Associate head coach Mike McGuire enters his 21st season with the Michigan women's track and field program in 2011. He has led U-M's cross country team to eight Big Ten titles including five straight from 2002-06. McGuire was also named the USTFCCCA Assistant Coach of the year in 2007.
In 2010, McGuire helped the distance medley relay team to its seventh consecutive Big Ten title while freshman Jillian Smith won the 800-meter run at the Big Ten Indoor Championships. Smith was named the Big Ten Indoor Freshman of the Year, the second athlete McGuire has helped to the title. The 2010 cross country team finished 22nd at the NCAA Championships after a pair of runner-up finishes at the Big Ten Championships and Great Lakes Regional Championships.
McGuire coached Geena Gall to her second consecutive national title in the outdoor 800-meter run in 2009, the first time he has coached a back-to-back national winner. He has coached the distance medley relay team to three national titles since his arrival, the last coming in 2005. McGuire has mentored four individual NCAA champions in Gall, Anna Willard (2007-steeplechase) and Katie McGregor (1998- indoor 3,000-meter run). Willard also holds the American record in the steeplechase and appeared in the 2008 Olympics.
As associate head coach for U-M's track and field program, McGuire has had a hand in 14 Big Ten team championships, including Triple Crown (indoor, outdoor and cross country) wins in 1994 and 2003.
McGuire helped Michigan produce its first individual NCAA track and field national champion in 1998 when McGregor won the national indoor 3,000-meter run championship. McGuire also directed McGregor to Michigan's first individual NCAA cross country title in 1998.In addition to his NCAA champions, McGuire has manufactured 66 Big Ten champions, including 2005 ESPN The Magazine All-American Lindsey Gallo and 2002 Michigan Female Athlete of the Year Katie Jazwinski.
In 2006, Katie Erdman became the first Big Ten athlete to capture a conference title three times (600-meter - 2003, '04 & '06). For the distance group, McGuire coached Alyson Kohlmeier, Rebecca Walter and Erin Webster all to Big Ten titles in the 3,000-meter, 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter, respectively. Walter also became the first U-M runner to capture the 10,000-meter Big Ten title and the first to win the 5,000-meter outdoor title since 2002.
The 2007 season was magical for the middle distance and distance corps under the guidance of McGuire. His runners won every 2007 indoor event from the 600-meter through the 5,000-meter including the distance medley. The middle distance and distance group produced Big Ten titles in the 800-meter, 1,500-meter, 3,000-meter steeplechase and the 5,000-meter with Willard winning the latter three. Willard, Erdman and Edwards all won NCAA Mideast Region titles for Michigan. McGuire also led U-M to collegiate records in the 4 x 800m and 4 x 1,500m relay events at the Penn Relays in April. Willard was named the Michigan Female Athlete of the Year, marking McGuire's fourth student-athlete to earn the honor.
McGuire's cross country teams have finished first or second in the Big Ten Championships in 15 of the last 19 seasons, winning it all in 1992, '93, '94, 2002, '03, '04, '05 and '06. U-M captured the regional championships in 1993, '94, '95, 2004, '05 and '08, while posting 11 top-two finishes -- including a second-place finish or better in seven of the last nine seasons. U-M boasts eight top-10 finishes at the NCAA Championships and has placed among the event's top 15 in all but six times over McGuire's tenure, most notably a second-place finish at the 1994 NCAA Championships and a third-place finish in 2006.
McGuire is one of only two coaches to earn cross country Big Ten Coach of the Year honors three consecutive seasons (1992, '93, '94, 2002, '03, '04, '05 and '06). Under his guidance, U-M has posted its best individual and team NCAA cross country finishes. McGuire has coached 81 track NCAA All-Americans, and in 21 cross country. He helped guide three-time All-American Molly McClimon to program history as U-M's first women's cross country Big Ten and district champion.
As a Wolverine student-athlete (1976-79), McGuire was an All-American under legendary former U-M men's cross country coach Ron Warhurst. McGuire set the Big Ten three-mile record (now retired) in 1976 while competing with the Wolverine cross country and track teams. He competed on the U.S. cross country team at the World Cross Country Championships in Madrid, Spain, and won the 1981 Detroit Free Press Marathon.
Originally from Long Branch, N.J., McGuire earned a degree in social studies and history from the University of Michigan in 1979. He currently resides in Ann Arbor.
