coaching staff
Head Coach: Nick McDonough
The 2003-04 cross country and track & field seasons marked Nicholas McDonough`s sixth as head coach at New York University.
Last season, McDonough led his squad to a best-ever 10th-place finish at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships and produced NYU’s first National Champion in 35 years, as sophomore Krisztian Majdik won the triple jump with a school-record leap of 15.00m (49’2-1/2”). Majdik also earned All-America honors in the long jump with a fourth-place finish.
McDonough’s Violets also produced a fourth-place finish at the University Athletic Association Indoor Championships last season, and earned a berth to the NCAA Cross Country Championship for the first time since NYU became a Division III program in 1982.
There were also many individual honors accumulated by team members throughout the ’03-04 season, including 10 UAA Athlete of the Week awards and a total of 21 UAA All-Academic accolades. Overall, 12 new team records have been established during McDonough’s tenure at NYU.
During the 2002-03 season, the Violets placed second at both the William Paterson and the Trinity College cross country invitationals, and finished seventh at the NCAA Atlantic Regional. On the track, the Violets took third at the CTC Outdoor Championships and at the Brandeis University Invitational.
McDonough came to NYU after six years as an assistant coach at Seton Hall University. While there, he coached numerous Big East Conference champions, six IC4A champions, an American record-setting distance medley relay team in 1994, and six NCAA Division I All-Americans, including two in cross country. In 1999, McDonough produced NYU`s first cross country All-American, Moti Margolin.
Additionally, McDonough has varied experience as a race manager and director, working on races such as the Spring Lake Five and the George Sheehan 10k Classic, which are two of the top-50 road races in the U.S.
A 1992 graduate of Syracuse University with a bachelor`s degree in political science, McDonough brought extensive professional and personal experience to the NYU program. As an athlete, he helped lead the Syracuse cross-country program for four years and was named captain as a senior. On the track, he was a member of the Orangemen`s 1992 Big East Championship team, anchoring the relay that clinched the meet.
As a high school runner at Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft, New Jersey, McDonough was part of a winning DMR at the Penn Relays and competed at the prestigious Fifth Avenue Mile in New York City. He continues to train and can usually be found running with the team.
A native of Point Pleasant, NJ, McDonough currently resides in Belmar, NJ.
Assistant Coach: rob zand
Zand has completed three seasons as an assistant coach of New York University’s men’s track & field and cross-country teams.
During the 2003-04 season, Zand helped lead NYU’s cross country team to its first-ever berth in the NCAA Division III National Championship, as well as to a third-place finish at the NCAA Atlantic Regional. On the track, Zand helped lead the Violets to a 10th-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships. He also helped produce NYU’s first track and field All-American in 35 years, as sophomore Krisztian Majdik won the NCAA indoor triple jump.
A 1991 graduate of Ohio University with degrees in management information systems and quantitative business analysis, Zand was a four-year member of the Bobcats’ track & field and cross country teams.
“Rob has brought a great deal of enthusiasm and commitment to our program,” NYU head coach Nick McDonough said. “He is helping our athletes and our program in a variety of ways.”
Among his many duties at NYU, Zand serves as head recruiter and is responsible for maintaining the team’s website at http://homepages.nyu.edu/~npm1.
Still competitive in many road races, including the Chicago and New York City Marathons, Zand trains with McDonough’s post-collegiate runner’s group.
A native of Cleveland, OH, Zand currently resides in Manhattan.