Tony Nicolosi - Cross Country Coach

Tony Nicolosi

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
nicolosi@usf.edu

Years in Coaching: 19^th season
Years at South Florida: 4^th season
Alma Mater: University of Tampa, 2010
Hometown: Seminole, Florida

NOTABLES

Coached eight All-Conference performances at South Florida, including the first American Conference 1,500m champion in program history.
Helped every runner on the Austin Peay squad run a personal best in 2022-23.
Coached Cal State East Bay’s first All-American in cross country in over 30 years (Angelina Ronquillo).
Led the Cal State East Bay women’s cross country team to qualify for the NCAA Championships for the first time in program history en route to a ninth-place finish.
Coached the Western Colorado cross country teams that finished in the top 5 at the 2013 NCAA Cross Country Championships.

Tony Nicolosi was named an assistant coach of the USF track and field and cross country programs on August 14, 2023, and enters his fourth season at South Florida. A native of Seminole, Fla., and a University of Tampa graduate, Nicolosi brings over a decade of coaching experience to South Florida.

In 2025-26, Nicolosi helped Karim Belmahdi break two school records in the indoor 800m and mile. Belmahdi earned a bronze medal in the mile with a school record time of 4:03.72 at the American Indoor Championships. He also coached the bronze medalist in the women’s indoor and outdoor 800m (Mercy Angaamchaab) and the silver medalist in the men’s outdoor 800m (Nicolas Dovalovsky) in 2026. Belmahdi was also the 1,500m champion at the American Outdoor Championships in program history. In 2024, Belmahdi also earned three bronze medals in the indoor 800m, outdoor 800m, and outdoor 1,500m at the American Conference Championships.

He returns to Tampa after serving the 2022-23 season as an assistant coach of cross country and track and field with Austin Peay in Clarksville, Tenn. During his first season coaching a D1 program, he helped every runner on the squad run a personal best over the course of the year, including a school record for Lauren Lewis in the indoor 1,000m (2:55.61). Lewis went on to finish fourth in 800m at the ASUN Indoor Championships.

Prior to his time in Clarksville, Tenn., Nicolosi served as the head coach for cross country and track and field at Cal State East Bay for seven years (2015-22). Under his guidance, he saw a 2022 CCAA outdoor 1,500m champion (Chase Worthen) and a 2019 CCAA outdoor 10,000m champion (Claire Fischer).

In 2019, he coached the program’s first All-American in cross country in over 30 years (Angelina Ronquillo). While at Cal State East Bay, the women's cross country team made history in 2019, qualifying for the NCAA Championships for the first time in program history en route to a ninth-place finish. The men's cross country program continued to grow under Nicolosi in 2018-19, posting the highest finish in school history for the second year in a row, finishing fourth. The Pioneer men went on to notch their best showing of the CCAA era at NCAA West Regionals with an 11^th-place finish and saw three runners break the program record in the 10k. In just his second year with the program (2016-17), both his men's and women's cross country squads notched their highest finishes ever at CCAA Championships, with the men placing fifth and the women taking seventh. The men’s team had never finished above last place. All seven scoring runners ran faster times than the squad's top runner the previous season, and all seven finished in the top 60 overall. The team went on to finish 17th at NCAA DII Regionals, the program's best standing since 1998.??

Nicolosi served as an assistant coach for cross country and track and field at Western Colorado University for two years (2013-15). There he oversaw training, recruiting, fundraising, and meet operations. He coached a men’s team that won the 2015 RMAC Championships in indoor and outdoor track and field. In his first season, he coached a women’s team that placed third in the country during the 2013 NCAA Cross Country Championships, while the men placed fourth. That same men’s team won 2013 RMAC Championships and was ranked first in the country in cross country. Nicolosi worked with several Western Colorado athletes who made it to the Olympic trials or Olympics. In two years, he coached four All-Americans in cross country and seven in track and field.

Before his stint in Colorado, he spent one cross country season at Nova Southeastern University as a graduate assistant (2012). There he was in charge of distance, overseeing training management, practice plans, and race strategy for both cross country squads. That year, the men's team captured Sunshine State Conference (SSC) and NCAA South Region titles for the first time in school history, and the women's team produced the program's first-ever individual SSC champion.??

Before taking his NSU graduate position, Nicolosi returned to his high school, Seminole High School in Seminole, Fla., coaching cross country and track and field for five years (2007-12). He began coaching while a sophomore at the University of Tampa. During his time there, he coached three state medal winners and led the boys’ cross country team to three straight state championship berths. ??

Nicolosi earned his bachelor's degree in sports management with a minor in economics from the University of Tampa (2006-10). He spent his collegiate career as a distance runner for the Spartans, graduating as the first male runner in program history to earn First Team All-Conference honors all four years. He qualified for NCAA championships twice in cross country, with the first qualification being their first ever NCAA championship birth (2007), placed third at the NCAA South regionals as a senior, and set the school's 8k record (24:52). He also established program records in the 3k (8:41), 5k (15:07), and 10k (31:30) for the track and field team.