Andrea Grove-McDonough Position: Head Coach Experience: Third Season

"Coach McDonough has changed the face of middle and long distance running at UConn in an amazingly short period of time. Bringing her onto the staff from the professional ranks of her running career has certainly made us a viable program as a destination school to the emerging and elite high school distance runner." Head Coach Bill Morgan

Andrea Grove-McDonough begins her third year as assistant women's track & field and cross country coach. Responsible for cross country and the middle distance/distance events on the track, Grove-McDonough has rapidly improved the cross country program and distance corps at Connecticut. Last season, UConn was ranked as high as 10th in the USTFCCCA Northeast Regional Poll.

Grove-McDonough has also helped to continue the high standards of academic success at UConn. The 2009 cross country team was honored as a USTFCCCA All-Academic Team as 12 student-athletes were named to the BIG EAST All-Academic Team for achieving cumulative grade point averages above 3.0.

2010 graduate Sara Leslie was honored with the BIG EAST Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence Award. The award is given to one student-athlete in each BIG EAST sport based on academic credentials, athletic accolades or performances and volunteer service to the community. Student-athletes who attained junior academic standing and a minimum cumulative grade-point average of 3.00 are eligible. The winners are chosen by the BIG EAST Faculty Athletics Representative Council.

Coach Grove-McDonough has led the Huskies to personal bests and school records during the past two seasons.

In 2009-10, Grove-McDonough once again helped to lead the distance runners to several new school records. In a clear display of the depth and talent of the distance runners, eight student-athletes broke or re-broke 13 records last season in events ranging from the 800m to the 5,000. Leah Andrianos set a pair of individual UConn records in the indoor 1,000m (2:47.41) and the mile (4:49.96).

Andrianos joined with Brigitte Mania, Meghan Cunningham and Heather Wilson to set a new 4x800m record with a time of 8:41.38. The four student-athletes also set a new outdoor track and field record in the 4x800 with a time of 8:41.78, which also ranked the team ninth in the nation. Cunningham set a new outdoor record in 2010 in the 1,500m with a time of 4:28.61. Grove-McDonough also led three athletes to qualify at the 2009 and 2010 Junior National Championships.

During the most recent cross country campaign, Coach Grove-McDonough's squad made dramatic improvements in the New England and BIG EAST rankings. The team finished second at the 2010 New England Championships and seventh at the BIG EAST Championships, both performances were the highest finishes in program history. Grove-McDonough guided freshman Lauren Sara to a top-five finish among all freshmen in the BIG EAST Conference.

Before beginning her coaching career at UConn, Grove-McDonough enjoyed a highly successful professional career in which she won two National Titles and competed internationally in every event from the 800m to the 10,000m. In 2008 Grove-McDonough won the Canadian Olympic Trials in the 10,000m and posted the 7th fastest time in Canadian history in the event.

During her twelve years as a professional athlete, Grove-McDonough was a seven time National Team Member, a finalist in the 1,500m at the 1999 World University Games in Palma de Mallorca, Spain and was selected to represent Canada at the 2008 Chiba Ekiden relay in Japan. In cross country, Grove-McDonough finished ninth at the 2007 Canadian World Cross Country Trials.

Throughout her athletic career Grove-McDonough has garnered an impressive record of six top-three finishes at the Canadian National Championships. Grove-McDonough was ranked second in Canada in the 5,000m in 2002, 2006 and 2007 as well as being the No. 1-ranked 10,000m runner in 2008. She holds personal bests of 2:07.12 for 800m, 4:11.04 for 1,500m, 15:31.29 for 5,000m and 32:29.86 in the 10,000m.

Grove-McDonough was also a standout performer throughout her collegiate career at the University of Minnesota, culminating with a fifth place finish in the 1,500m at the 1996 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, where she earned All-American status. She also represented the University of Minnesota in the mile at the 1995 Indoor NCAA Track & Field Championships. Grove-McDonough was a team captain for the Gophers from 1994-1996 and an All-Big Ten Academic Selection. She holds a degree from the University of Minnesota in Human Resource Management.

Grove-McDonough returned to the collegiate scene in 2007 when she helped coach the men's and women's cross country squads at the University of Montana. She began coaching and managing elite level athletes in the middle and long distance events beginning in 2006, including coaching an athlete that represented Canada at the 2008 World Cross Country Championships in Ireland.

A native of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Grove-McDonough has lived in Missoula, Montana for the past twelve years and now resides in Mansfield, Conn. with her husband, former All-American decathlete, Troy McDonough.