Taryn Sheehan was named Yale’s head women’s cross country coach/middle distance and distance coach in August of 2019.
Sheehan has coached the Bulldogs to numerous notable achievements, including individual Ivy League Heps Cross Country Championships by Kayley DeLay in 2019 and 2021. DeLay earned All-America recognition for her 10th place finish at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in 2021, and was also named All-Region and Northeast Region Athlete of the Year. She went on to earn All-America honors in the 5000m at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships and the steeplechase at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in 2022. She placed 10th in the steeple at the 2022 USATF Championships.
The track team's distance runners have thrived under Sheehan, including the school record in the 3k (9:09.19 by DeLay in 2022). The school's 5000m records indoors (15:36.66 by DeLay in 2021) and outdoors (15:39.11 by DeLay in 2022) have also been set on her watch .
Sheehan's runners have also excelled academically. In the fall of 2021 the cross country team earned the USTFCCCA All-Academic Team Award with a team GPA of 3.74 -- the team's best GPA in the history of that awards program.
Sheehan joined the Bulldogs after spending three seasons at Western Michigan, where she was associate head coach for track & field/cross country and also served as interim head coach for the 2019 outdoor track season. She helped the women’s cross country team improve its finish at NCAA Regionals, rising from 19th in 2016 to 16th in 2017 and 14th in 2018.
From 2011 to 2016 Sheehan was an assistant cross country/track & field coach at Louisville, where she helped the Cardinals to their best finish in school history at the NCAA cross country regionals in 2015.
Sheehan was selected to coach for the United States at the 2023 North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) U23 Championships in San José, Costa Rica. She served as an assistant coach, working with the men's distance runners.
Sheehan earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from St. Francis (Pa.) in 2007. While with St. Francis she was an NCAA qualifier in the 10k and set the school and Northeast Conference records in the event. Following her time at St. Francis, she had one year of eligibility left. She went to Louisville, where she scored at the Big East indoor meet and set the school record in the indoor 3000m run.
Sheehan earned a Master of Science degree in sport administration from Louisville in 2009, then served as assistant women’s track coach at Western Michigan from 2009 to 2011.
