Halston Taylor will be entering his sixth campaign at the helm of both the men’s and women’s cross country programs at MIT. In five seasons with the women, the Engineers have captured all five NEWMAC titles, earned four consecutive top 10 finishes at the NCAA Championship and had three runners collect All-America honors.
 
During the 2012 season, the Engineers spent five of the eight weeks in the No. 1 position, the first time they have ever been ranked first in the nation. Last year, they were ranked as high as third. Taylor has received the NEWMAC Coach of the Year award in five of his six seasons, including the last three years in a row. He was also named the New England Coach of the Year by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) in 2010. This season, MIT earned a share of the NCAA New England Division III Regional Championship for the second time in program history, the first of which being in 2009, and finished sixth at the National Championship.
 
Before arriving at MIT, Taylor coached the women’s track club at South Carolina and was the men's track coach at both Granby and Mohawk Regional high schools in Massachusetts. Taylor also coached the men's and women's cross country teams at Mohawk Regional.
 
A native of Columbia, S.C., Taylor is a graduate of the University of South Carolina where he was a four-year letter winner and a 4:05-miler. After receiving his undergraduate degree in Physical Education, Taylor entered UMass-Amherst to study and received his Masters in Exercise Science.