Adam Bray - Men's Track and Field Coach (2024)

Adam Bray is in his third season as head coach of cross country and fourth as an assistant coach for track & field.

Since Braytook over the Kennesaw State distance program prior to 2018 indoor track and field season:

4x First Team All-American
5x NCAA East Preliminary Qualifiers
11x ASUN Conference Champions
15x School Records
32x ASUN Podium Finishes
2x USTFCCCA Women’s Cross Country All-Academic Team
2x USTFCCCA Men’s Cross Country All-Academic Team
3x All-Conference Selections (Cross Country)
1x CoSIDA Academic All-American (Second Team)

During the indoor and outdoor seasons of 2022, the Owls were led by Sarah Hendrick and Gavin Frick as they both broke school records as well as won many events throughout the year. Hendrick would go on to earn her third and fourth First Team All-American honors and break six school records in the process. Frick would break the outdoor 5000m school record while the rest of Owls would set personal bests on a weekly basis. During the ASUN championships, Kennesaw State athletes contributed multiple points to the track team’s overall performance.

The fall of 2021 saw both the men’s and women’s cross country teams reach new heights at the ASUN Conference level and NCAA Regional level. Sarah Hendrick and Katie Meyer both earned All-ASUN conference honors.

The women’s team went on to earn a program-best finish at the NCAA South Regional, while the men earned their best finish at the South Region in over ten years.

During the 2021 indoor/outdoor seasons Coach Bray’s distance crew rewrote the Kennesaw State record books.

During the outdoor season, the Owls were once again led by Hendrick and a host of others. Hendrick would go on to break school records in the 1500m, 800m & 4x800m relay. To cap of her amazing season, Hendrick would earn First Team All-America honors by finishing fifth overall at the Outdoor NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon. In all the lady Owls under Bray’s guidance own the 800m, 1500m, 3000m steeplechase, 5000m school records. Billings, Hendrick and Zeh would go on to represent the Owls at the NCAA Preliminary Round.

At the 2021 indoor ASUN Championships, the distance crew scored valuable points to help KSU win the women’s team title. Sarah Hendrick won the 800m in a meet record time of 2:03.73. This mark qualified her for the indoor NCAA Championships. Lindsay Billings won the 3000m in a conference and school record time of 9:30.38. Finally, on the women’s side sophom*ore Britiney Johnson won the 400m to round out three golds for the distance Owls. Koi Williams placed third in the mile in a time of 4:09.33, breaking the KSU school record in the process

Sarah Hendrick went on to earn First Team All-America honors at the NCAA Championships placing eighth overall.

During the indoor campaign of 2020, the Owls broke multiple school records and earned All-ASUN Conference accolades before the outdoor season was cancelled due to the pandemic.

During the fall of 2019, Bray led the Owls women's cross country team to a third-place finish at the ASUNChampionships while the men grabbed seventh. In the spring of 2019, Bray's distance runners posted five ASUN All-Conference performances.

Bray came to KSU from Georgia Tech where he spent the fall of 2018 as a volunteer assistant coach with the cross country team. While on the Flats, Bray helped lead the women’s team to a 28th place finish at the NCAA Championships.

Bray spent five seasons at the University of Pittsburgh coaching the cross country and distance groups. He coached multiple athletes to setting new school records in seven events, NCAA Championship qualifying athletes for Track & Field and Cross Country, multiple athletes with All-Region honors, All-Academic honors, and best program finishes in ACC Championship and NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional meets. In 2017, Bray guided Gillian Schriever to become the first Pitt female distance runner to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships since 2006 and break a 25-year-old school record in the 10k. Earning Second Team All-America Honors

Prior to joining the Pitt staff, Bray spent the 2012 cross country season as an assistant coach at Temple University. While at Temple, Bray coached the Mid-Atlantic Region individual champion and the 2012 Mid-Atlantic Athlete of the Year, Travis Mahoney. Mahoney went on to earn All-America honors for Temple at the NCAA Championships, finishing 38th overall. He also guided the men's team to its best conference finish in program history and had two student-athletes earn all-conference honors.

Bray was a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Illinois from 2009-2012. Working with both the men’s and women’s programs at Illinois, Bray was part of a staff that finished runner-up at the 2012 Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships. During Bray’s time at Illinois, he worked with NCAA Champions, NCAA Qualifiers, and multiple Big Ten Champions. The Fighting Illini teams went on to finish in the top 20 at the NCAA Championships.

Prior to Illinois, Bray was a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Maryland from 2007-09. Bray was responsible for coaching the female mid-distance and distance student-athletes and helped many achieve all-conference and all-region honors.

Bray earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Akron in 2005 in exercise science/sports management. He was a four-year letter winner and a team captain for the Zips cross country and track and field teams. He earned his sports science and coaching master's degree from Akron in 2006.