Lake Forest College

Patrick Austin joined the Forester cross country and track and field coaching staffs prior to the 2022 track season and was named the head coach of both programs a few months later.

Austin's 2025-26 track and field teams set 21 school records and made more than 50 additional updates to the program’s list of the top five performers in each event. Ollie Francis captured a conference championship in the 800m and Finn Gruver in the long jump at the MWC Indoor and Outdoor Championships and Brayden Long was named Men's Newcomer of the Year at the league's outdoor meet. With top-three finishes in three events, he was one of 10 Foresters to earn All-MWC honors during the season.

Five members of the 2025-26 team were named Academic All-District® by College Sports Communicators and 35 earned Academic All-MWC status.

Program records have now been set in 48 different events since Austin became the team's head coach. He has also coached 19 different track and field athletes to All-MWC honors and the program has had 126 Academic All-MWC selections over the last five years.

Forester cross country runners have been named all-conference five times since Austin took over as head coach. They have also earned 77 Academic All-MWC accolades during that time.

Austin's experience in coaching track and cross country 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.