CAREER AT A GLANCE
- Foster enters her fifth year back on staff at Penn State in 2025-26. This season marks her third as the program’s assistant distance coach. Foster previously served as the team’s director of operations from 2021-23 and was a volunteer assistant from 2012-2015.
- During her two seasons as an assistant coach, Foster’s distance athletes have earned marked success, collecting six All-America honors and a pair of Big Ten titles.
AT PENN STATE
- Foster guided the Penn State distance group to great success during the 2024-25 season. Florence Caron collected three All-America honors in the indoor 5,000-meter, outdoor 5,000-meter and outdoor 10,000-meter races, and set school records in all three events throughout the year.
- Foster helped the women’s cross country team to a 15th-place finish at the 2024 NCAA Cross Country Championships, the group’s best finish since 2012. The women’s team also boasted three top-100 runners, its most since 2012, while Florence Caron finished 19th overall to become Penn State’s first cross country All-American since 2016. Brian DiCola turned out the highest finish by a Penn State men’s runner at the NCAA Cross Country Championships since 2013. His appearance in the national meet was the first for a Penn State men’s runner since 2017.
- During the 2023-24 campaign, Foster was instrumental in the success of Penn State’s distance program. In the fall, Foster helped guide the women’s cross country team to an appearance in the NCAA Cross Country Championships, its first berth in the championship meet since 2019. The Nittany Lion women produced three All-Conference honorees and four All-Region awardees during the cross country season. The men’s squad also performed well, finishing fourth at the Mid-Atlantic regional meet with a pair of All-Region selections. Maddie Ullom’s sixth-place effort at the Big Ten Championships earned her First Team All-Big Ten honors, the first All-Conference First Team honor earned by a Nittany Lion since 2019.
- During the track season, Foster’s athletes posted multiple outstanding performances, with Florence Caron and Sophia Toti’s outings at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships highlighting the bunch. Caron and Toti finished first and second in both the 5K and 10K races at the conference championships, with Caron becoming the first Nittany Lion ever to win both the 5K and 10K Big Ten titles in a career, let alone in the same championship meet. Guided by Foster, Caron and Toti picked up a whopping 36 of Penn State’s 78 team points as the women’s group finished fifth in the conference. Not to be outdone, Foster helped coach Makenna Krebs to a silver-medal finish at the conference meet in the steeplechase.
- Foster’s distance trio continued their outstanding seasons with appearances at the NCAA East Regional meet in their respective events. Caron qualified to the NCAA Championships in the 10K and ended up finishing her season as a Second Team All-American in the event with her outing at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
- While in a director of operations role with the Nittany Lions, Foster used her own distance experience to assist head coach John Gondak and assistant coach Ryan Foster in mentoring Penn State’s distance athletes and saw Toti claim a Big Ten Silver Medal in the 10K in 2022, an event Foster herself won twice during her competition days a Nittany Lion.
BEFORE PENN STATE
- At Tennessee, the Foster duo coached the Volunteers’ distance athletes for three years, seeing marked improvement in the program year in and year out, including a fourth-place finish for the men’s cross country team at 2018 SEC’s, the Fosters’ first season with the program.
- During her time as an assistant coach for Edinboro, Foster and her husband, Ryan, mentored the Fighting Scots to a Cross Country PSAC Championship and coached multiple individual athletes to PSAC-winning performances.
- Foster (maiden name Millhouse) was three-time Big Ten Champion distance runner as a student-athlete at Penn State and still holds the program’s 10K record.
PROMINENT ATHLETES COACHED
- Florence Caron (Penn State)
- 1x First Team All-American (’24 indoor DMR)
- 4x Second Team All-American (’24 & ‘25 outdoor 10K, ’25 i/o 5K)
- 1x Cross Country All-American (’24)
- 2x Mid-Atlantic All-Region honoree (’23 XC, ’24 XC)
- 1x Big Ten Women’s Track Athlete of the Championships (’24 outdoor)
- 2x Big Ten Champion (’24 outdoor 5K, 10K)
- 1x XC First Team All-Big Ten (’24)
- 1x XC Second Team All-Big Ten (’23)
- 4x Penn State school record holder
- Indoor 5K (15:25.83)
- Outdoor 5K (15:31.63)
- Outdoor 10K (32:26.52)
- Outdoor 4x1500m relay (17:09.59 – NCAA No. 5 all-time)
- Sophia Toti (Penn State)
- 3x Big Ten Silver Medalist (’22 outdoor 10K, ’24 outdoor 5K, 10K)
- 1x Big Ten Bronze Medalist (’24 indoor 5K)
- 1x Mid-Atlantic All-Region honoree (’23 XC)
- 2 in Penn State history in the outdoor 10K (32:57.89)
- 3 in Penn State history in the outdoor 5K (15:44.89)
THE FOSTER FILE
Personal
Year at Penn State: Fifth (Third as an assistant coach)
Hometown: Boiling Springs, Pa.
Education: Penn State, 2012 - B.S. in Kinesiology
Family: Husband: Ryan
Coaching Career
2021-Present – Penn State
- '23-Present – Assistant Coach - Distance
- ’21-’23 – Director of Operations
2018-21 – Tennessee (Volunteer Assistant Coach)
2016-18 – Edinboro (Assistant Coach – Distance)
2012-15 – Penn State (Volunteer Assistant Coach)