When Binghamton’s Rory Quiller won the pole vault at the Division I Men’s Indoor Track and Field Championships last month, he achieved an incredible personal accomplishment. But his victory pushed his coach, Mike Thompson, into rarefied air.

Though the NCAA doesn’t keep statistics on such feats, Thompson is believed to be one of the first, if not the first, coach to have guided a student-athlete to a national championship in all three NCAA divisions. And he was able to do it without changing jobs.

In the mid and late-1990s, Binghamton competed at the Division III level, and Thompson coached Monique Hacker to a total of five indoor and outdoor triple jump titles from 1996-98. Hacker’s teammate, Jewdyer Osborne, won the Division III outdoor 110 hurdles title in 1998. The Bearcats made the move to Division II later that year, and in 1999, Brian Hamilton won the indoor long jump title.

In 2001, Binghamton joined Division I. Quiller is the first national champion for Thompson since the school made the move, bringing his total to eight national champions in 13 years with the Bearcats.

“Mike has demonstrated that he is capable of coaching outstanding athletes at every level of the sport,” Binghamton athletics director Joel Thirer said. “He is a devoted and highly respected professional who continues to do an outstanding job for the Binghamton University track and field program.”

Thompson was himself a national champion as a student-athlete at Northern Colorado, winning Division II indoor and outdoor pole vault titles in 1989. He still holds the school’s pole vault record. He was named the America East men’s indoor track coach of the year earlier this year.

“I am delighted, but not surprised, that Mike Thompson has now coached a national champion at the NCAA Division I, II and III level,” said Jim Norris, senior associate athletics director. “Mike is an extremely hard-working coach, with tremendous sport-specific knowledge, whose fiercely competitive nature and outstanding teaching abilities have allowed him to maximize the potential of numerous student-athletes under his direction.”

Thompson is still an active pole vaulter, with four Empire State Games pole vault tiles in the last 13 years. He also published an article on the pole vault in a 2003 edition of the journal Track Coach.