St. Lawrence University Athletics

Ethan Townsend received an Economics degree in 1998 from St. Lawrence before earning a Masters in Education in 2001 while serving as an assistant Nordic coach. He returned to his alma mater as the head Nordic ski coach in 2004.

After serving as the assistant coach for three years at St. Lawrence, Townsend headed west to coach at Whitman College for two years in the fall of 2001. He was head coach of the Nordic ski team at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA and helped that team make the transition from the US Collegiate Ski Association National Champions to NCAA competition in the 2002-2003 season.

He was named the EISA Coach of the Year at St. Lawrence in 2007 and again in 2010, and served on the league executive committee for six years. He coached Kristen Bednar to the 2009 NCAA Championships, and guided the trio of Eric Wolcott, Ben Knowles and Zach Wetherell to a pair of victories at the 2010 EISA Championships and into the field at the NCAA Championships.  Most recently, Leah Hart '12 and Caroline Carpenter '12 added their names to the list of student-athletes that have qualified for the NCAA Championships under Coach Townsend in 2011 and 2012, respectively.

Originally from the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, Coach Townsend began competing in cross country skiing at age six and led his high school team to a state championships in his senior season prior to joining the St. Lawrence team in 1994.

Ethan currently resides in Canton with his wife Jennifer and son Calvin.