Brandon Lawrence has been named California's associate head cross country coach & assistant track coach as announced by Director of Track & Field/Cross Country Robyne Johnson on Friday.
 
"I'm excited to welcome Brandon to the Cal track & field family," Johnson said. "I truly believe he will be the catalyst that helps move our program in the right direction. Brandon is a tireless worker and an aggressive recruiter and I'm looking forward to seeing the team he builds and the culture he creates."
 
Lawrence comes to Berkeley after spending the last two seasons as assistant distance coach at Cal Poly, where he helped both the men's and women's cross country programs to back-to-back Big West Conference Championships in 2024 & 2025 and the men's track team to back-to-back titles in those same seasons. Prior to that he spent two years under the same title at Wake Forest, where he was a part of the Demon Deacons' men's cross country team that won its first ACC championship in 28 years and finished fifth at the 2022 NCAA Championships
 
"The opportunity to join this university and this program is a genuine dream come true," Lawrence said. "My coaching career has taken me all over the country, but coming back to the Bay Area is a full-circle moment, and it's not lost on me how lucky I am. I am grateful to [Cal Poly Director of T&F/XC Ryan Vanhoy] and [Cal Poly Women's cross country coach Michelle Chewens] for getting me ready for this role, Coach Johnson for trusting me with it, and [Cal assistant coach Nicole Matyisk] for believing in what's to come. I am home, I am thrilled, and I am ready to get to work."
 
"I want to build a culture of work ethic and belief. Cal is a world-class, gold-standard institution and our cross country program should reflect that same standard of excellence day in and day out. My goal is to establish a team environment that reflects that same standard and allows this team to compete at the highest levels of the ACC and the NCAA."
 
In his four years at the Division I level, Lawrence has helped sculpt nine All-Americans, 17 individual conference champions and 31 NCAA Regional qualifiers while helping lead seven cross country teams to top-10 regional finishes.

A native of Hercules, Lawrence ran track and cross country at Diablo Valley College before transferring to Division II Holy Names University to finish out his running career. He earned his master's degree in health and human performance from Fort Hays State in Hays, Kansas, in 2023 and his bachelor's in communication and media studies from Holy Names in 2020.
 
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