CASE STUDY
How Adams State cross country built team culture with CrewLAB
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Adams State University’s cross country program is one of the most decorated distance programs in NCAA Division II history. But sustained team culture doesn’t build itself. Six decades of championship contention, high-altitude training at 7,500 feet in Alamosa, Colorado, and a roster of athletes arriving from across the world all demand an intentional approach to build a tight-knit team culture every season.
Six decades of chasing excellence: the culture behind the titles
When Alec Duncan arrived at Adams State in 2022, he joined a program that traces its championship identity back to 1971, when the men’s team won their first national title in cross country.
“Chasing excellence doesn’t necessarily mean winning the national title every year,” Duncan explains. “For us it’s more about getting the most out of yourself every day, really committing to the team and committing to yourself and your training.”
That philosophy was instilled first by legendary coach Coach Vigil and carried forward by Coach Martin.
The challenges
Athletes from all over the world. With recruits coming from across the country and internationally, there was no natural social glue. Different backgrounds, different habits, different definitions of commitment.
Limited tools for a demanding job. The previous app, Stack Team App, and a combination of spreadsheets and chat apps forced coaches to invent workarounds and caused extra work.
No PDF uploads. Multi-page meet itineraries had to be sent as individual screenshots in the chat. For a 6–7 page nationals itinerary covering gear, travel stops, and schedules, that was a real pain.
Off-season accountability gaps. Between the short five-week winter break and lengthy summer, keeping athletes engaged in their training and connected to teammates had always been a persistent challenge.
Our solution
A Strava-like social feed that built connections. Runs sync automatically from athletes’ watches the moment they finish. The team feed gives everyone a daily window into each other’s training — with likes and comments that feel familiar to a running generation raised on Strava.
“The same kids who were posting satirically started to post more seriously as time went on. They saw that people were actually looking at it.”
Targeted trip chats. When athletes don’t make the national meet roster, the last thing they need is a flood of notifications from the team celebrating without them. Duncan creates dedicated trip chats for exactly who’s traveling, keeping team morale high for both groups.
“That’s a really hard conversation to have — you don’t want that kid getting 20 messages about things they’re missing out on.”
Calendar RSVP & attendance. The calendar lets Duncan post practice times the evening before and track RSVPs, creating visible accountability without a spreadsheet.
“They see that I marked them absent. They know we see it. That matters early in the season.”
Roster management that saves time. Before every season, Duncan needs shoe sizes, shirt sizes, and gear information for 20-plus athletes. CrewLAB’s roster profile made it easy to collect and surface that data on demand.
“I could just pull up CrewLAB and see that Suzy wears an eight or Johnny wears a twelve. All in one spot.”
The proof is on the podium
Winner
NCAA National Championships
Women’s and Men’s Individual Titles
2ND PLACE
NCAA National Championships
Men’s Team Title
4th place
NCAA Championships
Women’s Team Title
9 honors
First-Team All-America honors
RETURN ON INVESTMENT
Eliminated logistics friction, replacing a patchwork of screenshots and spreadsheets.
Off-season accountability: Coaches could check in with a scroll instead of chasing down training logs.
Having one familiar place to interact for atheltes arriving from all over the world gave relationships a head start
The goal of CrewLAB is to encourage a positive team culture, which is something that can be instilled in any sport. Having one place where athletes from all over the world can go that feels familiar, to start those relationships, was genuinely helpful.”