Ben Waruch joined MIT as men's and women's Assistant Track and Field Coach and Sports Performance Assistant in October 2025. Waruch works with the MIT track and field program as well as the Engineers sports performance staff.
Waruch joined 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.Â
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.
