Excellence in the Esposito Era
14-Time Big South Track and Field Coach of the Year
2-time Big South XC Coach of the Year
4 Big South Men's Indoor Track & Field Championships
4 Big South Women's Indoor Track & Field Championships
5 Big South Men's Outdoor Track & Field Championships
5 Big South Women's Outdoor Track & Field Championships
2 Big South Cross Country Championships
24 Athletes sent to NCAA Championship
22 All-Americans
113 NCAA Regional Qualifiers under Esposito
18 (2025), 11 (2024), 9 (2023), 11 (2022), 11 (2021), 3 (2019), 6 (2018), 2 (2017), 8 (2016), 4 (2015), 5 (2014), 5 (2013), 5 (2012), 4 (2011), 7 (2009), 3 (2008), 1 (2006)
24 Track student-athletes advanced to NCAA National Championships under Esposito
5 (2025), 3 (2024), 5 (2023), 3 (2022), 2 (2021), 1 (2018), 2 (2016), 1 (2014), 1 (2013), 1 (2012)
Mike Esposito was named the director of Track & Field at HPU in 2005 since then Espo has taken High Point Track to new heights. Esposito led both the men’s and women’s programs to their first Big South team Championships in 2020 at the Big South Indoor Track and Field Championships. Coming back after the COVID stoppage Espo and the Panthers followed up their double championship win indoors with both teams winning the Big South outdoor championships for the first time in 2021 inside Vert Stadium. Since 2021, HPU has swept five straight outdoor Big South Championships and recently won back-to-back-to-back men's and women's indoor Big South Championships in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Espo takes great pride in hosting some of the premier college track and cross country meets in the country in High Point each year. Esposito is the creator of the VertKlasse meeting a tribute to the WeltKlasse meeting.
“Vertklasse is in honor of Mr. Dick Vert and his wife and based off of the WeltKlasse Zürich in Switzerland. (It is invitation-only and generally held at the end of August. It is sometimes referred to as the one-day Olympics. My number one bucket list item is to attend the meet in person.”
Esposito’s latest home meet creation is the Meet of Champions which will be hosted this year in Vert Stadium. The meet will include the CUSA Champion (UNCC), MEAC Champion NC A&T, ACC Champion Duke, ASUN Champion Liberty and Big South Champion HPU. It will be a one of a kind meet that will include team scoring.
Under Esposito, Vert stadium has seen massive improvements non more noticeable than the Purple Beynon track which was installed in the summer of 2021.
In 2019, Esposito led the Panther women to back-to-back runner-up finishes in the indoor and outdoor Big South Championships, setting program records for points scored in the conference meet during both seasons. He led the HPU men to a third-place finish in the Big South Indoor Track & Field Championships as well, scoring 130 points as a team. Between both High Point track and field teams, sixteen program records were rewritten during the 2018-19 seasons, with three individual athletes qualifying for NCAA East Preliminaries in the outdoor campaign.
Jacob Smith qualified twice in the 3,000m steeplechase (2012, 2014), earning second-team All-America honors in 2014 and honorable mention accolades in 2012.
2016 was a historic year for HPU track and field as it was the first year two student-athletes qualified for the NCAA Championships, including Christian Spaulding (men's javelin) and Christine Rickert (women's javelin). Rickert was the first HPU female to advance to the national meet.
Hocine Bouchrak represented High Point at the 2018 NCAA Championship as a freshman, coming in 18th in the 3000m Steeple (8:57.04) to earn All-America honorable mentions.
In 2013, Esposito guided Dakota Peachee to the NCAA final in the 3,000m steeplechase and a fifth-place finish, the highest NCAA finish in program history.
In 2014, the Panther men also finished seventh at the NCAA Cross Country Southeast Regional Championship, tying the program's best-ever finish in regional action.
Since Esposito took over the program, 35 Panthers have earned All-Big South men's cross country accolades. A total of 13 Panthers earned all-conference honors while Esposito was in charge of the women's cross country program.
He is a three-time Big South Coach of the Year and has earned the accolade for men's cross country (2014), indoor track & field (2012) and women's cross country (2011).
HPU records have been set in 38 events on the women's side and 32 events on the men's side since 2006.
Three of Esposito's former HPU runners have gone on to the professional ranks: Cole Atkins and Jesse Cherry are both former runners for ZAP Fitness, while Tamas Kovacs ran marathons professionally in Hungary. Kovacs participated in the marathon at the 2012 London Olympic Games, while Cherry and Atkins participated in Olympic Trials in 2016.
Esposito's squads also perform well off the track, as HPU has posted a perfect APR score of 1000 in women's cross country and track & field, earning the program NCAA Public Recognition honors in 2015. In addition, the men's cross country and track & field programs registered perfect single-year scores of 1000 in 2013-14 and have a strong-four year average score of 987.
The Punxsutawney, Pa., native came to High Point following 19-years as the head coach at Mount Tabor High School in Winston-Salem, N.C.
At Mount Tabor, Esposito coached four national champions, four national runners-up, three Footlocker finalists, over 52 individual and relay state champions, and 11 state champion teams. Esposito was honored for his success on the track by having been named Conference Coach of the Year 22 times and N.C. Coach of the Year eight times. Mount Tabor's men's cross country teams went undefeated from 1994 until Esposito's final season of 2005, and the women's team was nationally ranked in 2000 and 2001.
Esposito served as the co-director of the North Carolina Indoor and Outdoor Track Championships on numerous occasions and was the director for the state cross country meet from 2002-04.
Esposito, a graduate of Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pa., played basketball for the Titans before joining the cross country and track teams. He was named most valuable runner in 1979 and 1980.
