On Aug. 12, former men’s cross country head coach Justin Wood filed a lawsuit against the Trustees of Dartmouth College and former Marjorie and Herbert Chase ’30 track and field and cross country director Porscha Dobson Harnden.
In the complaint, Wood alleged libel per se and slander per se, breach of contract and tortious interference in prospective employment relationship. He is seeking reasonable and compensatory damages for the slander and libel and other damages for financial losses from lost job opportunities, “degradation” of his reputation and emotional distress.
Wood coached at Dartmouth from December 2020 until he resigned on August 22, 2022 — the team’s first day of preseason training that fall. Under his leadership, the team won the NEICCCA Cross Country Team Championship title in October 2021 and the distance medley relay at the 2022 Ivy League Indoor Heptagonal Championships, according to Dartmouth Athletics. Team members were given “no context” for his departure, former team captain Eric Gibson ’23 told The Dartmouth at the time.
While coaching at Dartmouth, Wood raised “a number of concerns” that Harnden managed the track and field and cross country programs with a “glaring disregard for Ivy League and NCAA policies” and “potential admissions fraud and laxities taken with the health and safety of Dartmouth’s student-athletes,” according to Wood’s complaint. On Aug. 19, 2022, several days before his resignation, Wood and Dartmouth entered into a separation agreement and general release agreement that included a non-disparagement clause. According to the quoted text from the non-disparagement clause, examples of disparaging statements included “any statement, written or oral, public or private, or engage in any other actions which disparages or discredits Employee to the press and/or media, any individual or entity with whom Employee had or has a business relationship which would adversely affect in any manner his reputation.”
However, since Wood’s departure, Harnden and the College have made “non-judicial statements disparaging Plaintiff Wood … with actual knowledge that the allegations were false,” Wood alleged, citing several incidents which occurred from October 2022 to February 2024.
On October 28, 2022, a post appeared on the LetsRun.com message board — an online forum where users often comment on running news — from anonymous user Trackfan123 claiming they had “heard through the grapevine” that Wood resigned because he was “associated with some inappropriate actions by coaching friends of his and was brought to light in an investigation.” When Wood called the website manager to ask that the post be removed, he was told that the manager had spoken with Harden’s husband about Wood’s departure from Dartmouth, according to the lawsuit.
In an interview with The Dartmouth, LetsRun.com co-founder Robert Johnson, the manager with whom Wood spoke, said he remembered Harnden’s husband was primarily “worried about protecting the reputation of his wife” during their conversation.
“People were saying things about Dartmouth [on the message board], and he [Harnden’s husband] thought, ‘Hey, can you get ahead of this?’” Johnson recounted. “There’s always the fear that [users] are going to be sexist or racist.”
He explained that he did not, however, remember exact details from the conversation with Harnden’s husband.
“Could there have been a cryptic comment [about Wood]? Yes. Am I sure there was a cryptic comment? Absolutely not,” Johnson said.
He could not recall if the message had been taken down by LetsRun moderators. The thread is no longer publicly available.
According to the complaint, Harnden told “at least one individual and possibly a team captain” a “cryptic reason” for Wood’s departure “sometime” in the fall of 2022. She implied Wood and a coach from another college had an “incident or altercation” requiring police involvement, the complaint alleges.
Then, in December 2022, Wood was informed while applying to be the head coach of track and field at New York University that a NYU representative conducting a background check with Dartmouth had been told that Wood was “blacklisted.”
“Upon information and belief, the NYU individual who was managing the background check made a statement that something happened at Dartmouth and ‘we just can’t,’” the complaint continued.
Representatives from the NYU Athletics Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
In February 2024, co-chair of the Friends of Dartmouth Track and Field Dave Altman said in February 2024 that Wood’s resignation was “exclusively driven by Justin,” according to quoted text in the complaint.
Wood alleged that these false statements had been made “based upon misinformation” from the defendants and people with the authority to speak on behalf of Dartmouth, such as team coaches.
Wood also alleged that the College took “concrete, retaliatory steps” to prevent him from “securing comparable employment.” He was removed from the coaching rosters of the 2021 men’s cross country team, 2020-21 men’s track and field team and 2021-2022 men’s track and field team after he reached out to the College to “put them on notice of Defendant Harnden’s misconduct.”
“Upon information and belief, this was done to interfere with Wood’s application processes at other institutions, including Tufts,” the complaint alleges. “Indeed, other former employees terminated by Defendant Dartmouth are still listed in their coaching positions, including John Simons and Defendant Harnden.”
Representatives from the Tufts Athletic Department declined to comment on the matter.
Wood’s tenure at Dartmouth was part of a series of controversial coaching changes during which multiple veteran coaches were overlooked or forced out in favor of Sean McNulty, who was hired to be the men’s cross country and track and field head coach in the winter of 2023.
Wood was initially hired by Harnden to replace Courtney Jarwoski and John Simons, both of whom stepped in to cover the men’s distance program after former cross country and track and field head coach and Marjorie and Herbert Chase ’30 and track and field and cross country director Barry Harwick ’77 retired in September 2020. Simons, who predominantly coached the men’s mid-distance team during his time at Dartmouth, was fired by Harnden in November 2020. Jarwoski predominantly coached the women’s cross country team, and left in May 2021 to serve as the director of track & field and cross country at Smith College. McNulty’s training regimen resulted in injuries and athlete frustration until he was terminated in December 2023.
Wood referred questions to his attorneys Philip Gordon and Ben Flam of Gordon Law Group. In an email statement to The Dartmouth, Flam wrote that the complaint is “clear on the issues.”
“Our client looks forward to justice finally being served in this matter,” he continued.
Representatives from Dartmouth declined to comment. The Dartmouth’s attempts to reach Harnden this week were unsuccessful.
Annabelle Zhang '27 is a reporter and editor from New Jersey. In the classroom, she studies Geography and Government modified with Philosophy and Economics. She enjoys creating recipes, solving puzzles and listening to music.
