Lee Wood enters his third year as head coach for Drury’s men's and women's cross country and track & field programs in 2023-24.
In 2022-23, Wood saw women’s cross country runner Bradley Weimer win the Great Lakes Valley Conference championship and was named the GLVC Runner of the Year. The junior also became the third runner in program history to advance to the NCAA-II championship. Two women’s runners were named to the all-conference team (Weimer and Zoe Van Dijk).
In the indoor track & field season, the Panthers had their best finish ever at the GLVC Championships with a third-place finish. Drury got GLVC title performances from Ashley Childers (200 meters) and Luz Olivera (3000 meters). Zoe Van Dijk was the GLVC outdoor track & field title in the 5,000 meter.
Wood arrived at Drury just before the conclusion of the 2021 cross country season and guided those programs to fourth-place finishes at the GLVC Championship. For the men’s team, it marked their best finish in the league in 11 years. Both squads then finished 11th at the NCAA-II Midwest Regional Championship, with Claire McCune and Elizabeth Stinson both earning All-Region honors. McCune then advanced to the NCAA-II National Championship, where her 24th place finish garnered the second All-American award of her career and was the best finish in program history at the national championship event.
In the 2021-22 track & field season, Wood guided the program to more than 51 school records, five provisional national qualifying marks, and two All-American finishes in his first year. Wood’s highest finisher of the season was Katie McCune, who finished 7th in the 800 meters at indoor nationals and 5th in the 800 meters at outdoor nationals with a time of 2:07.25. Both placements marked the best finishes ever for Drury in track & field.
Wood came to Drury after five years as an assistant cross country and track & field coach at national powerhouse Western Colorado, where he helped the men's and women's cross country programs to several team podium national finishes in the last five seasons. In 2020, the Western Colorado women's squad was ranked number one in NCAA-II, but no national championship was held due to the coronavirus pandemic. Wood helped coach 11 cross country All-Americans in four years and more than 20 track & field All-Americans at Western. His 2018 women’s distance medley relay team won an indoor track & field national championship, while the program produced a national champion runner in the indoor mile and the outdoor steeplechase.
Before Wood entered the college coaching world, he had a successful tenure at the high school level in northwest Arkansas. Wood was the head distance coach for the track & field program at Heritage High School in Rogers, Arkansas, from the year the school opened in 2008 through 2015. In 2012, he helped the girls' cross country team to the state championship and guided the boys' track & field teams to an Indoor and outdoor state title in 2013. He was the assistant coach for the cross country and track & field programs at Rogers High School from 2006-2008 and those programs were the first in the history of the state to win a cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track state championship in the same year when they accomplished the feat in 2006. Wood also coached the boys 4 X 800 meter state record team at the time and led more than 50 high school athletes that went on to run at the collegiate level.
Wood competed for Missouri Southern State in track & field collegiately, was part of a nationally ranked Lions squad, and then joined the touring Christian team, Athletes in Action. He earned a degree in Education from Arkansas and a Master's from Arkansas-Monticello.
Wood and his wife Sara have three sons, Woodrow, Hunter, and Braden, along with a daughter Iris.
