The D3 Secret wrote:
Easy to coach at the high-end academic schools too (as long as you're getting assistance from Admissions). Financial aid packages are often AWESOME from these schools. If family annual income is less than $100,000 and no real assets, the family might only pay $10,000 for a $60,000 annual price tag.
So who are the coaches taking teams to NCAAs every once and awhile from only regionally-ranked (academically) colleges? Ain't hard to be a "great coach" at Haverford, Williams, Tufts, Carnegie-Mellon, Washington (St. Louis), et al...That said, Tom Donnelly and Al Carius are The Legends. North Central is no great shakes academically, nor is it a public school. Carius recruits by tradition + Naperville is a quint area.
WIAC schools would fit that definition (and before you say the schools are bigger than some other D3 schools, look into the relevant statistic, maximum team size).
I'd vote for Dan Schwamberger, podium teams on both sides in cross country in the past few years, national titles in cross for men and women, and a distance squad that has contributed to multiple track championships. Oh, and he's got the D-est of Lau's.