Guy Murray is entering his 32nd season in 2024-25 at the University of Detroit Mercy, where he serves as the Director of Track & Field and Cross Country for both the men and women. A Titan fan from his day as a standout runner, Murray has accounted for 11 conference championships in the Titan trophy case.
In 2023-24, he saw senior Kayla Smith win the weight at the Indoor Horizon League Championships, first Titan indoor championship winner since 2000 and the first women's weight winner since Titan Hall-Of-Famer Andrea Karpala in 2005. Also during indoors, Cody Bartlett tallied a career leap of 2.02 meters in the high jump for third place, the fourth-best mark in school history.
In the last 11 years, he has led the men’s and women’s cross country and track and field teams to the top half of the standings. The men's cross country team won the Horizon League Championship for the second straight season in 2014. The Titans edged Milwaukee, 57-59, as four Titans earned All-Horizon League honors. Detroit Mercy also had the runner-up harrier with Colin Creagh earning second place.
In 2016, the men's cross country program saw Ben Kendell earn First Team All-Horizon League for the third-straight season as well as post his second-straight runner-up effort. The 2016 Horizon League Fall Scholar Athlete of the Year also broke the school's 8k mark, became just the sixth Titan to win two races in a season and claimed 35th at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Championship, giving him three top-100 finishes in his career at the GLR, just the fourth Titan in school history to accomplish that.
Kendell would go on to win the Horizon League Cross Country Championship and was the HL Athlete of the Year in 2019 and then ended his career winning the conference's 5,000-meters in record setting time and being tabbed the Outdoor Athlete of the Year, while competing for the second-straight season in the 10,000m at the NCAA East Preliminary Round.
In 2013, the men's cross country team won its first-ever Horizon League Cross Country Championship with five runners in the top 11 and all five earning All-HL accolades. Earlier in the year, the men's team won its first race in program history by capturing the Running Fit-Detroit Titan Invitational. Detroit Mercy finished last season with 566 points to earn 19th at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional - the best finish by an HL squad - and the school's first top-20 finish since taking 19th in 2008. The 19th-place effort is tied for the sixth-best mark in school history at the GLR and was also the first time since 2008 that Detroit Mercy had two runners in the top 100.
On the women's side, Allison Sherman wrapped up one of the best distance careers in school history. She earned two First Team Horizon League Accolades (runner-up in 2022) and two Second Team accolades, only the third Titan in school history to record four All-Conference honors. She registered four of the top 15 6k times in school history, including third with the 21:28 she had at the 2023 Horizon League Championship and 10th with a 21:54 at the 2022 NCAA Great Lakes Regional Championships, and clocked a career 5k time of 17:47 for runner-up honors at the 2023 Canisius Alumni Classic, just 14 seconds shy of the school record. In indoor track and field, she scored for the Titans in the 5,000 and 3,000-meters in 2023-24, posting a career time of 9:51.51 in the 3,000m, second-fastest time in Titan history, and was also fourth in the 5,000m in a record 16:47.58. In outdoor track and field, she has tallied points in four-straight league 10,000m races, going from sixth as a sophomore to fifth as a junior, fourth last season, and earning 12 points at the Horizon League Championships in 2024, claiming third in the 5,000-meters and 10,000-meters.
Sydnie Fetherolf ran her way back to All-Horizon League Second Team in 2017, while in 2016, Devon Sutton received All-Horizon League First Team honors as she finished in seventh place.
Louisa Coppola set all kinds of marks in her career as she helped the women to a fourth-place finish at the HL meet in 2013. She ended up winning two races on the year, the first win by a Titan since 2002, and was once again First Team All-Horizon League finishing third in 18:14, the highest finish by a Titan since 2002 and the fifth fastest time at the conference championship in school history. She also set a career and Titan record finishing in 17:58 for 14th at the National Catholic Championships, the first Titan in the top 15 since 2005. She ended her career by lowering her 6k career time to 21:34 for 47th at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional, the fourth best 6k run in the Titan record books and tied for the fourth-best finish in Detroit Mercy history.
In 2013, the men's track and field team was able to move up to third place at the Horizon League Outdoor Championship, while the women were runner-up during the indoor campaign. Coppola was also a key member in that run to the top as she was named the Horizon League Most Outstanding Performer after helping the distance medley relay team to a win, while taking the mile in a career-best 4:55.12 - just the fifth Titan to break the five-minute mark. She Coppola also had a second place finish, and nearly a third win, as she came in second in a photo finish in the 3000-meters.
In 2012, the Titan men and women harriers took fourth at the Horizon League Championships, while the men’s track and field squad was runner-up at the Indoor Horizon League Championships in 2011.
In 2012, the Detroit Mercy women’s cross country team posted its highest place since 2001 at the Horizon League Championships by claiming fourth place, while the Titans' 28th-place performance at the NCAA Regionals was also the best since 2004. Two runners were in the top 20 led by Coppola as she earned All-Horizon League First Team honors. Meanwhile, the men’s team had two runners in the top 14 for All-League honors as Detroit Mercy totaled 98 points for fourth at the Horizon League Championship.
Murray guided the men’s cross country team to a fifth-place finish at the Horizon League Championship in the fall of 2010, led by a strong senior class that included Patrick Liederbach, a four-time All-League performer under Murray’s direction. He became just the fifth Titan in school history to receive multiple conference honors. Liederbach also finished in the top 100 at the regional four times making him just the third Titan harrier to reach that achievement. In 2008 as a sophomore, Liederbach helped Detroit Mercy take 19th at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Championship, its best finish since finishing 18th in 1998.
In total, 25 times in the women’s cross country program under Coach Murray a runner was tabbed All-Conference with two Horizon League Champions and three runner-up marks. Two runners (Stacey Lenard, Angie Lefere) have been named the Horizon League Newcomer of the Year, while Kim Hemstreet was the HL Athlete of the Year in 2002. Also, since Coach Murray took over the women’s team in 1993, 24 Titans have finished in the top 100 at the NCAA Regional Championships, including 12th by Hemstreet in 2002 and 26th by Ruthie Cook in 2001. In 2013, Coppola became the first Titan since Hemstreet to finish in the top 50 as she was 47th.
The men’s team has earned 24 All-Conference accolades since Coach Murray took over the helm of that program in 1995, while 20 times has a Titan recorded a top-100 finish at the NCAA Regional Championship with five in the top 50.
Murray was a four-year letter winner on the Titan cross country and track teams from 1985-89. As a Titan, he won the Dominick Taddonio Cross Country MVP award in 1988 and the President’s Award, the athletic department’s highest honor, for the top senior student-athlete in 1989. He was named to the All-Midwestern Collegiate Conference (MCC) Cross Country Team in 1986 and the All-MCC Track and Field Team in 1989.
He was an Olympic Trial Qualifier in the marathon in 1999 after he finished 19th at the Grandma’s Marathon with a personal best time of 2:21:18. At the Olympic Trials in 2000, Murray placed 57th, with a mark of 2:35:16.
Following graduation, he joined the coaching staff of Earl Clark Jr., and Kevin Donner as an assistant before being elevated to his current title in 1993. For the next two years, he was the head coach for the men’s and women’s track and field program and the women’s cross country team, while overseeing the men’s unit until Hall-of-Fame coach Earl Clark Jr., stepped down in 1995.
As an assistant coach, he was responsible for coaching five MCC individual track and field event champions as well as two MCC track and field Most Outstanding Performers, all while completing his master’s degree in sports administration at nearby Wayne State University.
As a head coach, his teams have accrued many honors and championships. The men and women’s teams swept the 1996 indoor MCC titles. The women’s squad also won back-to-back indoor crowns in 1998 and ‘99, and took home the outdoor titles in 1999 and 2000. The men’s team took home a share of the indoor title in 2000, with the women bringing home another indoor crown in 2002 and the men’s success in 2003 winning the outdoor title. In 2005, the Titan women were second in the Horizon League, and the men were most recently Indoor Horizon League runner-ups in 2011.
Teams that have been coached by Murray also excel in the classroom as the men’s cross country squad was honored in 2004 by the USTFCCCA as it brought home the highest combined grade point average in the country. The trend continues as the men were honored for the 14th-straight year in 2017 and has extended to 23 of the last 24 years in 2023-24.
The women’s cross country team was also recognized as an USTFCCCA All-Academic Team for the 16th time in the last 17 years in 2024. Individually, eight different Titans have been selected Academic All-America by the USTFCCCA: Kim Hemstreet (2002), Kim Jess (1995), Andrea Karpala (2003, 2004, 2005), Ryan Byrne (2005, 2008), Krista Switzer (2006), Sinisa Simic (2007) and Amanda Smith (2008).
Two Murray-coached athletes have qualified for the NCAA National Championships in Hemstreet (2002, cross country) and Paul Caraballo (1997, Track and Field). Caraballo was named an NCAA All-American in 1997 after he placed seventh in the high jump. In all, four athletes have provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championship. Since its inception in 2003, the Titans have had a qualifier for the outdoor regional championship each year.
In addition to his team’s successes, Murray has been named league Coach of the Year for women’s outdoor track twice (1999, 2000), men’s outdoor once (2003) and seven times for his indoor success (women’s in 1994, ‘96, ‘98, ‘99 and 2002 and men’s in ‘96 and 2000).
Murray graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Detroit with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science in May of 1989.
Murray and his wife Patricia live in Redford with their daughter Kaitlin - a Detroit Mercy 2023 graduate and a four-year letterwinner on the cross country and track and field team - and son Colin.
