Cross Country
- Title:
- Assistant Cross Country Coach
- Email:
- hjsagan@liberty.edu
- Start Date:
- 06/30/2021
Liberty Athletics Hall of Famer and All-American Heather Zealand made a successful return to her alma mater as a track & field/cross country assistant coach in the fall of 2021. In her role, Zealand primarily works with the Liberty women’s distance runners.
Zealand’s distance squad played a leading role in the Lady Flames’ CUSA triple crown in 2024-25 (conference titles in cross country, indoor track & field and outdoor track & field). In cross country, Liberty recorded the largest margin of victory in CUSA history (66 points), equaled its highest NCAA Southeast Regional finish (fifth place) and sent Adelyn Fairley to the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships. Zealand was duly honored as the CUSA Coach of the Year.
On the track, distance runners accounted for six of Liberty’s nine CUSA event titles in 2025 and took down program records in five different events. The last of those record-setting performances saw Zealand’s daughter clock a 1,500 time of 4:09.76 to take down her mother’s long-standing program record and qualify for the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships as a freshman.
Zealand coached Calli Doan to her third and final All-America honor (10th place in the NCAA steeplechase final) in 2024 as well as a berth in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Track & Field. Additionally, first-year Lady Flame Katelyn Locker swept the CUSA indoor and outdoor 800 crowns and broke a long-standing program record with her outdoor 800 clocking of 2:04.46.
In 2023, Zealand oversaw an impressive season by Calli Doan, capped off by her 11th-place finish in the NCAA steeplechase final. Doan won four ASUN titles on the year, including cross country, indoor 3K, indoor 5K and outdoor steeplechase.
Zealand was named ASUN Coach of the Year during her first season back in Lynchburg (2021), after guiding the Lady Flames’ cross country squad to its second straight ASUN Conference title and their first-ever national ranking. ASUN individual champion Calli Doan earned All-America recognition with a 28th-place finish at the 2021 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships.
On the track, Adelyn Fairle and Anna Hostetler contributed 36 big points to the Lady Flames’ ASUN indoor team championship. Outdoors, Fairley set an ASUN record for the 5K (15:54.98) and a school record for the 10K (33:49.00).
This marks Zealand’s second stint on the Liberty track & field/cross country staff, as she previously spent nine years (2002-11) as an assistant.
During her previous time coaching at Liberty, Zealand helped guide the Liberty men’s and women’s cross country squads to 10 Big South Conference titles.
Zealand captured Liberty’s first NCAA Division I national title in any sport, racing to victory in the women’s mile at the 2002 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships. That was one of two All-America honors she earned during her collegiate career, also including a runner-up finish in the women’s 1,500 at the 2002 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Zealand was a 14-time Big South champion and became the first Lady Flame ever to win an ECAC event title (2002 indoor mile). As a senior in 2002, she became the first collegiate athlete since 1987 to capture the Olympic Development mile title at the Penn Relays. Zealand owned the Liberty outdoor 1,500 record (4:14.71) for 23 years until daughter Allie broke it in 2025 and held the indoor mile standard (4:38.52) until she coached Calli Doan to break it 21 years later, in 2023.
Zealand was also a standout in the classroom, graduating in 2002 with a 3.88 GPA as a secondary education major. She was named to the 2002 CoSIDA Academic All-America women’s cross country/track & field first team squad and was the 2002 USTFCCCA Division I Women’s Track & Field Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Zealand was additionally named 2002 Virginia NCAA Woman of the Year and Big South Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
After graduation, Zealand represented the United States at the 2003 World Cross Country Championships and made the women’s 1,500 finals at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials. She was inducted into the Liberty Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011.
Zealand is married to former Liberty men’s track & field/cross country runner Josh Zealand. The couple has four children—Allie, William, Piper and Owen. Allie is a sophomore on this year’s Liberty women’s track & field and cross country squads.
