Ryan Root has accepted a coaching position at the University of Tulsa and will be leaving ASICS Greenville Track Club-ELITE. The graduate of North Central College in Illinois previously was a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Illinois before joining the post-collegiate, Olympic development program in Greenville, SC in July of 2016. 

"Ryan's career interest is directed toward coaching and this is a great opportunity for him," stated program director/coach Mike Caldwell. "During Ryan's time with us he improved his performances from 10K to the marathon, despite suffering a brief setback last September with a lower leg injury." 

Highlights included four runner-up finishes: at the Greenville News Run Downtown 5K in January, at Columbia's MGC Long Run 15K, at the GHS Half-Marathon in Greenville and at the TD Bank Reedy River Run 10K in Greenville. He improved his half-marathon personal best by over two minutes with a time of 1:07:03. He also ran within three seconds of his 5,000 meter personal best on the track with a time of 14:37.32, although not focusing on the shorter distances. 

He recently completed his season with a 22nd place finish at Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, MN, where he cut over three minutes from his previous performance at that distance, timing 2:23:32. 

"While we are disappointed that Ryan is moving on, we wish him well and are excited to see him transition into his desired career path of coaching," explained Caldwell. "Ryan definitely was an asset to our program and utilized his skills of pacing to provide a steady influence in many of our workout sessions."