Western Kentucky announced the hiring of Lee Wood as the school's director of cross country/track & field on Monday. (SAVANNAH PHILPOT / WKU Athletics)

Western Kentucky Director of Athletics Todd Stewart announced the hiring of Lee Wood as director of cross country/track & field on Monday.

“We are excited to name Lee Wood our next director of cross country/track & field,” Stewart said in a news release. “Coach Wood guided the program admirably this spring following coach (Brent) Chumbley’s passing, with steadfast leadership and exhibiting a daily commitment and care for our student-athletes. His prior experience as a head coach, along with his vision for the future of the program, made him stand out among our strong pool of candidates. We are confident having him leading our program going forward.”

Wood had been serving in the interim role since the passing of Chumbley on Jan. 30, 2025. He guided the Hilltopper men to a fifth-place finish at the Conference USA Outdoor Championships, their best finish since 2019. Four Hilltopper men qualified for the NCAA East Preliminaries at the end of the season (Kaison Barton, hammer throw; Kameron Horton, 100 and 200 meters; Van Thrasher, 110 meter hurdles; and Sterling Weldon, long jump). Last fall, Wood coached Kinley Kunkel and Mary Dye to all-conference honors and NCAA Regional berths during the cross country season.

“It is a great honor to be the next director of cross country and track and field at WKU,” Wood said. “This team has had a great amount of success and winning tradition in the past, and I’m ready to build on the foundation that has been set. I want to extend a thank you to Todd Stewart, John McCammon and the entire hiring committee for trusting me and believing in me to lead this program. I can’t wait to get to work! Go Tops!”

Wood was hired to lead the WKU cross country and distance teams in December of 2023. Wood came to WKU from Drury University, where he had served as the head track and field and cross country coach since 2021.

Wood started his coaching career at Rogers High School and Heritage High School, winning seven state championships in 12 years including a triple crown in 2005 with Rogers. Following his stint at the high school level, he was hired at NCAA Division II national distance powerhouse Western Colorado University, where he coached men’s and women’s teams that finished on the podium year after year. As an assistant he helped coach more than 25 All-Americans and coached numerous individual national champions and the national champion distance medley relay team (2018).

In 2021, he took the position as head men’s and women’s cross country/ track and field coach at Drury where led athletes to more than 70 school records. He guided the 2023 men’s and women’s team to the highest finishes in the conference in school history with the women finishing runner-up and the men finishing third.

While with Drury, Wood coached two All-Americans: Claire McCune (cross country), Katie McCune (800 indoor and outdoor), and conference champion Bradley Weimer (cross \country). Weimer was also a national qualifier that season.

Wood resides in Bowling Green with his wife Sara. They have three sons: Woodrow, Hunter, and Braden. They also have a daughter, Iris.