Ray Appenheimer was named head coach of the men's and women's track and field teams in 2006 after serving two years as an assistant with the program. Appenheimer has been the head men’s and women’s cross country coach since the fall of 2004.

In just three years at Oberlin, Appenheimer’s track record is impressive.  He has coached forty-four all-conference and eight all-region performers.  His athletes have broken twenty-two school records, and have won ten conference championships.  He has coached two national qualifiers and has mentored four Academic All-Americans.  In the fall of 2006, Coach Appenheimer’s women’s cross country team won the NCAC Championship for the first time in twenty-two years.  For this accomplishment, his peers voted him as the NCAC Cross Country Coach of the Year.  In the winter of 2007 he coached the women’s track and field team to a third place finish in the conference meet, more than doubling their previous year’s point total.  At the meet, one of his athletes, Flannery Cerbin, was named the conference distance/mid-distance runner of the year.

As impressive are his athletes’ accomplishments in the classroom.  In each year at Oberlin his teams have attained Academic All-American status.  His teams have been honored in achieving the thirteenth and seventeenth highest grade point averages respectively among Division III women’s and men’s cross country teams in the nation.    

A six-time Academic All-American and 1994 graduate of Colgate University, Appenheimer received a bachelor's degree magna cum laude in English and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He also earned an NCAA post-graduate scholarship, won the Patriot League Scholar-Athlete of the Year award twice, and became a semifinalist for the Rhodes Scholarship. Appenheimer won the five All-American awards in cross country and track.

After achieving All-American status five times at Colgate, Appenheimer joined the Nike Farm Team in Palo Alto, California. He won the national title at the 1999 United States Cross Country Championships and followed up with a win in the 3000 meters at the 2000 United States Indoor Track and Field Championships. Appenheimer has represented the United States at the 1999 World Cross Country Championships in Belfast and the 1999 World University Games in Majorca, Spain. He qualified for the 2000 United States Olympic Trials in the 5000 meters with a time of 13:28.99.

Appenheimer resides in Oberlin with his wife Margaret and their sons, Peter and Owen.

Graham Wellman joined the Oberlin College track and field and cross country coaching staffs in the summer of 2006. He works with Coach Appenheimer in recruiting, coaching, and program administration. He spent the 2005-2006 season as an assistant coach at Alma College in Alma, Michigan.

Wellman graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English composition from Depauw University in 2005. He won four letters as a distance runner for the Tigers, competed in seven national championships and earned All-American status four times. He still holds the Depauw school records indoors over 3,000 and 5,000-meters and outdoors in the 5,000 and 10,000-meter runs.

Grose joined the Oberlin College track and field coaching staff in the summer of 2006. Grose, who works with the men's and women's throwers, brings with her a wealth of knowledge and competitive experience.

A graduate of Ohio Northern University, Grose was a multiple sport letter winner and the school record-holder in the shot, discus, and javelin while competing for the Polar Bears. Both her technical expertise and competitive fire are great assetts not only to Oberlin's throwers, but also to the team as a whole.