Houston Franks enters his eighth year as head cross country coach after being elevated to the position in 2011. The Tupelo native has been at Mississippi State since 2004 when he returned as an assistant coach for track and field – his current position.
In 2018, Franks coached MSU standout Rhianwedd Price-Weimer to a fourth-place finish in the mile at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Also in 2018, under Franks’ tutelage, 2016 1500m Olympian Marta Freitas broke the Portuguese national record in the mile (4:22.45).
Coming off the best women's track and field season in program history, Franks coached Price-Weimer to one of the best seasons in school history, where she became Franks’ first NCAA Champion by capturing the 1500m crown at the 2015 NCAA Track and Field Outdoor Championships.
Freitas would give Franks his second-straight 1500m national champion in 2016, when she crossed the finish in 4:09.53, edging out Stanford’s Elise Cranny, who crossed in 4:09.54.
In addition, Franks coached two other Bulldogs to the 2015 NCAA Championships including Freitas (1500m) and Cornelia Griesche (3000m steeplechase), who set the school record in the steeplechase at the NCAA East Preliminaries to qualify for nationals with a time of 9:58.06. Also, that season, Damian Roszko clocked the second-fastest 10,000m run in school history (29:25.35).
Franks coached Price-Weimer her freshman year in the 800-meter run and 1500-meter run, both of which she holds the schools third-fastest times. Three other distance runners also made their way in to the record book to hold the Top-3 times in the 3000-meter steeplechase, including Griesche (10:00.58), Antonia Hehr (9:59.32) and Lisa Ziegler (10:18.51). Griesche went on to receive honorable mention All-American accolades in the event.
On the men’s side of the 2014 outdoor campaign, Franks coached Damian Roszko, who worked his way into the record books in the 5000-meter run with a time of 14:13.53. Patrick Monaghan earned the second-best time in the mile at 4:07.18.
In the 2013 season, Franks coached John Valentine to the third-best 5000m mark in MSU record books (14:24.82).
During the 2011 Indoor Track and Field season, Franks guided sophomore Haley Greenwell to a third-place spot on the MSU all-time list for the 5,000-meter run, but it was during the 2011 Outdoor Track and Field season that Franks really saw Greenwell shine. Greenwell raced her way to the top of the MSU all-time list for the 10,000-meter run, while posting a 3rd place finish at the SEC Championships and a 17th place finish at the NCAA Championships. Franks' coaching paid off at the end of the season, as Greenwell was named an honorable mention All-American.
