There’s no place like home: A D3 homecoming series with Nicole Kramer

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Nicole Kramer and Calvin’s ‘4P’s’

One of the first orders of business for Nicole Kramer, who joined the Calvin coaching staff in 2022 as the new Head Cross Country Coach, was to unlock a room of dusty trophies in the field house (yes, Calvin athletics have been so successful that they have an entire room for overflow trophies in addition to the main trophy case). 

She picked up a second-place NCAA national trophy from 2008, dusted it off, and placed it in her office where she can see it every day. 

The trophy Kramer picked out was not random—it was the second place trophy her team had won when she was a junior at Calvin. 

“I'm like, ‘can I put one of these in my office?’” Kramer said. “‘Because this one right here is gonna motivate me a whole lot.’ Not because we finished second in the country and look at that as a great moment—even though it was a great accomplishment—but because we wanted more.”

Now at the helm of the same program she competed for from 2006-2010, Kramer hopes to continue the legacy of long-established excellence at her alma mater Calvin. 

She follows directly in the footsteps of her own college cross country coach, recent 2025 USTFCCCA Coaches Hall of Fame inductee Brian Diemer, who coached cross country and distance athletes at Calvin for 36 years. With the help of co-pilot Al Hoekstra, 2021 USTFCCCA Hall of Fame inductee and Women’s Head Cross Country Coach until 2005 Nancy Meyer, and longstanding assistant since 2005 Rick Otte, Diemer’s Knights saw a wealth of success. They earned four men’s national titles, 30 combined national top-10 finishes, 16 combined national top-4 finishes, 36 combined Great Lakes regional titles, and 43 combined MIAA conference titles, the most titles in MIAA history. 

On a Tuesday night last December in Grapevine, Texas, Kramer watched Diemer’s legacy become cemented in the USTFCCCA Coaches Hall of Fame.

“Diemer was admirable for a lot of different reasons,” Kramer said. “I think I've always been impressed by how he could prioritize and balance many important things in his life. It's important to realize he was never a full time coach. He's someone who had a lot of different roles." 

While becoming one of the most decorated distance coaches in the state of Michigan, Diemer was also working full-time as a part owner of a successful landscape business in West Michigan and balancing family life with his wife, Kerri, and their four kids.

“I’ve asked him that,” Kramer said. “Like, ‘how were you able to balance it?’ And he would say ‘whenever I was at work, I was focused on work. Whenever I was at practice, I was focused on practice. Whenever I was at home with the family, I was focused on the family.’ He was able to focus really well. His experience as an [elite] athlete probably helped him with that.”

A 1984 Bronze Olympic medalist in the steeplechase, Diemer successfully transferred his athletic talent to a career in coaching, inspiring athletes with stories about his time as a D1 runner at Michigan and eventually an elite athlete. 

While Kramer admits she does not have Olympic tales as Diemer did, she does have something that is arguably just as special: an authenticity that comes from having been in each of her athletes’ shoes.  

“That was important to start with back in 2022,” Kramer said. “A confirmation and ability to relate with [athletes] like, ‘hey, I've been here. I'm an alum. This place is really special to me.’ There were so many elements that I [remembered] fondly that still carried on through the team.”

When Kramer was an athlete on the team, Calvin’s women’s cross country program finished in the top 4 in the nation every single year, with 2008’s runner-up finish being the pinnacle. The men’s team won the national title in 2006 for the third time in their history. Having been a first-hand witness to Calvin’s success in college and a distant witness to their continued success well after graduation, it was only natural for Kramer to bring with her some self-inflicted pressure when she stepped into her new role as head coach. Diemer passed down to her a 34-year strong men’s MIAA winning streak, the second longest ongoing streak in all of D3 and a streak Kramer happily maintained for three more years. In 2025, however, the streak finally broke. Rival Hope took the conference title for the first time since 1986.

“If you merely look at results from last fall for the men’s team, it may look like a major setback,” Kramer said. “We knew losing six of the top seven from an MIAA and regional championship squad in 2024 was going to be a struggle to build back from, and coaching transitions have inherent challenges.” 

Kramer continued to explain that despite some disappointing meet results, the team continues to be invested in the future. The underclassmen are adapting to the demands of college training, and the upperclassmen are leading the way, shifting team perspective through adversity. Kramer is adapting, too, holding back on the temptation to make major increases to volume and intensity that don’t necessarily benefit the future of her athletes.

“Instead of being filled with pressure and anticipation for an outcome we couldn’t control, we prioritized holding true to what was best for the team at the time,” Kramer said. “We took a look at where we were at and did our best to accept it, knowing we are a program that is seriously building toward what’s ahead.”

With the streak broken, a pressure valve released, and as the cliche goes, when one door closes, another one opens. Kramer is optimistic about where the program is headed.

"Culture-wise, the squad is in a really good spot,” she said. “Short term, we want to have a great track season. We want to make a lot of steps forward, be chasing indoor and outdoor conference titles on both the women's and men's side, and hopefully do some damage at nationals again in the distance events.”

Photo by Stockton

Senior Sophie Bull comes off of a stunning fifth place All-American finish at the 2025 Cross Country National Championship and enters her season ready to have fun and maybe even try some new distances with a steeplechase national title already secured in 2025 (though don’t count her out to defend her title this year!).

Though the results are fun to chase, Kramer hopes that the culture piece of her team will also sustain itself long-term. She understands that it can be a slow process at first that requires patience and care.

“Long term, I've developed and tried to be a little bit more concise with some of our team priorities and answering the question, ‘why run for Calvin?’” Kramer said. 

She coined her program pillars ‘the four P’s’: the people, the process, the parallels, and the past and present. Kramer’s alliterative acronym is meant to hone in on her program’s philosophy of building a positive, team-first culture centered around faith, family, academics, and athletics; trusting the process, especially early on; drawing parallels between running and personal growth in life and faith; and respecting and knowing the long-standing history of success of the Calvin program. 

As an alum, Kramer holds each of these ideals close as she draws from her own experience in the program and reflects on what it means to be a Calvin Knight.

“Change is inevitable, but you also have to know where you come from and have a lot of pride in wearing the Calvin uniform,” Kramer said. “Because there's a very rich history that we can't forget about.”