Mark Mueller - Associate Head Coach (Sprints) - Track & Field Coaches

Photo by: Duke Athletics

Mark Mueller

Title:
Associate Head Coach (Sprints)
Email:
mark.b.mueller@duke.edu

Mark Mueller is in his 12th season on the track & field staff and ninth season full time after spending the first two years as a volunteer, while earning his master’s degree at Duke. Mueller was promoted to Associate Head Coach in July of 2021.

The 2021-22 season saw the sprints unit combine to set six school records and 31 top-five program marks across the indoor and outdoor seasons under Mueller’s watch. During the indoor campaign, Mueller guided the Blue Devils’ sprints to 13 All-ACC honors, including the gold medal in the women’s 4x400m relay that helped Duke earn a share of the 2022 ACC Women’s Outdoor title. The Duke sprinters notched even more success during the outdoor season as five school records fell, 11 individuals collected All-ACC honors and nine USTFCCCA All-America honors were earned.

Mueller’s impact was especially seen in his work with graduate student Lauren Hoffman, who upended Duke’s seven-year-old Morris Williams Stadium record en route to capturing her first outdoor conference title and All-ACC First Team honors with a win in the 400m hurdles at the ACC Championships. She followed that up a few weeks later by smashing her own program record in the 400m hurdles for the fourth time in the 400m hurdles prelims (55.47) at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. In the final, Hoffman clocked 55.58 seconds to collect the bronze medal and USTFCCCA All-America First Team honors for the highest finish of her career at the national meet. Hoffman also earned honorable mention honors as a member of the 4x400m relay, before closing out her Duke career with a seventh-place finish at the USATF Outdoor Championships.

After shattering the 30-year-old Duke indoor 60m dash record, graduate transfer Donovan Spearman etched his name in the outdoor record books – he and classmate Miles Mingo tied for the school record in the 200m with runs of 20.77 seconds. The men also went three for three in the relays as the 4x100m, 4x200m and 4x400m records fell.

Mueller was named the 2021 USTFCCCA Southeast Region Women's Assistant Coach of the Year following the first ACC Outdoor Championship in program history, along with the qualification of eight women to the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

During the 2020-21 campaign, Mueller guided the program's sprinters to new heights and played a role with every single NCAA Outdoor Championship qualifier, including the multi-events. His work was particularly impactful with graduate student Brittany Aveni, who became the first Blue Devil in outdoor program history to qualify for three NCAA Outdoor events in one season.

Aveni became an ACC Champion in the 400m and 4x400m relay, adding an additional All-ACC First Team nod in the 200m. The Geneva, Ohio native rewrote the record books, setting the outdoor school record in the 100m, 200m, 400m, 4x100m and 4x400m that season.

Under Mueller, the 400m distance also proved to be one of the most successful in the country. The women's 400m unit of Aveni, graduate students Iman Sule and Elena Brown-Soler and sophomores Jenna Crean and Carly King were brilliant during the ACC Outdoor Championships, taking first, second, fourth, fifth and eighth in the event respectively. In the 4x400m relay, the quartet of Sule, Brown-Soler, Crean and Aveni made history with an ACC title, setting the school record to win the team title in the final event of the day. Overall, Mueller's sprinters accounted for 52 of the team's 110 points at the ACC Outdoor Championships.

Mueller has seen great success in regards to his student-athletes, with each breaking a personal record in at least one of their main events. Since arriving at Duke, Mueller’s crew has seen great athletic success, breaking over 35 school records with 19 athletes qualifying for NCAA Competition.

In 2019, multiple student-athletes wrote their names in the school record book for both the indoor and outdoor seasons. India Lowe edged out Maddy Price’s school record of 53.27 in the 400m by .03 (53.24) seconds at the ACC Indoor Championships, earning a bronze medal in the process. The 4x400m relay team of Lowe, Brittany Aveni, Kelcie Simmons and MacKenzie Kerr etched their names into the record book with a 3:38.14 time, good for fifth all-time in Duke indoor history. For the men, Miles Mingo climbed the record book ladder in three different events, including the 200m (21.94/fourth all-time), 300m (34.40/second all-time) and 400m (48.05/fourth all-time).

During the 2019 outdoor campaign, Simmons and Panton finished fourth and fifth in the record book, respectively, in the 100m. Lowe also recorded a time of 53.78 at the ACC Outdoor Championships in the 400m, placing fifth and garnering third all-time in Duke outdoor history. The 4x400m relay team of Lowe, Kerr, Lauren Hoffman and Aveni notched Second Team All-America at the NCAA Championships, clocking a time of 3:35.71 for 14th place.

For Mueller and his squad in 2019, Lowe (First Team/400m & 4x400m relay), Aveni (First Team/4x400m relay), Hoffman (First Team/4x400m relay) and Kerr (First Team/4x400m relay) received All-ACC Indoor honors, while Lowe (Second Team/400m) notched All-ACC Outdoor recognition.

The 2018 season produced one of Mueller’s finest showings as Steven Solomon earned second team All-America honors at both the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships. Solomon was also a first team All-ACC selection at both the indoor and outdoor events, capturing the 400m outdoor race. He rewrote the school indoor and outdoor record books with a 45.44 indoor mark and 45.30 time outdoors.

In addition to Solomon’s success, Duke’s outdoor 4x400 meter relay unit of Maddy Price, Kerr, Lowe and Aveni also earned second team All-America honors. Price excelled apart from the relay with a total of four All-ACC selections during the indoor and outdoor events, in the 200m, 400m and 4x400.

In 2017, Mueller helped guide four Duke runners to All-American honors. Madeline Kopp was second-team All-American during both the indoor and outdoor seasons in the 800 meters. She was also a second-team Outdoor All-American in the 4x400 meter relay, with Kerr, Lowe and Price joining her. He also helped seven Duke athletes earn All-ACC honors.

Starting in 2017, Mueller’s work with the Duke student-athletes extended off the track, investing in their further development.

Mueller has also guided two student-athletes to international competition. In 2015, Kopp advanced to the semi-final round in the 400 for the World University Games in Gwangiu City, South Korea and earned bronze in the 4x400. In 2016, Price placed fourth in the 200 and fifth in the 400 at the Canadian Olympic Trials and was selected for the Canadian team for the 2016 NACAC U23 Championships in San Salvador, El Salvador, and went on to get fourth in both the 200 and 400, while also garnering the bronze medal in the 4x400 relay.

As an undergraduate at Stanford University from 2006-11, Mueller was a dual-sport athlete, lettering four years in track and field as a sprinter and three years in football. On the track, Mueller earned a 2011 All-America honorable mention accolade, 2011 Pac-10 All-Academic and 2011 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Scholar-Athlete honors, and was named to the 2010 U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Academic Track and Field Team. Mueller placed sixth in the 2010 Pac-10 Championships in the 200 and was part of the 4x400 relay team that qualified for the NCAA Track & Field Championships in 2011.

Prior to coming to Duke, Mueller coached at the Menlo School in Atherton, Calif., from 2011-13. Mueller also served as a club coach from 2013-14 for MenloiGreyhounds.

Mueller completed his Masters in Theological Studies at the Duke Divinity School in 2016. Mueller graduated from Stanford in 2011 with his Bachelor of Arts in classical studies with a minor in religious studies. In the summer of 2010, he traveled to Arad, Israel, to teach English to Sudanese refugees, helping them develop basic English language skills.

Since graduating from Stanford, Mueller founded Sports & Scholars, serving as a private coach for over a dozen athletes running in international competitions. He has also spent time as a high school varsity coach for multiple sports, including track and field, football, women’s basketball and men’s lacrosse.