Brien Bell - Track and Field Coach - Syracuse University Athletics

Brien Bell

Title:
Head Coach
Email:
bbell@syr.edu

Brien Bell enters his eighth year at the helm of the Orange cross country/track and field programs in 2025-26. A fixture with the program, he has been at Syracuse for two decades including his time as an assistant. Since his arrival, Syracuse has returned to national prominence, winning multiple NCAA titles (team and individual) and numerous conference titles.

Bell’s men’s cross country team enters the 2025 campaign riding a streak of 16-straight NCAA Championship appearances, which is the nation's fourth-longest active streak, while the women’s team has qualified in each of the past four seasons. Aside from the 2019-20 academic year, which saw the outdoor track season canceled due to the global pandemic, Bell’s track squad has finished with at least one All-American in every season of his head coaching tenure.

Bell has been named the USTFCCCA Northeast Region Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year four times, including three of the last-four seasons and has continued to build a strong program across all facets. This past season, Syracuse was represented at five of the six NCAA Championship events (men's and women's cross country, men's and women's indoor track and field and men's and women's outdoor track and field). 'Cuse has qualified its team and/or athletes for five-or-more championships in each of the past three seasons.

In 2022-23, Syracuse was 1-of-11 teams in the country to score at all-six NCAA Championship events and have both its men’s and women’s team finish the season in the USTFCCCA Program of the Year standings. That award honors the institution that has achieved the most success in each academic year (spanning the cross country, indoor track & field and outdoor track & field seasons) based on the institution's finish at the NCAA Championships.

In his nearly two decade tenure at Syracuse, Bell has mentored an NCAA Championship cross country team, had athletes win multiple NCAA individual titles, and has coached nearly 100 All-Americans between cross country and all track events. In the process, Bell has turned Syracuse into the premier destination for distance runners on the east coast and one of the top programs in the nation.

Bell took over the head job in 2018 after spending 13 seasons on staff as an assistant and associate head coach. An architect of the program’s rebuild to prominence, Syracuse has dominated cross country in the ACC and Northeast region for more than a decade.

That success culminated in 2015, when the Orange men won the NCAA Cross Country Championship. It was the first time ‘Cuse had reached the top of the podium since 1951, led by four All-Americans, Justyn Knight, Colin Bennie, Martin Hehir and Philo Germano.

Knight would later go on to win two NCAA individual titles of his own, claiming the 2017 NCAA Cross Country Championship and winning the 5,000-meter run at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships.

The Syracuse men have qualified for the NCAA Cross Country Championships every year since 2009 and have four top-10 finishes and a pair of podium finishes to complement their national championship.

His men’s cross country teams have won nine of the last-17 conference championships they’ve competed in. Most recently accomplishing the feat in 2019, his first championship as head coach, and earning him ACC Coach of the Year honors. Individually, Syracuse boasts five conference cross country champions in Martin Hehir (2x), Justyn Knight (2x) and Paige Stoner, in Bell’s time at ‘Cuse. The Orange also own one ACC track championship, winning the 2016 ACC Indoor Track and Field Championship.

The women’s cross country team enters 2025 having placed in the top-five at seven of the last 11 ACC Championships. Headlined by Stoner’s ACC Championship victory in 2017 and Shannon Malone’s NCAA Northeast Regional win in 2018, the SU women have qualified for nationals 12 times since Bell arrived on the hill. The team’s best finish came in 2010, finishing inside the top-10 at the NCAA Championships. Vestri became the latest women’s distance star at ‘Cuse, earning First Team All-America honors in both indoor and outdoor in 2023.

On the track, the Orange have been extremely successful as well. Syracuse athletes have brought home over 70 conference titles in Bell’s tenure between the BIG EAST and ACC. Bell’s tutelage led to Knight capturing an NCAA Championship on the track, but the sprinters have also been strong alongside the distance runners. Bell’s associate head coach Dave Hegland mentored 2012 NCAA Champion Jarret Eaton. Freddie Crittenden III was the NCAA runner-up in the 60-meter hurdles, while most recently Jaheem Hayles earned bronze in the 110-meter hurdles at the 2023 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Syracuse has been a fixture in the USTFCCCA Program of the Year standings and has earned countless accolades for success in the classroom under Bell’s watch. The team was the 2015 USTFCCCA Scholar Team of the Year, has had multiple CSC Academic All-Americans and dozens of USTFCCCA Scholar Athletes. Additionally, Reed Kamyszek was a recipient of the Elite 90 winner for the highest GPA of anyone competing at the 2014 NCAA Championships.

Before arriving at Syracuse, Bell spent five years as the assistant men’s and women’s track & field/cross country coach at La Salle University. While with La Salle, Bell helped the Explorers win seven Atlantic 10 championships.

Bell graduated from La Salle in 1999 with a degree in history as a four-year member of the cross country team. He also earned his master’s degree at La Salle in 2004 in professional communications.

Bell and his wife, Toni, reside in Syracuse with their two sons, Cavan and Ian.