St. Lawrence University Athletics

AWARDS & HONORS
EISA Coach of the Year: 2007, 2010

Ethan Townsend returned to St. Lawrence University as the head coach for Nordic Skiing in 2003. He received an Economics degree in 1998 from St. Lawrence before earning a Master’s in Education in 2001 while serving as an assistant Nordic coach for the Saints.

After his three-year stint as assistant coach 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, Washington and helped that team make the transition from the US Collegiate Ski Association National Champions to NCAA competition in the 2002-03 season.

Most recently at St. Lawrence, Townsend coached Lucy Hochschartner '20 to her first postseason appearance at the 2020 NCAA Skiing Championships in Bozeman, Montana. The year prior, Jackie Garso '20 made her first postseason appearance at the NCAAs in Stowe, Vermont.

Garso opened up the EISA carnival season with a career-best sixth-place finish in the women's 5-kilometer skate at Mt. Vanhoevenberg in Lake Placid, New York during St. Lawrence's home carnival and earned four EISA top-15 finishes throughout the season. She placed 33rd in the women's 5-kilometer freestyle race and wrapped up the NCAA championships with a 37th -place finish in the women's 15-kilometer classic.

Townsend has also coached a series of other athletes to NCAAs, including: Austin Meng '15 in 2013, Caroline Carpenter '12 in 2012, Leah Hart '12 in 2011 and Kristen Bednar in 2009. He also 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.

In 2019, six members of the Nordic squad earned United States Collegiate Ski Coaches Association (USCSCA) National Collegiate All-Academic Ski Team honors.

In 2015, the Saints and Coach Townsend hosted the NCAA Championships at Lake Placid.

The Level 200 USSA certified coach, was named the EISA Coach of the Year at St. Lawrence in 2007 and again in 2010. He has served on the NCAA Executive Committee since 2013 and was named as Committee Chair in 2015. He is also a member of the Executive Committee for the EISA.

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 championship in his senior season prior to joining the St. Lawrence team in 1994.

Ethan currently resides in Canton with his wife Jennifer and their children Calvin and Maya.