Ray Treacy

Ray Treacy (born November 25, 1954) is a former competitive distance runner and coach of collegiate and professional runners. He began coaching track and field and cross country at Providence College in the U.S. state of Rhode Island in 1984, and became the head coach in 1986.

Education and early athletics competition Treacy was born in County Waterford, Ireland and was an Irish national junior champion and a member of the Irish National Cross Country Team. As a collegiate runner, he took National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) All-America honors on three occasions. He was the New England Cross Country Champion twice, won the Big East Indoor Championship at 5,000 meters three times. He was the IC4A Champion in the 1981 10,000 and 1982 5,000 meters.

Coaching career At Providence, Treacy has coached 65 All-Americans, including seven NCAA individual champions who have captured 15 NCAA titles. Eleven became Olympians. His men's cross country (XC) program went to the NCAA Championships in 19 of 22 seasons. The women's team qualified for the NCAA championships a record 27 out of 28 seasons and won 1995 and 2013 NCAA Cross Country Championships. They also took fourteen NCAA Northeast Regional Cross Country Championships and 22 Big East titles. In 1990, 1995, 2003, 2004, 2012, 2013, and 2015 his teams each finished within the regional top three, and the top four in the country. The 1990 women's team featured Sinead Delahunty, Geraldine Hendricken, and Anita Philpot earning All-American honors to lead the Friars to a second-place finish. In 1995 four women runners won NCAA All-American status. Treacy was named NCAA Division I Women's National Coach of the Year, and NCAA District I Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year. The women's 2003 season included Kim Smith and Mary Cullen finishing second and fifth, their team finishing third at the NCAA XC. In 2004 New Zealander Smith won the school's first individual NCAA Cross Country title and the team repeated for third. In 2012 Sarah Collins, Emily Sisson, and Laura Nagel carried Providence to a second-place finish at the NCAA Championships. The 2013 squad won the Big East and the NCAA Northeast regional titles. Sisson, Nagel and Collins led Providence to its second NCAA XC team title with Treacy being named the USFTCCCA's National Coach of the Year. In 2015, the three took the top three positions, once again securing the Northeast Regional title and a fourth-place NCAA finish. Treacy's men's teams captured 15 Big East titles and finished twice on the podium, in 1992 and 2000. In 1992, Providence won its third straight Big East title and second consecutive IC4A title en route to the third team spot at the NCAA XC championships. Mark Carroll finished fourth leading the Friars to a third-place finish. The team also finished third in 2000. That year the Friars won every meet prior to the NCAA XC Championships with Keith Kelly taking the first men's NCAA Individual XC title while his team finished third. Also in Rio, Molly Huddle, a Notre Dame graduate now coached by Treacy, set the U.S. record for the 10,000. In 2019, Sisson beat her training partner Huddle in the Stanford Invitational 10K, then finished sixth in the 2019 London Marathon, her first try at the distance, with a time of 2:23:08. It was the second fastest ever debut marathon for an American woman, after Jordan Hasay's 2:23:00 at Boston in 2017. Huddle was the twelfth woman finisher, in 2:26:33.

Treacy coaches many outstanding professional runners. Three of the top five women's 10,000 meters finishers at the 2015 USA World Championship Trials, Huddle (1st), Amy Hastings-Cragg (4th), and Sisson (5th), were coached by Treacy. Sisson holds the NCAA 5,000-meter indoor record. Huddle also has the U.S. women's half-marathon record. On retiring in 2016, Smith held the New Zealand records for the 3,000 meters, 5,000 meters, 10,000 meters, half marathon, and marathon. Roisin McGettigan set the Irish 3,000-meter steeplechase record in 2003.

Personal He is married and has two sons.