NEWS: Brandon Hazouri to Remain With Wake Forest After Initially Being Hired By Ole Miss

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Earlier today, Wake Forest announced that they have retained and promoted distance coach Brandon Hazouri to lead their women's distance program. The promotion comes after Ashley Bastron, the Demon Deacons' former women's distance coach, chose to step away from coaching.

Hazouri made headlines earlier this month when it was announced that he had been hired as Ole Miss' next head distance coach. He was expected to replace Adam Smith who had been hired as William & Mary's Director of Cross Country and Track & Field back in early July.

Ole Miss posted about Hazouri's hiring across their social media platforms, although those posts have since been deleted.

Hazouri will now unexpectedly adopt a women's distance program that made tremendous progress under Bastron, both in terms of recruiting and development. Last fall, the Wake Forest women qualified for the NCAA XC Championships, their first time doing so since 2006. They ended their season with a 21st place finish in Missouri.

Angelina Perez competing at the NCAA XC Championships // Photo via Andrew LeMay

This fall, the Demon Deacon women are seemingly primed for even greater success. Individual cross country All-American Angelina Perez is set to return, as will 10,000-meter national qualifier, Brooke Wilson. With breakout track runner Elizabeth Whaley also coming back, and a slew of talented women still developing, the expectations for the ladies of Winston-Salem will be plenty high in the coming months.

Ole Miss will now shift their attention to a new hire as they aim to find a replacement for a coaching role that they once believed they had filled. One source informed The Stride Report that names such as Aaron Kindt (formerly Auburn) and Brock Moreaux (currently South Carolina) were previously considered as candidates for the job, although it's unclear how much interest (if any) remains.