Coaching Staff
Michael Trunkes
Head Coach
Michael Trunkes begins his first year as the Head Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Coach. Trunkes takes over the program after serving as the assistant coach in the 2006 season.
Michael attended Roslyn High School where he competed in Track and Cross Country and was both a conference champion as well as an All-County Cross Country runner in Section VIII.
Trunkes earned a Bachelors degree in Marketing from The University of Arizona in 1985. He competed in both Cross Country and Track & Field where he was a member of the 1984 PAC 10 Cross Country Championship team as well as the Division 1 Cross Country National Championship runners up.
Michael has set personal running best marks in the Marathon at 2:28:17, 10,000 meters of 29:54, 5,000 meters 14:42, 3,000 meters 8:26 and 1500 meters in 3:58.
He has been a member of the Central Park Track Club for 20 years where he has worked as an advisor to many top athletes.
Michael currently resides in New Paltz with his wife Petra.
Contact Michael Trunkes at ext. 3922 or trunkesm@newpaltz.edu.
Jason Friedman
Assistant Cross Country Coach
Jason Friedman begins his first season as the men's and women's assistant coach.
An All-State cross-country runner at Clarkstown North High School, Jason ran cross-country and track at Cornell University, graduating with a BS in Biology in 1997. While an undergraduate at Cornell he served as a volunteer assistant coach with the Ithaca High School boys’ cross-country team, helping lead them to a Section IV title in 1995. He earned his MD from Jefferson Medical College in 2001.
Jason has coached runners privately for many years. He has also worked on the staffs of running camps for high school, collegiate, and adult athletes. In 2006 he founded the Shawangunk Running Camp, in New Paltz. He also serves on the board of directors for ZAP Fitness, an elite training center in North Carolina, which is the home to several Olympic distance-running hopefuls. He currently races for the Haddonfield Running Company as well as the Shawangunk Running Club, at distances from the 5K through the 50K, focusing mostly on marathons and long trail races. He has also captained teams to top-three finishes at the Nike Hood to Coast Relay, a 196-mile, twelve-person relay race in Portland, Oregon.
An emergency physician at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, Jason has provided medical care for a number of sporting events, including the Western States 100-mile Trail Race, and is the head physician for the Survival of the Shawangunks Triathlon.
Jason currently lives in New Paltz with his wife Jodi and their daughter Alexa.
Contact Jason Friedman at ext. 3922.