About the Coach
Tom Donnelly
Head Coach, Men's Cross Country
Haverford College
370 Lancaster Avenue
Haverford, PA 19041
610-896-1122
tdonnell@haverford.edu
Entering his 33rd season at the helm of Haverford's track and cross country programs; Tom Donnelly was himself an All-American in both sports at Villanova University. A top college distance runner from 1966 to '69, he helped lead the Wildcats to three consecutive NCAA cross country championships and one NCAA track title.
Donnelly led Haverford to second-place at the 2007 NCAA Championships. It was the school's highest finish ever in any sport. The Fords success earned Donnelly NCAA Division III Mideast Region Men's Coach of the Year by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
After successful coaching stints at Archbishop Wood and La Salle College high schools in Philadelphia's Catholic League, Donnelly has taken Haverford to 54 Middle Atlantic and Centennial Conference championships in track and cross country, including 43 out of the last 44 since 1991. Donnelly's runners have earned 97 cross country and track & field All American awards since 1980 including 24 individual NCAA championships and an NCAA championship relay team.
Along with his Haverford duties, Donnelly has coached several Olympians in recent years. Under Donnelly's tutelage, Sydney Maree set three American records (1500, 2000, and 5000 meters) in 1985. Another protege, Villanova head coach Marcus O'Sullivan, became only the third man ever to run 100 sub-4-minute miles, won three world championships and set a world record in the indoor 1500 meters, while fellow Irish Olympian Gerry O'Reilly has posted top times as well. Donnelly guided Haverford's most recent star, Karl Paranya '97, to the 1996 and 2000 Olympic trials in the 1500 meters, and the first sub-4 mile (3:57.6) in NCAA Division III history in 1997. He also coached J.B. Haglund '02, who won four NCAA titles in his senior year at Haverford.
Haglund, Haverford's 2001 NCAA Division III Cross Country Champion, will return to the coaching staff for a fifth year. Haglund was a four-time NCAA Champion as a senior and a two-time All-American in cross country.
Also helping out is volunteer coach Jossi-Fritz-Mauer '06, a former distance runner for the Fords.