University of Detroit Mercy Men's Cross Country

Cheboiywo is in his third year as an assistant coach with the Detroit Mercy mens and womens cross country and track and field teams. His first year proved to be highly successful as he helped the men repeat as Horizon League champions and tutored a young womens team to a number of improvements throughout the year.   Prior to his arrival in Detroit, he was an Assistant Personal Training Department Head at Life Time Fitness in Canton as well as a strength and conditioning intern at his alma mater Eastern Michigan.   Cheboiywo a native of Tirap, Kenya was a two-time NCAA cross country champion winning the titles in 2001 and 2002. He also won the NCAA outdoor 10,000-meters in 2002 and 2003. In 2001, was honored as the NCAA Cross Country Athlete of the Year and finished his career as a seven-time NCAA All-American and 10-time Mid-American Conference champion. He was also named MAC Most Valuable Performance in cross country, indoor, and outdoor track championships and helped the Eagles to a third place team finish in the 2002 NCAA cross country championships.   After graduating from EMU with a degree in education in 2003, he signed with Nike and ran professionally for 10 years. In his prime, he was featured in a Nike commercial for the 2008 Olympics with Nike sponsored athletes LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Roger Federer.   He was selected to represent Kenya in the 3,000m at the Indoor Track Championship in Budapest, Hungry, after posting the second-fastest time in the world behind legendary runner Haile Gebreselasie of Ethiopia. He also represented Kenya at the Penn Relays in 2006, 2007 and 2008 in the USA vs. World Penn Relays, and guided Kenya to victory in 2008 and finishing third in 2006 and 2007. He placed in the top eight in the 3,000m steeplechase and 10,000m events at the Kenyan Olympic Trials in 2000, 2004, and 2008.   He then turned his attention to marathons and posted a 19th-place finish at the 2008 New York City Marathon, while also running in the Chicago Marathon.   He graduated from Eastern Michigan with a degree in Education in 2014 and earned his masters in Exercise Physiology in 2014. He also became a U.S. citizen in 2010.    Boaz Cheboiywo Assistant Cross Country Coach Twitter: One of the most recognizable names in Midwest running, Boaz Cheboiywo is in his third year as an assistant coach with the Detroit Mercy mens and womens cross country and track and field teams. His first year proved to be highly successful as he helped the men repeat as Horizon League champions and tutored a young womens team to a number of improvements throughout the year.   Prior to his arrival in Detroit, he was an Assistant Personal Training Department Head at Life Time Fitness in Canton as well as a strength and conditioning intern at his alma mater Eastern Michigan.   Cheboiywo a native of Tirap, Kenya was a two-time NCAA cross country champion winning the titles in 2001 and 2002. He also won the NCAA outdoor 10,000-meters in 2002 and 2003. In 2001, was honored as the NCAA Cross Country Athlete of the Year and finished his career as a seven-time NCAA All-American and 10-time Mid-American Conference champion. He was also named MAC Most Valuable Performance in cross country, indoor, and outdoor track championships and helped the Eagles to a third place team finish in the 2002 NCAA cross country championships.   After graduating from EMU with a degree in education in 2003, he signed with Nike and ran professionally for 10 years. In his prime, he was featured in a Nike commercial for the 2008 Olympics with Nike sponsored athletes LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Roger Federer.   He was selected to represent Kenya in the 3,000m at the Indoor Track Championship in Budapest, Hungry, after posting the second-fastest time in the world behind legendary runner Haile Gebreselasie of Ethiopia. He also represented Kenya at the Penn Relays in 2006, 2007 and 2008 in the USA vs. World Penn Relays, and guided Kenya to victory in 2008 and finishing third in 2006 and 2007. He placed in the top eight in the 3,000m steeplechase and 10,000m events at the Kenyan Olympic Trials in 2000, 2004, and 2008.   He then turned his attention to marathons and posted a 19th-place finish at the 2008 New York City Marathon, while also running in the Chicago Marathon.   He graduated from Eastern Michigan with a degree in Education in 2014 and earned his masters in Exercise Physiology in 2014. He also became a U.S. citizen in 2010.   

Murray enters his 24th season in 2016-17 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 the last few years, he has once again led the mens and womens 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 also had the runner-up harrier with Colin Creagh earning second place.   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, senior Louisa Coppola set all kinds of marks 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 mens track and field squad was runner-up at the Indoor Horizon League Championships in 2011. In 2012, the Detroit Mercy womens 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 mens 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 mens 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 Murrays 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, 18 times in the womens cross country program under Coach Murray a runner was tabbed All-Conference with two Horizon League Champions. 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 womens team in 1993, 23 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 mens team has earned 23 All-Conference accolades since Coach Murray took over the helm of that program in 1995, while 16 times has a Titan recorded a top-100 finish at the NCAA Regional Championship with three 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 Presidents Award, the athletic departments 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 Grandmas 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 mens and womens track and field program and the womens cross country team, while overseeing the mens 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 masters degree in sports administration at nearby Wayne State University. As a head coach, his teams have accrued many honors and championships. The men and womens teams swept the 1996 indoor MCC titles. The womens squad also won back-to-back indoor crowns in 1998 and 99, and took home the outdoor titles in 1999 and 2000. The mens team took home a share of the indoor title in 2000, with the women bringing home another indoor crown in 2002 and the mens 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 mens 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 2016, as one of the nations All-Academic Teams, with a team GPA of 3.344. The womens cross country team was also recognized as an USTFCCCA All-Academic Team for the eighth year in a row in 2016 with a 3.384 GPA. 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 teams successes, Murray has been named league Coach of the Year for womens outdoor track twice (1999, 2000), mens outdoor once (2003) and seven times for his indoor success (womens in 1994, 96, 98, 99 and 2002 and mens 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 Renee and son Colin. Guy Murray enters his 24th season in 2016-17 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 the last few years, he has once again led the mens and womens 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 also had the runner-up harrier with Colin Creagh earning second place.   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, senior Louisa Coppola set all kinds of marks 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 mens track and field squad was runner-up at the Indoor Horizon League Championships in 2011. In 2012, the Detroit Mercy womens 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 mens 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 mens 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 Murrays 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, 18 times in the womens cross country program under Coach Murray a runner was tabbed All-Conference with two Horizon League Champions. 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 womens team in 1993, 23 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 mens team has earned 23 All-Conference accolades since Coach Murray took over the helm of that program in 1995, while 16 times has a Titan recorded a top-100 finish at the NCAA Regional Championship with three 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 Presidents Award, the athletic departments 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 Grandmas 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 mens and womens track and field program and the womens cross country team, while overseeing the mens 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 masters degree in sports administration at nearby Wayne State University. As a head coach, his teams have accrued many honors and championships. The men and womens teams swept the 1996 indoor MCC titles. The womens squad also won back-to-back indoor crowns in 1998 and 99, and took home the outdoor titles in 1999 and 2000. The mens team took home a share of the indoor title in 2000, with the women bringing home another indoor crown in 2002 and the mens 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 mens 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 2016, as one of the nations All-Academic Teams, with a team GPA of 3.344. The womens cross country team was also recognized as an USTFCCCA All-Academic Team for the eighth year in a row in 2016 with a 3.384 GPA. 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 teams successes, Murray has been named league Coach of the Year for womens outdoor track twice (1999, 2000), mens outdoor once (2003) and seven times for his indoor success (womens in 1994, 96, 98, 99 and 2002 and mens 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 Renee and son Colin.