Head Coach Brian Funk

After highly successful coaching stints at the collegiate and junior national level, Coach Brian Funk has now created his own team, The Mach Los Track Club. Catering only to distance runners, Funk will continue to guide his runners to national prominence.

Over the last 15 years, Funk has coached an Olympic Trials Qualifier, Two National Champions, a NCAA-Runner-up for 800m, Four Conference-USA Champions, Four High School All-Americans, Two Footlocker National Cross Country Qualifiers, 10 NCAA Division One Track & Field Qualifiers, One NCAA Cross Country Qualifier, and helped Auburn University finish second at the 1997 NCAA Indoor Championships.

At Annapolis high school, Funk guided Kristen Nicolini to a Junior National Championship in the 1500m run (4:25.69) in 1995, the US #1 Ranking for 1500 meters and a fourth place finish at the World Junior Championships in Lisbon, Portugal, still the highest U.S. finish of all-time at that distance.

Funk helped Nicolini win two consecutive indoor National Scholastic Championships (Mile), running the fourth fastest time in meet history (4:51.99) in 1995. Additionally she was a two time qualifier for the Millrose Mile, finishing second in 1995 in 4:53.21, (7th fastest time in meet history) and has run the 10th fastest time in Penn Relays history for 1500m (4:28.96) in 1994. Nicolini also finished third in the 1994 Junior National Championships for 1500m, earning a spot on the Pan-American team.

No coach in Maryland history has ever qualified more than one runner for the Footlocker Cross Country National Finals, until Funk, who sent the last two girls in Nicolini, (8th at the 1994 Northeast region (18:16) and former Mach Los TC member, Alison Smith, 5th at the 2006 Northeast region (17:55). Smith finished 18th in the finals, missing the last All-American spot by three places.

Furthermore, Smith became Funk's sixth Junior National qualifier; advancing to the 1500 meter finals as a 15-year old sophomore in 2005 with a heat victory and PR of 4:34.10, and then improved on that in the final, placing seventh in 4:31.80. Smith again qualified as a junior in 2006, finishing sixth in the finals with a new PR of 4:31.45.

A month later at the 2006 USATF Junior Olympic Championships, Smith became Funk's second National Champion, winning the 3000 meter title by a whopping 37 seconds in her 3k debut.

Smith's Mach Los TC teammate, Ashlyn Sinclair, became the seventh Junior National Championship qualifier for Funk, placing fourth in the 3000 meter steeplechase finals in 2006, before finishing as the runner-up at the 2006 Junior Olympic Championships.

While serving as the head coach at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Funk guided Melissa Hopkins to qualify for the 1998 NCAA Cross Country Championships, becoming the first to accomplish that feat in school history. In addition, Funk sent four athletes to the Junior Nationals, including Christie Caywood (1500m) and Carla Kelly (5000m).

Before serving as head coach at UAB, Funk coached one-year at Auburn University as the Head Graduate Assistant Coach, working primarily with the 800m runners. In 1997 he helped Aaron Richburg (1:47.99) place 2nd at the NCAA Indoor Championships and worked with All-American cross country runner Janet Trujillo (Nike) and several others that earned All-SEC distinction.

Athlete Progression:

Kristen Nicolini:		1st Year	4th Year
	800m	2:24.0	2:10.0
	1500m	4:42.1	4:24.5
	3200m	11:35.0	10:29.22
Alison Smith:		1st Year	3rd Year
	800m	2:20.57	2:11.12
	1500m	4:50.48	4:31.45
	5k XC	20:59.0	17:55.9 (4th year)
Andrew Revelle:		1st Year	4th Year
	1600m	4:39.0	4:14.83

 

Personal: Brian Funk was married on August 12, 2006 to his wife Gredel. The couple just had their first child on August 3, 2007, Sebastian Timothy Funk.






Coaching Tenure:

Annapolis High School	Head Coach	1993-1996
Auburn University	Graduate Asst. Coach	1996-1997
Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham	Head Coach	1997-2002
George Washington University	Asst. Coach	2003-2004
Atholton High School	Head Coach	2004-2005
Mach Los Track Club	Head Coach/Director	Present

 

Any thoughts, comments, or suggestions can be sent to briantfunk@yahoo.com

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