When Mark Bomba accepted the head coaching role at Queen’s University in 2020, he inherited a men’s program that was decades removed from their last appearance on a national cross country podium. For Bomba, the climb back to the top of the mountain had to begin with a strong culture, and his top priority was identifying just one athlete who would buy into the team-first ethos he was trying to build and serve as a pillar for the team in years to come.
Less than 24 hours after the hiring announcement was made, an email from a keen Toronto-area high-schooler named Roman Mironov appeared in the new coach’s inbox, expressing his eagerness to run in the tri-colour kit of the Gaels, and Bomba knew he had his man.
Five years later, the men of Queen’s are now back-to-back U Sports national champions, with Mironov himself scoring all-Canadian honours to assist the Gaels in both team victories and Bomba being named 2025 U Sports men’s coach of the year.
Fast approaching the end of his time as a student-athlete at Queen’s, it’s safe to say that, for Mironov, the version of Queen’s varsity cross country he’ll leave behind is a far cry from the one he stepped into five seasons ago, and that the culture he and his team spent years nurturing into a juggernaut shows no signs of slowing down.
Today on The Shakeout Podcast, we’re joined by Roman Mironov, the captain of the 2025 U Sports men’s cross country champion Queen’s Gaels, and coach Mark Bomba, to recap their dominant team victory last week in Sherbrooke, and to retrace the incredible arc of the program’s trajectory since 2020, culminating in back-to-back national titles.
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