Michael Bianchina was named an assistant cross country and track & field coach in August 2022. Bianchina will work with the men's and women's cross country teams, as well as the distance runners on both the men's and women's track & field teams.
The 2024-25 season saw two Chants take home two individual Sun Belt Conference titles in outdoor track and field, with Amanda Kinloch winning the women's 100 meter hurdles and Molly Jones winning the women's 5,000 meters. Kinloch also took home the women's 60 meter hurdles title at the indoor conference championship.
The Chants placed six athletes on the All-Sun Belt team, with Kinloch and Jones being named to the first team, Terrique Webb on the second team, and Amilia Wise-Sweat, Trey Kraimer, and Adam Groves taking home third team honors.
In his first season working with the Chanticleer cross country programs, junior Molly Jones was named the 2022 Sun Belt Conference Women's Cross Country Runner of the Year and was the 2022 Sun Belt Conference Women's Cross Country Individual Champion. She also earned 2022 NCAA Southeast All-Region accolades, the first Chanticleer women's cross country runner to accomplish that feat since three Chants in 2016, with a 21st-place finish at the 2022 NCAA Southeast Championships.
As a team, the Coastal women's cross country team finished 25th place overall with a total of 691 points at the regional event.
Over the track & field seasons, Bianchina's distance runners set three school records during the indoor season - Jones (1-mile run), Amilia Wise-Sweat (800-meters), and Ellie Wolski, Amanda Kinloch, Wise-Sweat, and Jones (distance medley relay) - with the last four earning All-Sun Belt third-team honors.
During the 2023 outdoor season, Wise-Sweat (800-meters), Jones (1500-meters, 5000-meters), and Wolski (1500-meters, 5000-meters, 10,000-meters) highlighted the women's team by etching their names throughout the Coastal Carolina all-time performance list, while on the men's side newcomer, Trey Kraimer turned in top-10 times in both the 800-meters and mile run.
Bianchina came to Coastal Carolina after spending three years as the assistant track and cross country coach at Radford University.
At Radford, Bianchina worked with both the men’s and women’s cross country programs and the distance runners for the women’s track & field team, while also acting as the recruiting coordinator and overseeing the daily operations of the program. He was instrumental in recruiting the largest men’s and women’s rosters in program history.
Over his three years at Radford, Bianchina coached eight women and two men to All-Big South Conference cross country honors, highlighted by 2019 Big South Freshman of the Year Caitlin Apps and 2021 Big South Runner of the Year Hannah Moran as she became the first Radford cross country runner in 2021 to win a Big South Individual Championship since 1993 and the first woman since 1990. Moran was also the first Radford women’s cross country runner to qualify for the NCAA Championships since Megan McLaughlin in 2001.
Four cross country school records fell under Bianchina’s watch at Radford, as Moran broke the women’s 4k, 5k, and 6k program records, while Nate Jennings set a new men’s 8k record.
The women's and men's cross country programs both saw a marked improvement in their finishes at the cross country conference championship meets under Bianchina, moving from sixth place prior to his arrival in 2019 to back-to-back runner-up finishes on the women’s side in 2021 and 2022, and a third-place showing on the men’s side in 2021.
The women also placed three runners in the top 10 in the 2021 Big South Championship race for the second season in a row. That marked the first time since 1986 and 1987 that the feat had been accomplished by the Highlander women in consecutive seasons.
The women excelled on the track adding a plethora of performances to the top all-time list. Bianchina coached Moran to a 2022 Big South Outdoor Track & Field Championship in the 10,000-meters and Rachel Millirons to a second-place finish in the 10,000-meters at the 2021 Big South Outdoor Conference Championships. He coached Rachel Werking to a third-place finish in the 3000-meter steeplechase at the same championship meet, as Werking set the school record in the process.
Moran was a two-time all-conference selection in indoor (3000 and 5000-meters) and once in outdoor (10,000-meters), while Millirons (10,000-meters) and Werking (3,000-meters steeplechase) earned all-conference accolades for outdoor track in 2021.
Prior to his position at Radford, Bianchina spent a year working with the McNeese State University cross country and track & field teams in Lake Charles, La. Bianchina worked with the distance runners and played a large role in meet operations.
During his time at McNeese, he coached Alex Eykelbosch to a Southland Conference title in the 5000-meters at the indoor championships, as well as a runner-up finish in the 3000-meters and a fourth-place finish in the women’s distance medley relay.
He also coached Gladys Jerotich to all-conference honors and a fourth-place finish in the Southland Conference Cross Country Championships and Miguel Barrera-Lopez to a fourth-place finish in both the 10,000-meters and 5000-meters at the 2019 Southland Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Before McNeese, Bianchina had a successful career as a member of the Bradley University cross country and track & field programs.
As a student-athlete, Bianchina competed in cross country and ran in the 800, 1500, 3000, and 5000-meter events. In his sophomore season, he ran the fourth-fastest mile in school history and finished sixth overall at the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Indoor Championships.
As a junior and senior, Bianchina was a member of two Missouri Valley Conference Champion cross country teams in 2015 and 2017, winning the first team title in program history in 2015.
As a junior, he clocked a 1:54.85 in the 800-meters for the school's best time since the 1991 season and the second-best time overall. He also clocked the third-best mile time in school history at 4:08.79 and was a member of the 4x800-meter relay team that set a new school record.
He was a four-time MVC Honor Roll student, six-time Bradley Athletic Director's Honor Roll member, and earned the MVC Commissioner's Academic Excellence Award in 2016.
Bianchina earned his bachelor’s degree in health science in 2018 from Bradley and his master’s degree in health and human performance from McNeese in 2020.
