we attended the state meet with an individual athlete and are looking forward to attending the state meet as a team. We are moving up in the ranks as one of the top programs in the city and continue to improve each year.

Sara Mizener, Head Girls' Coach

Hello Amundsen Community!

My name is Sara Mizener, and I am the Girls Cross Country Coach! Outside of coaching, I am the Amundsen Case Manager.

High school athletics were a huge part of my experience many moons ago, playing both Basketball and Softball at the Varsity Level. While I loved basketball and played for a legendary Texas Girls’ Basketball coach, my true passion was softball. I played club/travel softball starting in 3rd grade. Because softball was not a high school sport in my hometown, in 6th-grade I started attending School Board meetings to petition for the addition of girls' sports. Finally, my Junior year, softball became an official sport. This experience not only allowed me to letter in a second varsity sport and receive many accolades at the District and Regional Level, but it also taught me valuable advocacy skills. While I did not have any intention of playing at the collegiate level, those opportunities did present themselves at a number of Division 2 schools. Instead, during my four years at the University of North Texas, I played almost every Intramural sport offered and served as the Intramural Chair for my sorority for two years. We even made it to the National Flag Football Championships my Sophomore year! It was also a running club that ignited my love of distance running.

Running became an obsession. I have completed four marathons, over two dozen half marathons, and countless 5Ks. It was this obsession that led me to begin coaching at Kelvyn Park High School in 2007. I spent 5 years as the Head Coach. While we were small, we were a mighty team. One of our runners competed at the State Level and received a full scholarship to a highly regarded Liberal Arts College where she became the team captain her Freshman year. After switching roles and moving to another school, I hung up my coaching shoes in 2012.

Fortunately, the opportunity presented itself again at Amundsen, and I am so grateful! Along with my fabulous co-coach, Mr. Roth, our team has doubled in size this year! We are so fortunate to work with such stellar athletes both on the course and in the classroom!

Go Vikings!