Adam Bray is in his seventh season as head coach of cross country and eighth as an assistant coach for track & field.
Since Bray took over the Kennesaw State distance program prior to 2018 indoor track and field season:
5x First Team All-American
2x Second Team All-American
5x NCAA East Preliminary Qualifiers
22x ASUN Conference Champions
21x School Records
53x ASUN Podium Finishes
26x CUSA Podium Finishes
4x USTFCCCA Women’s Cross Country All-Academic Team
4x USTFCCCA Men’s Cross Country All-Academic Team
8x ASUN All-Conference Selections (Cross Country)
1x CoSIDA Academic All-American (Second Team)
The 2025 season saw the KSU distance records written on the men’s side by the trio of Edwin Kiprono, Brian Limo and Collins Kipkemboi. They each set school records ad medaled at the conference championships helping the men’s team sweep the CUSA titles. The women’s distance squad was paced by Emma Sullivan and Madison Seiler. Sullivan swept the gold medals in the 800m at the CUSA Championships. Seiler set the school record in the steeplechase and qualified for the NCAA East Preliminaries placing 13th in the 3K steeplechase.
KSU finished third on the women’s side and fifth on the men’s side at the Conference USA XC championships. Collins Kipkemboi, Brian Limo, Emma Ferguson and Madison Seiler collected Conference USA honors.
The 2024 track season saw the saw KSU set a few more distance school records.
The KSU women’s cross country finished second at the 2023 cross country championships scoring 74 points. Emma Sullivan was named Second Team All-Conference while Zoe Smith, Ciara Miles and Faith Boback landed Third Team All-Conference honors.
The Owls were led in 2023 by Sarah Hendrick and Koi Williams and Grant Crabtree. Hendrick earned First Team All-American honors at the NCAA Indoor Championships and Second Team All-American honors at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Sarah Hendrick, Natalie Cummings, Britney Chatfield, Caroline Timm set the ASUN Indoor Championship record in the distance medley relay. Hendrick won both the 800m and 1500m at the ASUN Outdoor Championships.
The KSU women placed fourth at the 2022 ASUN Cross Country Championships.
During the indoor and outdoor seasons of 2022, the Owls were led by Sarah Hendrick and Gavin Frick as they both broke school records as well as won many events throughout the year. Hendrick would go on to earn her third and fourth First Team All-American honors and break six school records in the process. Frick would break the outdoor 5000m school record while the rest of Owls would set personal bests on a weekly basis. During the ASUN championships, Kennesaw State athletes contributed multiple points to the track team’s overall performance.
The fall of 2021 saw both the men’s and women’s cross country teams reach new heights at the ASUN Conference level and NCAA Regional level. Sarah Hendrick and Katie Meyer both earned All-ASUN conference honors.
The women’s team went on to earn a program-best finish at the NCAA South Regional, while the men earned their best finish at the South Region in over ten years.
During the 2021 indoor/outdoor seasons Coach Bray’s distance crew rewrote the Kennesaw State record books.
During the outdoor season, the Owls were once again led by Hendrick and a host of others. Hendrick would go on to break school records in the 1500m, 800m & 4x800m relay. To cap of her amazing season, Hendrick would earn First Team All-America honors by finishing fifth overall at the Outdoor NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon. In all the lady Owls under Bray’s guidance own the 800m, 1500m, 3000m steeplechase, 5000m school records. Billings, Hendrick and Zeh would go on to represent the Owls at the NCAA Preliminary Round.
At the 2021 indoor ASUN Championships, the distance crew scored valuable points to help KSU win the women’s team title. Sarah Hendrick won the 800m in a meet record time of 2:03.73. This mark qualified her for the indoor NCAA Championships. Lindsay Billings won the 3000m in a conference and school record time of 9:30.38. Finally, on the women’s side sophomore Britiney Johnson won the 400m to round out three golds for the distance Owls. Koi Williams placed third in the mile in a time of 4:09.33, breaking the KSU school record in the process
Sarah Hendrick went on to earn First Team All-America honors at the NCAA Championships placing eighth overall.
During the indoor campaign of 2020, the Owls broke multiple school records and earned All-ASUN Conference accolades before the outdoor season was cancelled due to the pandemic.
During the fall of 2019, Bray led the Owls women's cross country team to a third-place finish at the ASUN Championships while the men grabbed seventh. In the spring of 2019, Bray's distance runners posted five ASUN All-Conference performances.
Bray came to KSU from Georgia Tech where he spent the fall of 2018 as a volunteer assistant coach with the cross country team. While on the Flats, Bray helped lead the women’s team to a 28th place finish at the NCAA Championships.
Bray spent five seasons at the University of Pittsburgh coaching the cross country and distance groups. He coached multiple athletes to setting new school records in seven events, NCAA Championship qualifying athletes for Track & Field and Cross Country, multiple athletes with All-Region honors, All-Academic honors, and best program finishes in ACC Championship and NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional meets. In 2017, Bray guided Gillian Schriever to become the first Pitt female distance runner to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships since 2006 and break a 25-year-old school record in the 10k. Earning Second Team All-America Honors
Prior to joining the Pitt staff, Bray spent the 2012 cross country season as an assistant coach at Temple University. While at Temple, Bray coached the Mid-Atlantic Region individual champion and the 2012 Mid-Atlantic Athlete of the Year, Travis Mahoney. Mahoney went on to earn All-America honors for Temple at the NCAA Championships, finishing 38th overall. He also guided the men's team to its best conference finish in program history and had two student-athletes earn all-conference honors.
Bray was a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Illinois from 2009-2012. Working with both the men’s and women’s programs at Illinois, Bray was part of a staff that finished runner-up at the 2012 Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships. During Bray’s time at Illinois, he worked with NCAA Champions, NCAA Qualifiers, and multiple Big Ten Champions. The Fighting Illini teams went on to finish in the top 20 at the NCAA Championships.
Prior to Illinois, Bray was a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Maryland from 2007-09. Bray was responsible for coaching the female mid-distance and distance student-athletes and helped many achieve all-conference and all-region honors.
Bray earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Akron in 2005 in exercise science/sports management. He was a four-year letter winner and a team captain for the Zips cross country and track and field teams. He earned his sports science and coaching master's degree from Akron in 2006.
