Track & Field
- Title:
- The Sherie L. and Donald G. Morrison UCLA Director of Track & Field/Cross Country
UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame member and Olympic gold medalist Joanna Hayes returnedย to UCLA as the new The Sherie L. and Donald G. Morrison UCLA Director of Track & Field/Cross Country on June 17, 2024. Hayes previously served as an assistant coach for the Bruins from 2014-16 and for USC from 2017-24.
Shortly after being named to the top job at UCLA, she was selected as the USATF Nike Coach of the Year for the 2024 calendar year.ย
UCLA started off its new era under Hayes in a strong way in 2025. The womenโs outdoor squad was nationally ranked all season, climbing as high as No. 13 in the polls. The Bruins swept their dual meet over crosstown rival USC at Drake Stadium, a first for the program since 2013. UCLA set five school records over the course of the year, including in the womenโs indoor 4x400 and outdoor 4x100 relays. The Bruins made a strong impression at their first Outdoor Big Ten Championships, with Michael Pinckney bringing home a gold medal in the menโs discus and the UCLA women finishing third in the team standings. A total of 11ย individuals combined for 16ย All-America honors at the Outdoor NCAA Championships, with two more earning Indoor All-America accolades earlier in the season.ย
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A six-time All-American at UCLA from 1996-99, Hayes won seven Pac-10 titles and the 1999 NCAA outdoor title in the 400m hurdles. She led UCLA to three-straight Pac-10 team titles and two-straight NCAA runner-up finishes, and her Bruin teams went 39-0 in dual meets in her career. At the Pac-10 level, Hayes won three-straight 100m hurdles titles from 1996-98 and two-straight 400m hurdles crowns from 1996-97. In 2004, she won Olympic gold, breaking a 16-year Olympic record with a winning time of 12.37 in the 100m hurdles. Also that year, she won the 2004 Jesse Owens Award as USA Track & Field's outstanding female athlete and finished as the No. 1-ranked 100m hurdler in the world. Additionally, she won gold in the 400m hurdles at the 2003 Pan American Games. ย ย
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In her previous coaching stint at UCLA, Hayes was an assistant sprints, hurdles and relays coach. In her first season in 2014, she coached Brea Buchanan and Trinity Wilson to the NCAA finals in the 100m hurdles. Hayes also guided the womenโs 4x100m relay team to the NCAA Championship meets in 2015 and 2016.
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โI am excited to bring Joanna back home to UCLA,โ remarked the Alice and Nahum Lainer Family Director of Athletics Martin Jarmond. โHer credentials as an Olympic gold medalist, NCAA Champion, Hall of Fame athlete and award-winning coach speak for itself. Her passion, energy and vision for UCLA track and field make her the right choice to lead this program.โ
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โWinning has been in Joannaโs DNA, from her high school athletic days, to becoming a champion student-athlete at UCLA and an Olympic gold medalist, to her successful coaching career,โ said UCLA Athletics Hall of Famer Jeanette Bolden. โShe is now bringing that winning DNA to the menโs and womenโs program at UCLA. I could not be happier for Joanna and her family.โ
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At USC, Hayes earned USTFCCCA West Region Assistant Coach of the Year honors four times, most recently being selected for the 2024 outdoor season with the women after her hurdlers scored 16 of the Trojansโ 25 points at the NCAA Championships, where USC finished 10th. She was the 2023 and 2024 indoor menโs assistant of the year, coaching a pair of Trojans to the top two times in the nation in the 60m hurdles during the 2023 indoor campaign. Her first award came in 2018, when two USC hurdlers won Pac-12 titles and four of her 100m hurdlers advanced to the NCAA Championships.
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Hayesโ athletes were among the most successful at USC during her time with the team. Anna Cockrell was a three-time NCAA Champion, 2021 Honda Sports Award Winner, and 2021 Pac-12 Tom Hansen Medal winner before earning a silver medal in the 2024 Summer Olympics.ย Jasmine Jones was the 2024 Pac-12 Womenโs Track Athlete of the Year and won a pair of NCAA titles in 2024, taking the outdoor 400m hurdles title with a school and meet record, and winning the indoor 60m title. Hayes was a volunteer assistant coach in 2021 when the Trojans won the NCAA Womenโs Outdoor title.
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Olympians Sydney McLaughlin and Rai Benjamin are among the elite athletes Hayes has trained. McLaughlin is the current world record holder in the 400m hurdles, and Benjamin ranks No. 2 in the world and No. 1 in the USA.
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Hayes, who graduated from UCLA in 2001 with a bachelorโs degree in sociology, resides in Los Angeles with her husband, Eric Thomas, and daughters, Zoe and Aly.
