Craig Christians

Craig Christians is the men’s and women’s cross country/distance track head coach at Bellevue University.  Prior to this, Craig had a long and successful career as a track and cross country coach at Bellevue West and Platteview High Schools.

Christians brings over 40 years of experience as a competitive distance runner in which he’s totaled over 65,000 career running miles. He’s competed in nearly 750 races with distances ranging from 1 mile to marathons and remains competitive in national age-group events. During the summer of 2019, he was the USATF age-group national champion in the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase and also won bronze in the 5,000 meters at the outdoor track championship meet in Ames, Iowa.

Outside of athletics, Christians spent his professional career as a design engineer (1986-1989) with the City of Jefferson, Mo. Public Works Department; a project engineer (1989-2000) with the City of Omaha, Neb. Public Works Department; and as a division manager (2000-2016) with the City of Omaha, Neb. Sewer Maintenance Division before retiring from full-time employment in January of 2017.

Christians earned his A.S. in Pre-Engineering from Willmar Community College in Willmar, Minn. In 1981 before going on to earn his B.S. in Civil Engineering from South Dakota State University in Brookings, S.D. in 1983. He holds a M.S. in Municipal Engineering from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa which he earned in 1986.