Sean Graham is the head coach for American University track and field and cross country in Washington, D.C. He entered his ninth season leading the program in fall 2025 after taking over in 2017, bringing prior Division I experience from American, Kentucky, and George Mason. Graham previously served American as a graduate assistant from 2009 to 2011 and as an assistant coach from 2012 to 2013, then spent 2013 to 2017 on the staff at Kentucky. He is also affiliated with the NCAA Division I Track and Field and Cross Country Oversight Committee and the American University Alumni Board. A Stillwater, Minnesota, native, Graham earned a business administration degree in information technology and marketing from William & Mary in 2003 and later completed an MBA at American in 2011. Under Graham, American has produced sustained results in conference, regional, and national competition. His first season in charge featured the program’s first NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Preliminary Round qualifiers since 2013, with Brianna Belo in the 800 meters and Matthew Rainey in the 1500 meters. Liam Purdy followed by becoming the first Eagle to reach an NCAA quarterfinal, placing 18th in the 800 in 2018. In 2025, Kaden Kluth and Carver Morgan qualified for the NCAA East First Round, where Kluth placed 37th in the 1500 and Morgan placed 26th in the 800. Both returned in 2026, with Morgan advancing to the quarterfinal and finishing 17th in the 800 while Kluth placed 34th in the 1500. At the Patriot League level, Graham’s teams have recorded 41 all-conference finishes across cross country and indoor and outdoor track, along with six league titles. Belo won indoor and outdoor 800 crowns in 2018, Adriana Hooks delivered the program’s first Patriot League title in the 10,000 meters in 2019, and Ana Keene and Row Sullivan earned first-team all-league finishes during the 2021 spring cross country season. The 2025 season added another major step forward, as Morgan swept the Patriot League indoor and outdoor 800 titles and Kluth won the 1500. Lorelei Bangit collected second-team all-league honors with runner-up finishes in the indoor and outdoor 400 while lowering her own school records, and American’s distance medley relay team of Danny O’Neill, Brandon Williams, Morgan, and Kluth finished second at the conference indoor meet. In fall 2025, the men’s cross country team placed third at the Patriot League Championships for the program’s first podium finish since 2013, led by Kluth’s fifth-place result, the team’s best individual conference finish since 2012. During the following track season, Morgan again swept the league 800 titles and set meet records indoors and outdoors, Kluth added an indoor mile bronze and outdoor 1500 silver, and the men also earned gold in the indoor DMR and bronze in the outdoor 4x800.
Graham’s athletes have also made their mark regionally, including All Mid-Atlantic Region finishes from Alaeldin Tirba and Matthew Rainey in 2017. Program development under Graham has shown up clearly in performance lists and academic recognition. American athletes have posted 392 all-time top-10 marks and broken 20 school records during his tenure, and the 2025-26 indoor and outdoor seasons alone produced 15 program records, 83 top-10 performances, and 145 personal bests. Morgan broke a 19-year-old school record in the 800 with a 1:46.85 performance at the Patriot League Championships, while Kluth ran 3:38.25 at the Portland Track Fest to break a 21-year-old record in the 1500. The pair also helped American place fourth in the Championship of America distance medley relay at the Penn Relays with a school record and finish seventh in the Championship of America 4x800, also in record time. In 2025, Graham’s athletes held program records in 20 events. Bangit reset her own records 10 times that year, added silver medals in the 400 at both Patriot League championship meets, scored in the 200 indoors and outdoors, and ran on the bronze-medal 4x100 relay outdoors. Tamara Dorval established new records in the indoor 60 and outdoor 100, placing sixth at the Patriot League indoor meet and fourth at the outdoor championships. Kluth became the first four-minute miler in school history and had already broken a 51-year-old indoor 800 record in 2024, while Morgan moved to second on American’s all-time indoor and outdoor 800 lists. Academically, Graham’s teams have been just as strong. The women’s squad posted the top cumulative GPA in Division I track and field in 2021 at 3.80, and earlier set department records with 3.76 and 3.77 semester GPAs in spring and fall 2018. His men’s and women’s teams have combined for 25 USTFCCCA All-Academic Team awards, and his athletes have earned 28 Patriot League All-Academic Team selections, including Row Sullivan’s 2023 Patriot League Outdoor Track Scholar Athlete of the Year honor. Several Eagles, including Sullivan, Shelbi Wuss, Ethan Puc, June Mwaniki, Cassie Daniele, and Bangit, also received CoSIDA Academic All-District recognition. Before returning to lead American, Graham built a strong résumé at Kentucky, where he helped develop NCAA cross country qualifiers, indoor and outdoor All-Americans, SEC champions, all-conference performers, and school record holders, while mentoring athletes who reached international competition, including a 2014 NACAC 1500 gold medalist, a 2014 Canadian national 800 silver medalist, and a 2016 World Junior Championships qualifier in the 1500. As an athlete, Graham was an All-American at William & Mary, then competed for the Nike Farm Team and Nike Oregon Track Club Elite, qualifying for two U.S. Olympic Trials and finishing in the top 10 at three U.S. Track Championships.
