Ricardo Santos came to Stanford in August of 2019 and was named an assistant coach for the distance programs by J.J. Clark, the Franklin P. Johnson Director of Track and Field. Santos' main responsibility is coaching the men's runners, though he is involved in coaching both the men's and women's teams.
In 2020-21, Santos was named Pac-12 Men's Cross Country Coach of the Year after leading the Cardinal to the conference title, with five freshmen in the lineup. The Cardinal went on the place fifth at the NCAA Championships with freshmen taking the team's top three places.
Charles Hicks and Cole Sprout earned their first All-America honors, with Hicks being named USTFCCCA West Region Athlete of the Year and Pac-12 Freshman of the Year honors. Alek Parsons was named Pac-12 Men's Cross Country Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
The Cardinal women were third at the NCAA Championships after joining the men as Pac-12 team champions, marking the first time Stanford had swept conference team honors since 2010. The 28 points scored by Stanford men was the lowest by a Pac-12 champion since 2013.
In his first Stanford cross country season, the Cardinal women were third and the men sixth at the NCAA Championships. Alex Ostberg, Alek Parsons, and Steven Fahy earned All-America honors for the men, as did Ella Donaghu, Jessica Lawson, and Fiona O'Keeffe for the women.
The Stanford women captured conference and regional titles in the same season for the first time since 2007. Stanford's women placed 1-2-3 at the Pac-12 Championships, doing so for the first time since 2006.
During the 2020 indoor season, the Cardinal men and women both qualified for the NCAA Championships in the distance medley relay and nine runners earned All-America honors. Donaghu, O'Keeffe, and Ostberg also were named Academic All-Americans.
Santos came to The Farm from the Boston Athletic Association, where he coached its high performance team. Prior, he was Director of Cross Country and Track and Field at Iona College from 2008-18, helping the men place second at the 2008 NCAA Cross Country Championships, and earn eight other top-10 finishes. He also coached Kate Avery to the 2014 NCAA women's cross country individual title.
Santos spent three years (2005-08) as an assistant cross country and track and field coach at Harvard and was the recruiting coordinator.
Santos attended Iona, where he earned a degree in social work in 2000, and a master's in social work from Columbia in 2001. In 1998, he received All-America honors in cross country and was a two-time Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference cross country champion, three-time IC4A champion and 11-time All-MAAC recipient.
