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BLACKSBURG, Va. – Virginia Tech announced the hiring of Jennifer McGranahan as assistant cross country and distance coach on Thursday. McGranahan will assist head cross country and distance track and field coach, Ben Thomas.

McGranahan comes to Tech from Pensacola, Fla., where she served as a personal trainer for her own business, Swiftly Running, and head coach for a specialty running store, in 2008 and 2009. She coached the My First 5k, the Pensacola Double Bridge 15k and the My First 10k programs, in addition to creating and implementing new 12-16 week training programs to help adults progress their running fitness.

From 2006-07, McGranahan was a graduate assistant coach for the cross country and track and field men’s and women’s teams at the University of West Florida. She was charged with the day-to-day training, recruitment of athletes and travel arrangements for the Argonauts.

Prior to her time at West Florida, McGranahan served as the head girls and boys cross country coach at St. Mary’s High School in Colorado Springs, Colo., and worked at The Country Club of Colorado as aquatics manager from 2003-05.

As an athlete at the University of Florida, McGranahan was an All-SEC and All-Regional cross country runner. She also finished among the top three in the conference in the 5,000- and 10,000-meters in track. At Pensacola High School, McGranahan broke the school record in the Vulcan cross country meet, clocking a time of 17:10 in the 5k race. She was also the top Gator runner at the NCAA cross country meet and placed second at the National Junior Cross Country Championships as a freshman.

McGranahan received her bachelor’s degree in sports management from the University of Florida in 2002 and earned her master’s in exercise science from West Florida in December of 2007.

For updates on Virginia Tech cross country, follow the Hokies on Twitter (@VT_Track).