Sean McNulty enters his third full year as head coach for the Transylvania cross country and track and field teams for the 2022-23 season.
McNulty, who arrived to Transylvania in fall 2019, began his new roles as head coach of Pioneer track and field and cross country in January 2020.
"Coach McNulty, in a very short time at Transylvania, has proven that he has the drive and passion to be the head coach of these programs,” says Transylvania Vice President for Athletics, Dr. Holly Sheilley. “I have no doubt that he can lead these teams to the next level and I am excited to have him in this role."
“I am honored to be named the head track and field and cross country coach here at Transylvania,” states McNulty. “The program has a long history and I am looking forward to being a part of that. Lexington and Transy have fantastic facilities and a running culture which is top-notch. Those ingredients allow for a program and its athletes to flourish and grow.”
McNulty’s career is rooted in the development of individual and team champions across several events at all ages and levels of competition.
In the most recent 2021-22 season with McNulty leading the cross country and track and field teams, along with the triathalon team, each respective program made significant strides with his expertise. In the fall his triathalon team earned their first ever team finish in a national championship, taking fourth place as a team. McNulty oversaw 3 All-American selections, including Charlotte Kumler, who received First Team honors.
McNulty’s cross country and track and field teams also thrived throughout the year, highlighted by the men’s cross country team’s first ever podium finish in the HCAC Championships, taking 3rd place out of 10. With McNulty’s instruction, the men’s track and field team duplicated the previous year’s all-time best, with a 3rd place podium finish at the outdoor championships. The men’s and women’s teams combined for 4 individual event wins. First-year thrower Luke Stegman was named the 2022 Transylvania Male Rookie of the Year, along with his individual discus title.
In his first full season overseeing the Transylvania cross country team, McNulty guided the Pioneers through an unorthodox fall season during the pandemic, consisting of several cross country races contested virtually on track surfaces against other Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference rivals.
Under McNulty’s steady leadership, the Pioneers men’s and women’s cross country teams posted their best finish in program history at the Fall 2020 HCAC Virtual Championships with both teams taking fourth place among the field while junior Jacob Burnam finished seventh among the men’s field. An epilogue to the season came in spring 2021, when the 2020 HCAC Outdoor Cross Country Championships were held; the men’s and women’s team again followed with top-5 team finishes to cap off a resurgent year for the program. McNulty’s program matched its on-surface excellence in the classroom as both teams were named 2020 All-Academic Teams by the USTFCCCA.
McNulty presided over a collection of new benchmarks established by the cross country program, including a new school record by Jacob Burnam in the men’s 8,000 meter race (26:26), and a second-place finish by the men’s team at the Greater Louisville Classic in 2020. The fifth place finishes at the delayed 2020 outdoor championships were the highest postings by both the women’s and men’s cross country teams in program history.
After the 2020 Track and Field season was halted by the pandemic, McNulty authored a phenomenal first full season as head coach of Transylvania track and field in 2021.
In 2019, McNulty guided the Transylvania triathlon team to a second consecutive national championship berth at the 2019 Women’s Collegiate Triathlon National Championships in Tempe, Arizona. With McNulty also serving as head coach of the Triathlon team at Transy, freshman Grayson Bray captured a top-10 finish among all Division III competitors while the Pioneers recorded the top-three Team GPA across all Division I, II, and III varsity triathlon teams in the country.
McNulty draws upon his own versatile experience in a variety of coaching roles at the Division I and Division III collegiate levels, high school and club track and field levels, as well as his own personal competitions as a triathlete and former Division I track athlete.
Prior to arriving at Transylvania in the fall of 2019, McNulty spent four years at Duke University on the men’s track and field coaching staff as the steeplechase coach. Tasked with implementing a training program for his steeplechase athletes, McNulty guided the Blue Devils to a national ranking of as high as number 7 in the USATCCCA while one of his athletes captured a bronze medal in the ACC Championships. McNulty also coached three athletes to East Regional berths while at Duke.
Before coming to Durham, McNulty served in multiple concurrent coaching roles in the New York metropolitan area, training world-class athletes at the NJ*NY Track Club in New Brunswick, New Jersey and was the head coach at Hightstown High School in Hightstown, New Jersey.
McNulty trained world-class athletes under USATFCCCA Hall of Fame head coach Frank Gagliano at the NJ*NY Track Club, which is regarded as the elite track and road racing club on the East Coast. In this role, McNulty trained Olympians, US National Champions, and world championship qualifiers while also engaging in fundraising and promotional efforts for the organization. His duties at Hightstown High School involved planning and implementing season distance running training plans for boys and girls and coordinating and overseeing track meets.
McNulty’s return to Lexington marked a homecoming for the University of Kentucky alumnus, who obtained his bachelor’s degree in 2014.
McNulty began his coaching career at nearby Lafayette High School where he was the head coach of the boys and girls cross country teams and an assistant coach for the track and field teams from 2012 through 2014.
Away from his coaching duties, McNulty is an accomplished triathlete and a former Division I athlete. McNulty competed in cross country and track and field for the University of Kentucky during his collegiate days. He won both the 2008 USA Junior National Sprint Triathlon Championship in Cayuga Lake, New York and the 2009 New Jersey State Spring Triathlon, and also has four top-5 finishes in the New Jersey State Sprint Triathlon to his credit.
McNulty boasts a Level I USA Track and Field Certified Coach certification to his long list of credentials. In total, McNulty is in his seventh year of coaching at the collegiate level with his new endeavors.
