Cross Country
- Title:
- Cross Country Coach
- Email:
- pm1132@msstate.edu
- Phone:
- 325-7042
Patrick McGregor was hired to lead the Bulldogs’ cross country program and serve as an assistant coach for the track team on Aug. 9, 2019.
The season finished at the SEC Championships for the 2020 cross country team, with a 10th place finish and a top-30 performance from Sylvia Russell. The indoor season had Giacomo DeLuca break the 3000m record and Chandler Underwood became fourth in the 5000m at the Music City Challenge, while the men’s distance medley relay moved into fifth all-time for State at the SEC Championships. For the outdoor season, McGregor coached Sydney Steely to third all-time in the steeplechase and fifth all-time in the 1500m, while Russell also became fourth all-time in the steeple. In addition, Underwood found himself in the records once again as the No. 4 time at MSU in the 10,000m.
In his first cross country season at Mississippi State, McGregor coached Stephen Jones to All-Region accolades after he crossed the line 11th at the 2019 NCAA South Regional to earn a bid to the NCAA Championship. Jones became the second Bulldog to advance to the men’s NCAA Championship and he recorded the highest men’s finish in school history at 80th place. The rest of the 2020 season would not go as planned, with it being cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic just after the indoor season concluded.
McGregor came to MSU from Kentucky where he was a volunteer assistant coach, but he got his start in coaching as an assistant at Samford in the fall of 2016.
His impact was immediately felt as Samford’s men and women both placed second at the Southern Conference Cross Country Championships. Arse’ne Guillorel was the third overall finisher on the men’s side, and Karisa Nelson won the conference title for the women. Both individuals went on to place fourth at the NCAA South Region Championships while their teams landed among the top 10.
On the track, he guided Nelson to the 2017 national title in the indoor mile, and saw his athletes post 18 marks that were among the top 10 in the conference in their respective events. Nelson claimed the conference crown in both the outdoor 1500m and indoor 3000m while Guillorel won the indoor men’s 3000m and 5000m titles. Presley Weems, sister of MSU’s Ava Weems, won the 800m to give McGregor five conference champions in his first track season.
The Bulldog women won the SoCon team title with McGregor’s athletes contributing 20 percent of their team score. Guillorel highlighted the men’s efforts, including a third-place distance medley relay, as distance athletes scored 42 of the Bulldogs’ 155 points.
Outdoors, Nelson again posted the top 800m time in the league and was joined by Brandon Hazouri who led the men’s event. Guillorel held the top time in the 10,000m. Weems and Nelson won league titles in the 800m and 1500m, respectively, while McGregor’s men were runners-up in the 1500m and 10,000m. Samford’s women again won the conference title.
On the national stage, Nelson place third in the 1500m at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, and Guillorel finished fourth in the 10,000m.
In 2017, Samford again landed among the conference leaders in cross country. After finishing as SoCon runners-up, the women placed third at the NCAA South Region Championships. Nelson placed second as an individual and McGregor’s group put three women in the top 10.
McGregor added two more conference championships in the 2018 outdoor track season. Haley Ward won the women’s 10,000m, and Guillorel won the men’s 1500m.
In his two seasons at Samford, McGregor totaled nine individual conference championships in track and field along with one in cross country, sent five athletes to the NCAA East Prelims and coached his athletes to five Samford school records.
In his lone season at Kentucky, he collaborated with the head strength and conditioning coach and assisted the coaching staff with athlete preparation. The Wildcat women placed 14th at the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Championships and were third at the SEC Outdoor Championships.
An accomplished runner himself, McGregor competed at Texas for three years. In that time, he contributed to the Longhorns 2013 Big 12 Indoor and Outdoor championships by winning the individual 1,000m title indoors and scoring in the 800m outdoors. He competed at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 1500m twice earning Second-Team All-American honors, and was a seven-time All-Big 12 selection.
He then went on to compete professionally with the NJNY Track Club under “The Godfather of Track and Field” Frank Gagliano where he became a sub-four-minute miler. In 2017, while coaching at Samford he broke the record for the longest known streak of daily sub-five-minute miles set by his high school coach Devon Hind in 1979. McGregor clocked a 4:12.99 on the 105th day, breaking Hind’s record of 104 days while also running his fastest time in that span. His streak continued to 109 days.
