Brown University Track & Field & Cross Country: A Deep Dive for Aspiring Bears
Track & Field Recruiting Academy / Ivy League Track & Field Recruiting Guide
I graduated from Brown in 2011. I was a 2010 NCAA Champion and went on to make an Olympic Team in 2012, the year I volunteer coached there. After four years at the Olympic Training Center, I returned to Brown as an assistant coach and eventually became Associate Head Coach. My athletes broke 6 school records and won multiple Ivy League (Heps) Titles. Welcome to part one of eight of the Ivy Track and Field and Cross Country Recruiting Guide.
Brown University: Ivy League Underdog
Maybe the idea of a traditional, pressure-cooker athletic environment doesn't quite sit right. If you're seeking a program where excellence meets an unconventional and vibrant spirit, then buckle up, because Brown University Track & Field and Cross Country might be your perfect match.
This isn't your typical Ivy League athletics scene. We're talking an urban oasis in historic Providence, Rhode Island, where cobblestone streets and trendy cafes collide with a campus buzzing with intellectual energy. Forget sprawling fields and faceless stadiums – Brown's facilities are nestled amongst neighborhoods classrooms and coffee shops, a constant reminder that academics and athletics are partners, not rivals.
Sure, their facilities might not be the fanciest (although, hey, the outdoor track is being renovated) and their teams might not always be championship contenders (yet!). But it’s still a mid-level Division I team at an Ivy League school.
So, if you're a driven athlete who thrives outside the box, if you're looking for a team that values your individuality almost as much as your personal bests, and if you want to be part of something bigger than yourself – then Brown might be for you. They might be underdogs, but they're ready to rewrite the narrative, one stride at a time.
Ready to unleash your inner Bear? Dive into this blog post for the full scoop on Brown Track & Field and Cross Country: facilities, performance stats, recruiting insights, and the real deal on what it's like to be part of this unique and passionate program. Go, Bruno! (that’s their mascot)
Location Breakdown
Brown is located in Providence Rhode Island, in the College Hill neighborhood in an area of the city called the East Side. One of the oldest cities in the US, Providence is a compact city that was designed well before the automobile. Much of the original old world charm can be found in the city and especially the neighborhood of College Hill. The urban residential neighborhood has tons of food and shopping intertwined with campus. A 10 minute walk down College Hill will land you in downtown Providence.
City: Providence, RI
Environment: Urban Residential
Providence Population: 190,000
Metro Area Population: 1.7 million
Other Colleges In City: Rhode Island School of Design (arguably the best art school in the world), Providence College, Johnson and Wales
Providence in the Last Presidential Election: Strongly Liberal 60.5% Democrat, 37% Republican
Demographics: 43.5% Hispanic or Latino, 33.8% White (non Hispanic), 16.1% Black or African American, 5.6% Asian
Fun Facts: Most artists, coffee shops and restaurants per capita of ANY American city
Brown Breakdown
Founded: 1764
Undergraduate Population: 7,100
Graduate Population: 3,300
Nickname: Bears
Mascot: Bruno the Bear
Endowment: $6.5 billion
Endowment Per Capita: $625,000
Curriculum: Only Division I university with no core curriculum. Complete freedom of choice for classes. Can take classes at the neighboring art school RISD
Politics: Most liberal and activist of all Ivy League schools
Fun Fact: Most acapella groups per capita of any school in US
Facilities
Indoor Track Facility Rating 4/10
Name: Olney Margolies Athletic Center
Seats: No fixed seating
Built: 1981
Pros: On campus. 6 lane, 200m track. Full jumps and throwing areas. Net for throwing javelin, discus and hammer indoors. Training room, locker room and student-athlete lounge are in the building.
Cons: No permanent seating. Cannot host Heps (Ivy Championship). Flat track. Turns are tighter than average. No windows. Track and field has priority but the facility is also used by rec sports, and other varsity sports. Basketball/volleyball courts on infield. Architecturally whack. Scheduled to be torn down in the next few years (could be a pro or a con depending on your perspective)
Outdoor Track Rating: 6.5/10
Name: Brown Stadium
Seats: 20,000
Built: 1925
Pros: Beautiful, quiet residential setting. Track was newly renovated in 2023. Above average wind protection. Throwing and jumping areas are adjacent to track (everything is centrally located). Better climate than Ivies to the north (Harvard, Dartmouth, Cornell)
Cons: Only 6 lanes (full outdoor track is 8) as a result cannot host Heps. Turns are tighter than average. High jump is the only field event located on infield. Stadium is old and decrepit. Half a mile from campus. Worse climate than Ivies to the south.
Running Routes + Environment Rating: 6/10
Pros: Multiple pro groups train here. Blackstone boulevard features a mile of flat crushed stone trail for workouts. Moderately quiet urban residential routes near campus. East bay bike path closeby for long runs with beautiful views of the Narragansett bay. 10 mile greenway bike path closeby. Close proximity to rural Seekonk Massachusetts for long runs. Goddard park, Lincoln woods. While it is in a city, it doesn’t feel like dodging traffic. More temperate climate because of proximity to the ocean than other inland Ivies.
Cons: Cold, wet winters. Campus partly surrounded by a high traffic urban environment. Limited soft surface running available, outside of the Blackstone Boulevard, everything is on roads or paved bike paths.
T+F, CC Team Performance Rating (1 is lowest 10 is highest): 3/10
Note: The Ivy League is arguably the best Division I Track and Field conference outside the Power 5 (ACC, BIG 10, BIG 12, PAC 12, SEC). Every team in the league will typically be above average in Division I. Taking this into consideration, I have decided to add 1.5 to every team’s numerical rating.
How the performance ratings are calculated: The two major factors taken into account in these ratings was the placement of the team in the most Heps (Ivy) Championship and the average placement of the team in the last three Heps Championships. Those two numbers were then averaged. We then transferred the values into a 1-10 scale. Ratings have been rounded to the nearest half number.
Combined Ratings (Women+Men)
T+F Combined Team Performance Rating: 3.5/10
CC Combined Team Performance Rating: 2/10
Women’s Ratings
Women’s T+F and CC Performance Rating: 3/10
Women’s T+F Performance Rating: 4/10
Women’s CC Performance Rating: 2/10
Men’s Ratings
Men’s T+F and CC Performance Rating: 2.5/10
Men’s T+F Performance Rating: 3/10
Men’s CC Performance Rating: 1.5/10
Outdoor Ivy League Championship Performance (8 teams)
2023 Place: Women 6th/8, Men 7th/8
Average of last 3 Outdoor Heps: Women 5.6 (Tied for 5th) , Men 6.3 (7th)
Indoor Ivy League Championship Performance
2023 Place: Women 6th, Men 8th
Average of last 3 Indoor Heps: Women 6.6 (Tied for 6th), Men 6.3 (8th)
Cross Country Ivy League Championship Performance
2022 Place: Women 8th, Men 8th
Average of last 3 Cross Country Heps: Women 7.6 (8th), Men 7.6 (8th)
Recruiting Insights
One of the most important things you can do during the recruiting process is to look up the recruiting standards of the teams that you are interested in. If they can be found online, it’s better to find them yourself rather than asking the coach for them via email. College coaches are busy. If the information you are looking for can be readily found on their team website, that’s where you should try to get it from. This is not to say that you shouldn’t email them, only that before you do you should do your homework.
It is important to recognize that at most schools, recruiting standards are guidelines, not rules. In my seven years coaching at Brown I saw student athletes who got recruiting slots in almost every one of these events who had performances under the Target Performance for their event. Likewise, I saw athletes who were permitted to walk on to the team with performances that failed to meet the walk on consideration marks.
On the flip side, I saw recruited athletes in all events who exceeded the target performances. So keep in mind that just because you meet a target performance, it doesn’t mean that you will be offered a recruiting slot. There could be 10 people on a coach’s depth chart ahead of you in an event even if you meet the recruiting standard.
For more info on how to communicate with college coaches including an email template and everything else you need to know about maximizing your recruiting process, sign up for updates about our upcoming course, Unlock Your Ivy League League Potential: The Track and Field Recruiting Course
Make sure to check out the other Ivy League recruiting guides to learn about the other Ivy programs.
