Nicole Kramer - Head Cross Country Coach, Assistant Track & Field Coach - Women's Cross Country Coaches (2024)

Nicole (Farr) Kramer heads into her thirdyear as head Calvin cross country coach. She also serves as the lead distance coach with the Calvin men's and women's track and field programs.

Kramer is no stranger to Calvin as she is a 2010 Calvin graduate and a former standout runner with both the Calvin women’s cross country and track and field programs. She is a native of Warrenville, Illinois. She is also a graduate of Wheaton-Warrenville South High School, where she ran for Rob Harvey, who was recently named an ITCCCA Hall of Fame coach.

“I am extremely excited for this opportunity,” said Kramer when she was hired in May of 2022. “It’s tough to put into words what it means to come back to Calvin and follow in the footsteps of a legend in Coach (Brian) Diemer. I think about my own college experience and how special it was to be a Calvin Knight every day that I coach. To come back to the school where I had a transforming student-athlete experience is incredible.”

As a junior in 2009, she was a part of Calvin’s All-America distance medley relay team that placed sixth at the NCAA III Indoor Track and Field Championships in Terre Haute, Indiana. She also helped the Calvin women’s cross country team to four top-four national team finishes including a second place team finish in 2008. In 2008, she was a member of Calvin’s top-seven at the Great Lakes Regional Meet and NCAA III Championships. She earned all-region accolades that year by finishing 22^nd at the regional championships. In outdoor track and field, she was a two-time NCAA III provisional qualifier in the steeplechase for the Knights.

Kramer recalled her time as a student-athlete at Calvin and how the seeds of coaching began during her sophom*ore year as a Knight. “I thought about getting into coaching my sophom*ore year at Calvin,” she said. “Around that point was when I fully bought into the Calvin program. I had some humbling experiences and injuries to work through, but those experiences along with the encouragement of my coaches and teammates made such a positive impact on me. I knew I wanted to make an impact on student-athletes in a similar capacity.”

She later ran one year of indoor track and field at Bowling Green State University where she was a part of a DMR team that placed fourth at the Mid-American Conference Championships. She also met a career-long goal of breaking 5:00 in the mile at this meet, and went on to set new PRs in the 1500m and steeplechase during the outdoor season, racing unattached. She later earned a master's degree in sports administration from BGSU, where she did a comparative study on NCAA Division I and Division III student-athlete experiences.

She has spent the past two years at Concordia University Wisconsin, most recently as the associate head track and field/cross country coach.

Prior to arriving at Concordia, she was the head coach of the men's and women's cross country programs at Aurora University and an assistant track & field coach for distance and mid-distance from 2016-2020.

During her time at Aurora, she was a part of 11 NACC team championships, earned USTFCCCA All-Academic team honors for both men's and women's cross country programs in 2018, the first time both programs received the award in the same year, notched 80 All-Conference honorees, 15 individual conference champions and five All-Region honorees.

Prior to Aurora, she was at Olivet Nazarene University (NAIA), where she served as the assistant coach for distance, recruiting coordinator and home meet director from 2014-16. The Tigers won five of a possible six Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference team titles while she was at ONU. Farr also assisted in coaching the men's cross country team to a third-place national finish in 2014. In 2016, Farr coached a redshirt freshman to an All-American fourth-place finish at NAIA Championships in the steeplechase.

She also had the previous coaching stops at Frostburg State (NCAA Division III) in 2012 and 2013, and Xavier University (NCAA Division I), where she assisted in coaching the first-ever NCAA Division I Championships qualifier for the cross country program in 2013.

She has continued to train and compete in road races, triathlons, and marathons including Boston in 2019. Coach Kramer has certifications in Endurance (USTFCCCA), Strength and Conditioning (USTFCCCA), and USATF Level 1.

Kramer offered words on her coaching philosophy saying: “My coaching philosophy is built around faith, family, academics and athletics – in that order,” she said. “It’s vital to make sure our priorities are straight and to keep everything in perspective with the gifts God has given us. That being said, we will continue to strive for championships, a strong culture and a memorable student-athlete experience.”

Kramer and her husband Eric Kramer live in the Grand Rapids area.