From State Champion to Division I Head Coach: The Story Behind the Distance Collective

By Coach Justin Roeder

When you hand your child over to a coach, you're trusting them with a lot more than a training plan. You're trusting them with your kid's confidence, their safety, and whether they still love this sport in five years. I don't take that lightly, and I wanted to write something that lays out exactly why, so families know who they're actually working with before they ever sign up.

I've spent two decades earning that trust. First as a state champion athlete, then as a Division I head coach, and now as the founder of the Distance Collective. Here's the full story.

Where it started: Hamilton Southeastern and the state title

I ran for Hamilton Southeastern High School, and in 2004 I won the IHSAA Individual State Championship in cross country. I was a four time IHSAA All-State runner during my high school career. That's the same journey a lot of the athletes I coach now are on, chasing a varsity spot, a sectional title, or a shot at running at state, and I remember exactly what that pursuit feels like from the inside.

Butler University and five Horizon League titles

From there I ran at Butler University, where I earned a degree in Exercise Science and became a five time Horizon League Individual Champion across the 3,000m, 5,000m, and 10,000m. I was part of Butler's historic run of 14 consecutive Horizon League Championship cross country teams, including three seasons where our team posted a perfect score. I qualified for the NCAA Cross Country Championships twice and earned NCAA All-Region honors twice as well.

If you want to talk through what a path like this could look like for your own runner, reach out through my contact pageand let's talk.

Racing at the Olympic level

After college, I spent three years, from 2012 to 2015, competing as a professional triathlete. I trained at the U.S. Olympic Training Centers in both Colorado Springs and Chula Vista, working alongside athletes who went on to become Olympians themselves. That experience shaped how I think about training load, recovery, and what it actually takes to compete at the highest level, and it's a perspective I bring into every plan I build for the runners I coach now.

Building a Division I program from the ground up

My coaching career started as a volunteer assistant, then top assistant, and I became Head Coach at IUPUI, now IU Indianapolis, in July 2022. Under that program I guided our team to Horizon League Cross Country Team Championships in 2019, 2020, and 2021. Over the course of my coaching career, I've developed 188 athletes at the NCAA level, and 65 of the runners I've coached have gone on to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Dozens of our athletes earned First and Second Team All-Horizon League honors, Freshman of the Year, and Runner of the Meet recognition, and our teams broke numerous school records across nearly every distance event, year after year.

Running a competitive Division I program means overseeing a lot more than workouts. I was responsible for individualized training, recruiting, academics, and athlete wellbeing, all at once, for every athlete on the roster. That full picture view of what it actually takes to develop a runner is exactly what I bring to the Distance Collective.

Results in the classroom mattered just as much

Our teams earned USTFCCCA All-Academic Team honors nearly every single season, and dozens of our athletes made conference Academic Honor Rolls year after year. My own college career included Dean's List honors and my team's Mental Attitude Award. I've always believed character and results go hand in hand, and that's still true in how I coach today.

What this means for your runner

Every athlete's plan through the Distance Collective is individualized, because every athlete's body, goals, and life outside of running are different. I've personally lived this entire journey, state champion, college champion, professional athlete, Division I head coach, so I know what it actually takes at every single stage. Injury prevention and long-term athlete health come before short-term results in how I build a program, and I've coached runners at every level, from first timers to national qualifiers, so wherever your child is starting from, I know how to meet them there. Above all, I build a culture rooted in hard work, kindness, and accountability, so your child grows as a person and not just as a runner.

Certified and background checked

I hold an Exercise Science degree along with SafeSport certification, USATF certification, USA Triathlon certification, IRONMAN University certification, and TrainingPeaks certification. Every one of those credentials exists for a reason, and they all inform how I train the athletes in the Distance Collective.

State champion. Division I head coach. Now building Indiana's next generation of runners.

If you want to talk about what coaching with me could look like for your athlete, reach out through my contact page or see how it works here. I'd love to hear where your runner is right now and where they want to go.