Lake Forest College

Patrick Austin completed his third season as the Forester's head cross country coach in 2024. He has also served as head coach of the College's track and field program since March of 2022.

For the second year in a row, Lake Forest's women's cross country team finished fifth at the 2024 Midwest Conference Championship Meet while the men placed eighth. Sophie Graham repeated as an All-MWC honoree by placing 18th while Ali Faiz was 45th to lead the men's team.

On the academic side, a dozen Forester women and a program record nine men were named Academic All-MWC in 2024-25.

Forester cross country runners have now been named all-conference three times since Austin took over as head coach. They have also earned 60 Academic All-MWC accolades during his tenure.

The program has grown in quantity and quality since Austin arrived. The roster size increased by 80 percent from 2021 to 2024 and the Forester women earned the program's first invitational victory under his direction by finishing first at the 2023 Beloit Olde English.

The track and field program has also improved significantly In three indoor and four outdoor seasons with Austin as head coach. Forester athletes have set school records in 45 events, earned All-MWC honors 11 times, and captured a pair of individual conference titles during that time.

Austin's experience in coaching track and cross country also includes a year as a graduate assistant at the University of Redlands in Redlands, California, and a season as an assistant cross country coach at Yorkville High School in Yorkville, Illinois.

In addition to coaching at the high school and college level, Austin was a tactical athlete coach and head run coach with T3i Services in Great Lakes, Illinois, for several years. With T3i Services he worked with Naval Special Warfare Candidates on gait analysis, injury prevention, and other aspects of training and run performance.

Austin is a graduate of Elmhurst College (now Elmhurst University), where he was a two-time All-College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin honoree and qualified for the 2008 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championship Meet in cross country. He is also a 10-time All-CCIW performer in indoor and outdoor track events ranging from the mile to 10,000m. In addition, Austin is the program's former school record-holder in the indoor 3000m and 5000m and still ranks among the team's all-time leaders in several different events. He earned his a degree in exercise science from Elmhurst in 2011.

Austin lives in nearby Buffalo Grove, Illinois.