The greatest female scholar-athlete in SUNY Cortland history, Victoria Mitchell was a seven-time NCAA Div. III national champion in cross country and track while distinguishing herself in the classroom as a GTE Academic All-American and a Cortland honors student who graduated magna cum laude.
In 1999, Mitchell joined the University of Buffalo coaching staff and is in her second year as its successful head cross country and women's track and field coach.
An unheralded scholastic athlete from Snyder, N.Y., and Amherst Central School, Mitchell developed into the nation’s premier NCAA Div. III distance runner while at Cortland under the tutelage of nationally renown coach Jack Daniels.
In cross country, she competed on Cortland’s 1989 and 1990 national championship teams. She placed fifth nationally in 1989 and was the individual national champion in 1990.
Her NCAA indoor track national crowns included the 1500 meters in both 1989-90 and 1990-91 and the 5,000 meters in 1990-91. In NCAA outdoor track competition, Mitchell took first nationally in the 3,000 meters in 1990 and in both the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters in 1991.
Along the way, she captured SUNYAC titles twice in the 1,500 meters and 3,000 meters, as well as part of the Red Dragon distance medley and 3,200-meter relays. She twice won the ECAC 1,500-meter championship and the 3,000 meters once. She placed second in the nation in the 5,000 meters at the 1990 NCAA Div. III Outdoor Track Championships.
Mitchell, who made the Dean’s List every semester at Cortland, graduated with a 3.72 grade point average. She was inducted into the Phi Kappa Phi and the Phi Eta Sigma honor societies and received a prestigious Alpha Delta Junior Scholarship.
The 1991 Hanes Her Way Woman of the Year, Mitchell was named both a SUNYAC and New York State Scholar-Athlete Award winner.
An accomplished violinist, she was first chair in the College-Community Orchestra at Cortland and was named the College’s Outstanding Musician of the Year in 1988-89.
Mitchell graduated magna cum laude with a B.S.E. in physical education in 1991 and earned a master's in exercise physiology from North Carolina-Greensboro in 1994, where she maintained a perfect 4.0 grade point average. A distinguished athlete and international competitor, Mitchell is currently ranked in the top 10 nationally as a distance runner. She competed in the 1996 U.S. Olympic 10,000-meter trials and made her marathon debut at the 1999 Hong Kong Marathon, where she qualified for the 2000 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.
Prior to arriving at UB in 1999, Mitchell served as the assistant cross country and track and field coach at William Jewell College in Kansas City, Mo. Mitchell also spent five years at Holy Angels Academy in Buffalo, where she taught physical education and was the head cross country and track and field coach.
In 2001, she was invited to join the Fila Discovery USA training program, a program designed to develop American distance runners into elite marathon athletes able to compete with the best in the world. She has been a member of five USA national teams, including the 1993 World University Games and 1998 IAAF World Road Race Championship in Manaus, Brazil.
The 2003 SUNY Cortland Western New York Alumna of the Year, Mitchell has been an active volunteer coach for various groups raising funds for charitable organizations, such as the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the Center for the Visually Impaired.
UPDATE- March, 2015: Mitchell was inducted into the Division III Track and Field Hall of Fame in May of 2011. She volunteers her time at Girls on the Run as the Race Director and is a member of the Board of Directors. She is a coach at the Checkers Athletic Club which is the longest running club in Buffalo and is a member of the Board of Directors for the WNY Running Hall of Fame.
