Led UW to fourth-place finishes at 2025 NCAA Indoor and NCAA Outdoor T&F Championships
Led UW to No. 2 in 2025 Program of the Year Rankings
Has coached UW to 15 Top-25 team finishes at NCAA Championship meets
2023 Pac-12 Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year
2023 USTFCCCA West Region Women's XC Coach of the Year
Maurica Powell took the helm at Washington along with her husband Andy in the summer of 2018 as the programโs first Director of Track & Field and Cross Country, specifically overseeing the UW women. The 2025 season was a new historic high-water mark for the womenโs program, as Powellโs Huskies had matching fourth-place finishes at the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Track Championships, and Washington finished No. 2 in the USTFCCCA Program of the Year Rankings.
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Powell oversees all facets of the Husky track program as well as coaching the womenโs distance athletes in cross country and track, while Andy Powell works in concert as the Head Coach of Track & Field and Cross Country, focusing on the menโs team. The Powells each had their contracts extended through the 2029 season after their first four seasons on Montlake.
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Powell did wonders at her previous stop, turning the womenโs distance program at the University of Oregon into a dominant powerhouse over twelve seasons in Eugene, with multiple NCAA team championships and record-breaking individual success on a year-in, year-out basis.
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Through 2025, six years into Powellโs tenure, the Washington womenโs program has achieved 15 Top-25 team finishes at the NCAA Championships in cross country, indoor and outdoor track, including four Top-10 finishes, and the first two track team trophies in program history with the indoor and outdoor fourth-place finishes in 2025.
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The Huskies won the final Pac-12 Cross Country Championship in 2023, and had the two best Pac-12 Track & Field Championship finishes in program history with Powell leading the way. Washington women have also captured four individual NCAA titles over the past two years.
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The 2025 team fully rewrote the UW recordbooks. Indoors, the team scored 31 points behind the first NCAA title for Amanda Moll in the pole vault, runner-up honors for Hana Moll, and podium finishes for Chloe Foerster in the mile, the DMR, and Amina Maatoug in both the mile and the 3k. Outdoors, Sophie OโSullivan captured the 1,500m NCAA championship, winning the first running event for the program since 2012. Hana Moll took the outdoor pole vault title with Amanda third, Maatoug (5000m) and Foerster (1500m) made podiums once again, and Sofia Cosculluela scored in the heptathlon. The Huskies had never been higher than eighth at both the indoor and outdoor national meets prior to 2025.
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The womenโs mid-distance squad was a dominant force in 2025, with seven women running faster than 4:13 in the 1,500-meters. O'Sullivan dominated one of the best 1,500-meter fields in NCAA history in the championship final, with Foerster taking eighth. Indoors, Maatoug was fifth in the mile final and Foerster was sixth. OโSullivan also won the Big Ten Outdoor 1,500m title and Foerster won the Big Ten Indoor 800m title.
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Prior to Powell taking charge before the 2018-19 season, the womenโs team had not finished in the top-25 at NCAA Outdoors since 2012. In her first year she led the Huskies to a 17th-place finish outdoors, the first of three-straight Top-25 finishes, just the second time in program history with such a streak. The women's cross country team has reached NCAAs all seven years under Powell, finishing top-20 every year with a pair of top-10 finishes in 2018 and 2023.
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The 2023 Husky women's cross country team won the Pac-12 Championship, the program's first since 2009, and Powell was named Pac-12 Coach of the Year and also USTFCCCA West Region Womenโs Head Coach of the Year. The team used an incredible surge over the final kilometer at NCAAs to go from 14th up to an 8th-place finish to finish as the top Pac-12 and West Region squad. It was UWโs highest team finish at NCAAs since 2011.
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In five of six seasons through 2025, Powell's women's program has qualified for the USTFCCCA Program of the Year rankings, which requires qualifying for NCAA Cross Country and scoring at the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor T&F Championships. The Huskies finished a program-record 2nd in 2024-25, having previously placed 9th in 2023-24, 13th in 2022-23, 9th in 2020-21, 11th in 2018-19.
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Six Washington individuals or relays have broken NCAA Records during Powellโs tenure. In 2025, both Amanda and Hana Moll broke the NCAA pole vault records, Amanda setting the indoor mark and Hana the outdoor mark. In 2024, the distance medley relay comprised of Chloe Foerster, Anna Terrell, Marlena Preigh, and Carley Thomas went 10:43.39, which broke UWโs own NCAA Record set just one year prior, in 10:46.62. That time had broken a record held by a Powell-coached Oregon squad. Outdoors in 2024, the Huskies broke the 4x800m relay record to win the programโs first-ever Penn Relays Championship of America, as Preigh, Wilma Nielsen, Samantha Friborg, and Foerster ran 8:17.28. Olivia Gruver first broke the NCAA outdoor pole vault record in 2019.
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The wins from Sophie OโSullivan (1500m) and Hana Moll (pole vault) at the 2025 NCAA Outdoor meet marked the first time the women won multiple titles at one national meet. Several Dawgs had been knocking on the door in recent seasons, as eight different Husky women had top-five finishes from 2019-24, including Hana Moll (2024 pole vault third-place), Amanda Moll (2024 pole vault fifth-place), Nastassja Campbell (2023 pole vault runner-up and 2024 fourth-place), Ida Eikeng (2022 heptathlon runner-up and 2021 fifth-place), Katie Rainsberger (2021 steeplechase third-place), Haley Herberg (2021 10,000m fifth-place), Izzi Batt-Doyle (2019 10,000m third-place), and Olivia Gruver (2019 pole vault third-place).
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The womenโs team had never finished higher than fourth at the Pac-12 Championships before Powell arrived. The Dawgs would better that with third-place finishes in 2023 and in 2021. Powell coached Chloe Foerster to the 2024 Pac-12 1,500-meters title, the first by a Husky since 2009, and she coached Carley Thomas to 2022 800-meter title, the first by a UW woman in history. Powell also coached Haley Herberg to the Pac-12 Cross Country title in the spring of 2021, the fourth UW champ in meet history. Izzi Batt-Doyle won the 10,000-meter conference crown in 2019, and one year later she was an Olympian for Australia at the Tokyo Games and she made her second Olympics in 2024.
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Powell was named 2023 Pac-12 Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year, leading UW to the conference title.
In her first season in Seattle, Powell led the women's cross country squad to a ninth-place finish at the 2018 NCAA Championships, the best finish for a Husky women's squad since 2012. Paired with a sixth-place finish for the men's team, it was the best combined finish for the UW men and women at NCAAs in school history. It was also the fifth-straight top-10 finish for Powell's women's teams at NCAAs.
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The women outperformed their ranking heading into nationals by five spots at the 2018 championships, and Katie Rainsberger and Lilli Burdon each earned All-America honors to lead the Huskies. The two All-America honors were the 100th and 101st for Powell-coached athletes.
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To cap off her first track season at Washington, Powell led the women to a 17th-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, the best finish for UW since 2012 and the fourth-best finish in school history.
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The distance runners made major contributions to the team success on the track in 2019. Izzi Batt-Doyle shattered the school records at 10,000-meters outdoors and 5,000-meters indoors. She won the Pac-12 title at 10,000-meters and went on to finish third at the NCAA Outdoor meet for First Team All-America honors. Rainsberger made the NCAA Indoor mile final, taking seventh to reach the podium, while the Husky distance medley relay also took seventh at nationals. Senior Emily Hamlin earned her best NCAA finish in the steeplechase, placing 14th, while Allie Schadler advanced NCAA in the 1,500m.
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Powell's second year in Seattle was cut agonizingly short, as the track season was canceled one day before NCAA Indoor Track, where the UW women were poised for potentially their highest finish ever, as the Huskies went into the meet ranked No. 8 and had a program-high ranking of No. 7. The women had seven entries set for NCAA Indoors including a big women's distance group: Katie Rainsberger, Allie Schadler, and Mel Smart in the 3k, a distance medley relay quartet, and Carley Thomas in the 800m. Thomas was ranked No. 2 in the NCAA with a School Record 2:02.75, while the DMR ranked No. 3 with a time of 10:56.23.
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The indoor season followed another impressive fall for the Huskies as the cross country squad finished second at the Pac-12 Championships and went on to take 11th at the NCAA Championships. Mel Smart was the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and the highest finishing freshman at NCAAs, as she led UW in 12th-place, while Rainsberger earned her fourth XC All-America honor.
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When competition resumed after the Covid-19 hiatus, the Huskies successfully navigated both the cross country and indoor track seasons, which were merged together in the winter and spring of 2021. In cross country, Herberg won the Pac-12 title to help UW punch its NCAA ticket, then Allie Schadler earned All-America honors with a 26th-place finish as the women placed 13th as a team. Outdoors, the Huskies posted the best Pac-12 team finish in history, tying for third-place. Then the Dawgs earned their second-straight Top-20 NCAA finish, tying for 19th-place. Powell's distance crew impressed as Herberg was fifth in the 10k and 10th in the 5k, and Katie Rainsberger took third in the 3k steeplechase in a school record time for the 13th All-America honor of her career. Madison Heisterman also made the NCAA semis in the 1,500-meters.
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In 2021-22, Washington once again qualified for NCAA Cross Country in the fall, placing 11th behind a second-straight All-America honor by Schadler, who was 25th. Indoors, the distance crew earned four entries to NCAAs, as Madison Heisterman and Anna Gibson both qualified in the mile, Haley Herberg made the 5k field, and the women's DMR was one of 12 teams to advance. At NCAA Outdoors, Herberg made the podium again in the 10k, finishing seventh, while Carley Thomas was 11th in the 800-meters and Gibson was 19th in the 1,500-meters. A runner-up finish from Ida Eikeng in the heptathlon helped the team tie for 25th, the third-straight nationals in the Top-25 for UW.
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The 2022-23 Huskies started out with another top-20 cross country finish in the fall, with Anna Gibson and Sophie OโSullivan both finishing in the top-75 individually. The Huskies indoors grabbed the spotlight when OโSullivan, Marlena Preigh, Carley Thomas, and Anna Gibson smashed the NCAA Record in the DMR, running 10:46.62. At indoor NCAAs, the Dawgs got their first top-25 finish in seven years, tying for 24th. Following a program-best 3rd-place finish at Pac-12, the Huskies tied for 29th at NCAA Outdoors, as Nastassja Campbell was NCAA runner-up in the pole vault and teammate Sara Borton took sixth. Kayley DeLay (steeplechase) and Sophie OโSullivan (1,500m) both made NCAA finals. OโSullivan would go on to have a record-smashing summer racing internationally, highlighted by running at the World Championships for Ireland where she hit the 1,500m Olympic Standard with a time of 4:02.15 that ranked No. 3 in collegiate history. OโSullivan also ran the fastest 1k in collegiate history (2:37.08) and the No. 5 time in the 3k (8:44.72) while also winning the European U23 Championship at 1,500-meters in Finland.
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Washington won the final Pac-12 Cross Country Championship in thrilling fashion on home ground to start the 2023-24 year on a high note. UW beat Stanford by just two points for its first conference title since 2009 and Powell won Coach of the Year. The Dawgs then took eighth at NCAAs for its best NCAA finish since 2011. Indoors, Hana Moll took the NCAA by storm, becoming the first freshman to win the NCAA title, and Wilma Nielsen took sixth in the 800-meter final for the best-finish ever by a Dawg, as the womenโs team placed 17th for its best finish since 2016. The women also broke their NCAA DMR Record for the second year in a row. Outdoors, the Dawgs added another NCAA Record in the 4x800m relay, winning the programโs first ever Penn Relays Championship. Chloe Foerster won the first Pac-12 1500m title by a Dawg since 2009 and she and Sophie OโSullivan reached NCAA Outdoors along with a trio of vaulters: Hana and Amanda Moll and Nastassja Campbell. Those vaulters went 3-4-5 at nationals to placed the Huskies in 20th to cap the year and earn a fourth top-20 finish in five years.
After an outstanding competitive career at Stanford, Maurica Powell came to Oregon in 2005 at a point where the Ducks had not qualified for the NCAA Womenโs Cross Country Championships since 2000 and had not finished higher than fifth at the Pac-10 Championships since 1997. By 2007, in just Powellโs third year on staff, the Ducks were the NCAA and Pac-12 runners-up, setting off a tremendous decade to come.
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The Ducks would soon reach the top of the podium under Powell. Oregon captured the 2012 NCAA Cross Country Championship and then scored a stunning one-point upset victory in 2016, kicking off the NCAAโs first ever โtriple crownโ as Oregon would go on to win NCAA Indoor and NCAA Outdoor team titles in track that same academic year.
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In addition to the two cross country titles, the women were runners-up in 2007 and 2008, third in 2015, with top-10 finishes in 2009, 2014, and 2017. Powell was named the 2016 NCAA Coach of the Year for womenโs cross country.
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On the track, Powellโs athletes captured six NCAA titles. In her final season at Oregon in 2018, Jessica Hull won the 1,500-meter NCAA title outdoor and the Oregon womenโs distance medley relay got its first NCAA title under Powell. The Duck DMR also broke the NCAA record in 2017, which stood until the Huskies broke it in 2023. Powell also guided Jordan Hasay to NCAA titles in the mile and 3,000-meters in 2011 and helped Rebekah Noble and Anne Kesselring win NCAA 800-meter titles.
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Over twelve seasons at Oregon, Powellโs athletes earned 20 All-America honors in cross country and 79 All-America honors in track.
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The womenโs distance crew helped Oregon capture NCAA Outdoor titles in 2015 and 2017, and powered UO to seven NCAA Indoor titles in eight years, winning from 2010-14 and again in 2016 and 2017.
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Oregon had a historically dominant run of Pac-12 team titles as well. It had been seventeen years since the Oregon women had won the Pac-12 team title, but UO broke through in 2009 and that sparked a run of nine straight championships before the Powells headed to Seattle. At UO, Powellโs athletes captured eleven Pac-12 track titles plus two in cross country.
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Many of Powellโs athletes went on to distinguished professional careers. Hasay was a 2013 World Championships competitor in the 10k for the U.S. and developed into a top marathoner. Zoe Buckman was a two-time Olympian in the 1,500-meters for Australia and Alexi Pappas was a 2016 Olympian in the 10k for Greece. Powell recruited Jessica Hull to Oregon and coached her early in her career, as Hull has gone on to be a two-time Olympian (2020, 2024) and ranks No. 5 in world history in the 1,500-meters.
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Before her arrival at Oregon, Powell made an impact as a graduate assistant coach at Columbia University for the 2004-05 season. The Lions enjoyed a breakthrough season with a 13th-place finish in the 2004 NCAA Championships.
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A middle distance star for Stanford University from 1998-2002, Powell ran times that ranked in the Stanford Top-10 lists at 800-meters, 1,500-meters, and on the distance medley relay. She was a two-time All-American, helping the DMR take third in 2002 and placing fifth in the 2002 NCAA 1,500-meter final. At Pac-10s she scored three times in the 800m and twice in the 1,500m.
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In high school, the Boston-area native was a six-time state track champion for Franklin High School in Franklin, Mass. Powell and husband Andy have two sons, Owen and Jake. Owen will be a freshman mid-distance runner for the Huskies in the fall of 2025.
