Ben Mourer, Allegheny College coach and Karns City alum, remembered for passion and positive influence
Ben Mourer, who has coached track and field and cross country teams at Allegheny College for a decade after running for the Gators and competing at Karns City High School, died Sunday, the college said. He was 40.
Mourer graduated from Karns City in 2003, where he helped the Gremlins’ boys cross country team win a District 9 championship his senior season by one point over Oswego Valley, finishing third individually, and helped the track and field team to league titles, as well.
“He was just a really passionate runner,” former KC track and field coach Don Black said. “He was one of those kids that would run forever. Back in those days he would run that gauntlet, the 1,600(-meter), the 800 and 3,200.
“He was a quality kid, too.”
Added Don Loughery, KC’s former cross country coach: “He was a very good runner. He was a good teammate. I felt that he encouraged the kids.”
Mourer died during an accident at home cutting down a tree. An avid outdoorsman who hunted regularly, he is survived by his wife, Kimberly; and children, Arthur and Henry.
Mourer helped the Gators win 12 conference championships in cross country, indoor and outdoor track as a student-athlete.
Bill Ross, Allegheny’s athletic director and former cross country and track coach when Mourer was an athlete, said he remembered Mourer’s “grit” and perseverance despite asthmatic attacks during races.
In 2006 at Allegheny, he finished second in the North Coast Athletic Conference cross country championships and led the team to the NCAA Division III championships, where it finished a program-record third.
“We had been to the national championships a number of times as a team and never finished very well, but that particular year we knew we had something special,” Ross said. “We always prided ourselves on being mudders, people who do well in the mud, and it was muddy that day and our guys were licking their chops.”
In 2015, he was hired as the college’s head cross country coach and an assistant track coach. He was named head track coach in 2022.
Black saw signs of a future coach — Mourer was named NCAC Coach of the Year four times in cross country and another five times since the school joined the Presidents’ Athletic Conference.
“He was always a leader, always really into the sport,” Black said. “He had those qualities. He kept everybody up, he was always very positive. Always a guy you can count on.”
Remembered also as a good student, Loughery, who taught English at Karns City, said, “He got the most out of himself, so that’s something you look for in a coach … Can he get (the same) out of his athletes?”
Ross, who considered Mourer another son and friend and was proud of the way Mourer raised his own sons, said they expect “hundreds” of alumni at Mourer’s visitations 4-7 p.m. Thursday at Stephen P. Mizner Funeral Home, in Meadville, and 6-8 p.m. Friday at Hile Funeral Home, in Chicora. And the school is in early discussions to have a memorial event during the home cross country invitational Sept. 27.
“The thing that keeps coming to mind as I keep getting condolences, is just how loved he was,” Ross said. “He wanted and demanded the most out of his athletes, he wasn’t afraid to say it, but he was always there with a loving arm around them.”
