CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Dr. G. Anthony Grant, Director of Athletics and DAPER Department Head, and Julie Heyde, Director of Track and Field and Cross Country; Track and Field Head Coach at MIT have announced the hiring of Ben Waruch as men's and women's Assistant Track and Field Coach and Sports Performance Assistant. Waruch will work with the MIT track and field program as well as the Engineers sports performance staff.

"I am excited to welcome Ben to our coaching staff," said Heyde. "His ability to connect with athletes, his technical coaching knowledge, and his well-rounded event background will strengthen our program in many ways. Ben has demonstrated a deep commitment to athlete development—both physically and mentally—and I know he will have an immediate positive impact on MIT and our team."

Waruch joins MIT after spending the past nine years as a member of the coaching staff at Division I UMass Lowell where he worked with all of the Riverhawks power-speed athletes and assisted the meet director with outdoor home meets during the season. At UMass Lowell, he coached multiple school record holders, including Vlad Popusoi and Rachel Hill, both school record holder in the pole vault. Popusoi was a three-time conference champion and NCAA qualifier and Hill was a two-time conference champion. He also coached Derek Munroe, Lowell's school record holder in the decathlon and Brandon Riley, the Riverhawks school record holder in the heptathlon.

Prior to his time in Lowell, he spent three seasons from 2013-2016 as a coach and adjunct professor at Columbia University, where he was the recruiting coordinator for field events and sprints as well as the community outreach coordinator. Waruch wrote and implemented running and lifting programs for sprints, jumps, multi-events and throws for the Lions, coaching four school record holders and multiple top ten all-time performances. In addition to his role with the coaching staff, Waruch was an adjunct professor with the physical education department, teaching a strength and condition course each semester. 

Waruch, who holds a USTFCCCA Strength and Conditioning Certification, got his start in coaching as the program director at Parisi Speed School in Kingston, N.Y., designing programming for all speed/power sessions and serving as the lead recruiter and outreach coordinator. A 2013 graduate of the University of Connecticut with a degree In Kinesiology, Baruch was a two-year captain of the Huskies track and field team, winning multiple all-conference honors during his team competing for UConn.

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