Michael Porter - Men's Indoor Track Coach

Michael Porter

Title:
Assistant Coach – Track and Field/Cross Country
Email:
HornedFrogTFXC@tcu.edu

Michael Porter joined the TCU cross country and track and field programs as an assistant coach in 2025. He coaches distance student-athletes.

In his first season with the Frogs, he guided junior Johnson Lagat to the 2025 NCAA Cross Country Championship Meet become the first men’s TCU runner to qualify since 2010. Lagat ran a career-best time of 29:33.5 to cross the finish line and earn an auto-bid as an individual and finished seventh overall and earn All-Region Honors.

Prior to arriving in Fort Worth, he spent four years at Vanderbilt in the same role. During the 2023 cross country season, Porter led the women’s cross country team to a seventh place finish, its best since his coming to Vanderbilt. Two Dores, Jackson Scruggs and Colette Kinsella, were top-15 freshman finishers at the NCAA Cross Country South Region Championships. During the 2024 indoor season, Porter guided Julia Rosenberg to qualifying for the NCAA East First Round in the 1,500 meters and breaking the school records in the 1,000 and 3,000 meters indoors and 5,000 meters outdoors.

In her first-ever 10,000-meter race, Bria Bennis, coaches by Porter, scored at the SEC Championships. With his coaching, Emma Curry and Audrey Allman and Rosenberg contributed to Vanderbilt’s bronze medal-winning performance in the distance medley relay at the SEC Indoor Championships.

During the 2022 cross country season, the women’s team, paced by Niki Narayani, finished 10th at the NCAA South Region Championships. With Porter’s guidance, Narayani placed 23rd and earned all-region honors for the first time in her career. In 2023, Porter coached Niki Narayani and Caroline Eck to achieving the No. 1 and No. 2 spots in school history in the 3,000 meters. At the SEC Indoor Championships, Narayani scored in the 3,000 and 5,000 meters. With Porter’s tutelage, Eck and Narayani advanced to the NCAA East First Round in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters, respectively. Allman, coached by Porter, was selected to represent Team USA at the Pan American U20 Championships after placing sixth in the 1,500 meters at the USATF U20 Outdoor Championships.

In Porter’s inaugural season with the Commodores, the women’s cross country team finished sixth at the 2021 NCAA South Region Championships. He helped Cameron Fawcett became the 12th woman in program history and the first since 2019, to earn All-SEC Freshman honors. That track season, Porter tutored Grace Jensen, who broke school records in the mile and 1,500 meters and placed in the top five in both events at the 2022 SEC Championships. That year, student-athletes Porter coached achieved 11 marks ranking in the program’s all-time top 10.

Prior to Vanderbilt, he served as a volunteer assistant coach at Kentucky (2019–21) and an assistant coach at Clemson (2014-19). Before his stop in Lexington, Porter helped the Tigers earned two ACC team titles, while Porter tutored six All-Americans, 11 NCAA qualifiers, 12 top-three ACC finishers and 27 student-athletes among the school’s all-time top 10. He also mentored six-time All-American Grace Barnett, who placed ninth at the 2016 NCAA DI Cross Country Championships, and three-time All-ACC recipient Logan Morris, who represented the United States at the 2017 World Junior Cross Country Championship.

Porter began his coaching career as a volunteer assistant coach at LSU, and he served as head coach at Colonial Forge High School in Stafford, Virginia, from 2008 to 2012.