Marina Muncan, who competed in the 1500 meters at the 2012 Summer Olympics and who coached the women's distance runners at Division I Rutgers University for the previous five years, was named the new head coach of the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's and men's cross country programs on August 10, 2020 and is entering her third season at the helm in 2023-24.

In her first full season in 2021, she guided the CMS women's and men's cross country teams to top-10 finishes at nationals. In fact, the Athenas finished in second place, just two points out of first, for the highest-ever finish in program history, while the Stags came in sixth. She coached six All-Americans, four Athenas (Meredith Bloss, Natalie Bitetti, Riley Harmon and Emily Clarke) and two Stags (Henry Pick and Stevie Steinberg), while Pick's third-place finish featured the fastest time in CMS history by over 40 seconds. 

 

Muncan also serves as an assistant with the CMS track and field programs under Head Coach Glenn Stewart, and in her first season, she coached Meredith Bloss, Henry Pick and Emily Clarke to All-America honors. The Stags set school records in the steeplechase (Adam Wilkinson), the 1500 (Daniel Sealand), the 5000 (Steinberg) and the 10000 (Steinberg), while Bloss added a CMS record in the 10000 for the Athenas.

Muncan joined the CMS athletic department with eight years of NCAA coaching experience, including three at the Division III level, and 14 years of coaching experience overall. Prior to her tenure at Rutgers, she served for two years as an assistant track and field/cross country coach at The College of New Jersey, and one year as the head cross country coach at Richard Stockton College. From 2006-12, she was an assistant distance coach for the Dinamo Club team in Serbia, coaching men's and women's athletes in distances ranging from 800 meters to 5000 meters.  

 

While a member of the Serbian national team, Muncan competed in the 1500 meters at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, England, and was a finalist at the 2012 European Championships. She competed professionally with New Balance USA in Boston for six years, earning Serbian national records in both the 1500 meters (4:06.45) and the mile (4:31.16), and capturing the gold medal in the 1500 meters at the 2009 World University Games.

 

During her five seasons at Rutgers, Muncan served as an assistant track and field coach and was responsible for the women's cross country and distance programs. She coached two Scarlet Knights to USTFCCCA All-Region honors in cross country for the first time in program history, and qualified the program's first distance athlete to the NCAA Track and Field Championships in over 10 years. Several of her student-athletes set new school records, while all five of her teams earned USTFCCCA All-Academic Team honors for their performance in the classroom.

 

Muncan brings strong experience at the NCAA Division III level to CMS as well. She worked with the men's and women's cross country programs at The College of New Jersey, helping them both to back-to-back conference championships in 2013 and 2014. She also helped the TCNJ women earn a 2013 NCAA qualification, while coaching 10 NJAC conference champions and over 25 ECAC qualifiers in her two seasons.

 

Prior to TCNJ, Muncan spent one season as the head cross country coach at Division III Richard Stockton College in New Jersey, where she coached the program's first-ever NCAA All-Region cross country runner. Her women's cross country team saw an average improvement of 32 seconds at the conference championships from the season before, while the men's team had an average improvement of over a minute. She served as an assistant coach with the track and field program as well, overseeing eight new school records in five different events. 

 

As a student-athlete, Muncan competed at Villanova from 2002-06, where she was an 11-time NCAA Division I All-American, and an 11-time individual Big East Champion. She was the runner-up in the NCAA Division I Championships in the 1500 meters in 2006, and helped her distance medley relay team finish first at the Penn Relays. 

 

An Italian major with a minor in Russian, Muncan was a four-time member of the Big East Academic All-Star Team and won an Academic Scholarship from the league in 2006. She was also a six-time selection to the Villanova Dean's List during her academic career.