(As of September, 2025)
NAIA Women’s Outdoor Track and Field national championships: 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
NAIA Men’s Outdoor Track and Field national championships: 2017, 2019, 2025
Cascade Conference Women’s Outdoor Track and Field conference championships: 2019, 2022, 2023, 2025
U SPORTS Women's Cross Country national championship: 2023
U SPORTS Men's Cross Country national championship: 2023
Canada West Women’s Cross Country conference championships: 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023
Canada West Men's Cross Country conference championships: 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
NAIA Women’s Cross Country national championships: 2016, 2017
NAIA Men’s Cross Country national championships: 2017
Association of Independent Institutions (A.I.I.) Women’s Cross Country conference championships: 2015, 2016, 2017
Association of Independent Institutions (A.I.I.) Men’s Cross Country conference championships: 2015, 2016, 2017
NAIA Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Year: 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
NAIA Men’s Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Year: 2017, 2019, 2025
Cascade Conference Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Year: 2019, 2022, 2023, 2025
NAIA Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year: 2016, 2017
NAIA Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year: 2017
Association of Independent Institutions (A.I.I.) Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year: 2015, 2016, 2017
Association of Independent Institutions (A.I.I.) Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year: 2015, 2016, 2017
Laurier Primeau is entering his 11th season at the helm of UBC’s cross country and track and field teams.
Since he became the head coach of the programs on May 27, 2015, the Thunderbirds have reached historic new highs, winning eight NAIA team titles in outdoor track and field and three in cross country. The T-Birds have won gold at the NAIA Women’s Outdoor Track and Field national championships four years in a row, and at five straight championships in which they've competed.
Since UBC Cross Country returned to U SPORTS in 2018, Primeau guided the women to five straight Canada West Championships from 2018 to 2023, while also securing the program's first ever U SPORTS title in 2023. The men's Cross Country squad has won four consecutive Canada West banners dating back to 2021, and completed the 2023 national championship T-Bird sweep with the program's first U SPORTS banner since 1993.
UBC claimed both NAIA cross country banners in 2017, earning a repeat triumph – and fifth overall – for the women, and the first men’s championship in school history.
In 2018, the Thunderbirds competed in Canada West and U SPORTS cross country, and earned the women’s conference title, their first Can West banner since 1993, while the men were fourth. The women repeated in 2019 while the men earned bronze, before both teams won a banner in 2021 following the cancelled 2020 season.
The T-Birds swept both golds again in both 2022 and 2023, with the latter also featuring a national victory for both teams at the 2023 U SPORTS national championships. The men's team made it four conference titles in a row in 2024 while the women earned silver at the October event.
All five of the Thunderbirds’ NAIA outdoor track and field team championships have come with Primeau as head coach, with the men’s team coming first in the spring of 2017. It was the first time a Canadian school won a track and field team title in an American multi-sport organization.
UBC then swept the national banners at the 2019 meet, claiming the first NAIA women’s team championship in the program’s existence. 2022 saw the Thunderbirds women earn their second NAIA outdoor track & field national championship banner in their return to the meet, after two seasons of not being able to compete due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The T-Birds women repeated as NAIA Outdoor Track & Field champions in 2023 in Marion, Indiana with the men earning silver, improving on their third place finish a year earlier. The Thunderbirds continued their dynastic run on the women's side with NAIA championships in both 2024 and 2025, while the men finished third in 2024 before winning their third NAIA banner in 2025.
Primeau has won NAIA Coach of the Year honours 11 times (three in cross country and eight in outdoor track and field), Association of Independent Institutions Coach of the Year recognition six times in cross country, and Cascade Collegiate Conference Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Year award four times.
From 2011 to 2015, Primeau worked to build Trinity Western University's cross country and track and field programs into powerhouses within U SPORTS competition.
In four years, TWU women's cross country progressed from an 18th-place standing at the U SPORTS meet to a spot on the podium, while in track, the Spartan women went from 15th to second. On the men's side, Primeau's cross country teams improved every year, going from 16th to seventh in four seasons. On the track, that rise went from 15th place at the national meet to seventh.
In recognition of his efforts, the Canada West conference honoured Primeau with its Coach of the Year award in women's cross country and track and field for two consecutive seasons.
Primeau took time off from the Spartans in the summer of 2012 to fill the role as head coach of Canada's Paralympic Team at the Summer Olympics in London.
Before TWU, he was the head coach of Scottish Athletics for two years – from 2009 to 2011 – where he guided his team to an 18th-place finish at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
Between 2002 and 2013, Primeau was a coach with Canada's national track and field team, responsible for jumps, combined events and relays. He helped lead Canada at two World Junior Championships and three Pan American Junior Championships.
Primeau is no stranger to the UBC family. He competed as a Thunderbird in 2000, winning a bronze medal in the 60-metre hurdles at the Canada West championships in Winnipeg. He also teamed with Alex Inglis, Steve Walters and Chris Williams to win silver in the 4x400-metre relay at both the Canada West and U SPORTS meets.
From 2002 to 2009, Primeau served as an assistant coach with UBC track and field in charge of sprints, hurdles, combined events, jumps and javelin. During this time period, he worked with some Thunderbirds' Olympians: javelin throwers Liz Gleadle and Curtis Moss and high jumper Mike Mason.
During the same span, Primeau was the head coach and administrator of the Vancouver Thunderbirds Track and Field Club. He also served as teacher and head coach at St. George's School from 1997 to 2009.
In 2007 he was the recipient of the Outstanding Coach Award for BC Athletics and, in 1991, he was awarded Sport BC's "Harry Jerome Comeback Athlete of the Year" after returning to the competitive track after a battle with cancer.
Primeau has full NCCP Level 4 certification and also has a UKA Level 2 coaching licence.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree (1995) from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C. In 1997, Primeau graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree from Auburn University in Auburn, Ala.
