Men's Track and Field
- Title:
- William M. Weaver Jr. '34 Head Coach of Men's Track & Field
- Email:
- samara@princeton.edu
- Alma Mater:
- Penn '73
- Season:
- 38th
updated June 2023
Fred Samara recently completed his 44th season as the William M. Weaver Jr. '34 Head Coach of Men’s Track & Field at Princeton and 46th overall on staff. Samara has been the head coach of the varsity track program since 1979, and served as head cross country coach from 1992-98 and 2004-07.
In 2023 Samara helped lead Sondre Guttormsen to an indoor pole vault national title, and Princeton to five All-America honorees for the indoor and outdoor season. Guttormsen cleared 6.00m to tie the collegiate record and win the indoor national championship. As team, Princeton won the Indoor Heptagonal Championship and placed second at Outdoor Heps. Combined between the indoor and outdoor championships, the Tigers won ten individual Ivy League titles. The Tigers also sent 14 to the NCAA East Regional and had three athletes compete in the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
The Tigers had a historic 2021-22 season, finishing No. 5 in the USTFCCCA Program of the Year Standings, along with fifth at the NCAA Indoor Championships, and seventh at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, both program-bests. Samara also swept the USTFCCCA Mid-Atlantic Region and Ivy League Coach of the Year awards for both indoor and outdoor. He helped lead Sondre Guttormsen to a sweep of the pole vault national titles, and Princeton to 15 All-America honors. The Tigers also sent 27 to the NCAA East Regional, the most entrants of any program in the region, and won the triple crown for the 11th time. Combined between indoor and outdoor, the Tigers won 22 individual Ivy League titles, and Princeton's 231 points at Outdoor Heps was a meet record.
The shortened 2019-20 season saw Samara guide Princeton to its 23rd Ivy League Indoor championship; the Tigers won seven events at the championships and Samara was honored as both the Ivy League and USTFCCCA Regional Coach of the Year. In 2018-19, the Tigers won another triple crown and Samara was honored as both indoor and outdoor Ivy League Coach of the Year.
The 2017-18 season was a memorable one for Samara. In December, Samara was inducted in the U.S. Track & field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Hall of Fame. In May, he won his eighth Triple Crown with the Tigers and was named Ivy League Coach of the Year both indoors and outdoors.
In total, Samara has won 51 Ivy League championships: 25 indoor, 21 outdoor, five in cross country. He has been named the Ivy League Coach of the Year nine of the twelve times it has been awarded. Samara stands alone in the Ivy League, as Princeton is the only school to claim a Triple Crown, and has done it now ten times. In 2010-11 Princeton became the 10th program in NCAA history to sweep all six titles, both men and women, in a single academic year.
He has coached over 450 individual Heptagonal champions, 230 outdoor and 262 indoor.
He was named the Mid-Atlantic Region Indoor Male Coach of the Year in 2004, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2018 and 2022 on the heels of being the Mid-Atlantic Outdoor Male Coach of the Year in 2001, 2002, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2022 sweeping the honors in 2011, 2012 and 2002.
Samara is well-known for his coaching excellence on the national and international levels.
An Olympian himself, Samara has coached fellow Americans to international success. Samara was the second U.S. finisher in the decathlon behind Bruce Jenner at the 1976 Olympic Games. In 1982, Samara coached the 1982 U.S. decathlon team, which competed in Leningrad. He was named national decathlon chairman for The Athletics Congress (now USA Track & Field), the national governing body of track and field. Samara’s first Olympian was shot-putter Augie Wolf (’83) at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Samara was also the field events coach for the US at the 1987 World Championships in Rome.
In 1992, Samara was selected as the assistant coach responsible for decathletes and field events at the 1992 Games in Barcelona, where he worked extensively with Mike Stulce and Jim Doehring, the first Americans to sweep the gold and silver in the shot put since 1968. He also coached former Princeton high jumper Tora Harris (’02), who competed in the 2004 Olympics in Athens after finishing third at the U.S. Olympic Trials. Other international coaching experience includes: head coach of the victorious 1995 U.S. Pan American team that competed in Argentina, coordinator at the 1998 Goodwill Games and the 1987 field events coach at the World University Games in Kobe, Japan.
Samara has had unmatched success from the league to the national level with 14 throwers achieving All-America honors. The latest being Adam Kelly ’21 who as a junior has captured two All-America honors in the hammer and one in the weight. Past All-America weightmen include: David Pellegrini (’80), the 35-pound weight throw NCAA champion in 1980; Tom Meyer (’82), a two-time NCAA scorer in the javelin; Wolf, a second-place finisher in the 1983 indoor shot put who also placed fourth at the 1984 Olympics; Alex Kolovyansky (’96) in the discus; Rob Manning (’99) in the javelin; Scott Denbo (’00) in the outdoor shot put; Josh McCaughey (’05) in 35-lb weight throw in 2001 and 2002; C.J. Licata ('22) in the indoor and outdoor shot put and Robbie Otal ('22) in the discus. McCaughey is the only four-time Heptagonal weight throw champion as well as a four-time Heps hammer throw champion in history. In 2010, Conor McCullough won the World Junior Championships hammer throw. McCullough had the nation's leading throw in the 35lb weight, at 76-1.
Samara has also helped mold several Tiger jumpers into All-America performers. In the high jump they include Harris, both indoor and outdoor; Charles Forlidas (’89); Jay Richards (’92), who placed fourth indoors and sixth at the outdoors during the 1991-92 season. In the pole vault, three Tigers have reached the NCAAs four times: David Slovenski ('12) taking 12th, Adam Bragg ('15) finishing 12th and seventh and August Kiles (’18) 22nd.
Ugwunna Ikpeowo (’96) earned the honors in both the triple and long jump and Al Dyer (’90) reachd as high as fourth at the NCAA outdoors in the long jump. Most recently, Greg Foster '26 earned Second Team All-America status at the 2022 Indoor NCAA Championships finishing 15th in the Long Jump and Damon McLean ('14) earned three All-America honors in the triple jump and holds the Princeton record in the event. He won the Jamaica nationals in the event just weeks after graduation and competed at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
In 2015, Samara helped decathlete Stephen Soerens ('15) to a program record in the event, an NCAA appearance and a sixth-place finish, and in 2022 he guided Andrei Iosivas to a fourth-place finish in the heptathlon at the NCAA indoor Championships.
A 1975 national AAU decathlon champion, Samara was a five-time Penn Relays champion. While attending Penn, he was a two-time All-America, receiving honors in the sprints, long jump, pole vault and his specialty – the decathlon. He also captured the decathlon title at the World University Games trials and later placed fifth at the World Championships in Moscow. In 1975 he was captain of the US team at the US vs. USSR Team Decathlon, leading the team to a world record. In 1974 he established an American record in the indoor pentathlon. Samara was inducted into the Public Schools Athletic League Wingate Hall of Fame in November 2003 for his accomplishments as an athlete at Fort Hamilton High in Brooklyn, N.Y., including being the top-ranked high school decathlete in the nation in 1969.
Samara helped to develop the USA/Visa Decathlon Program with renowned coach Harry Marra in 1990. The Visa Program was tremendously successful, producing gold medals and world decathlon individual as well as team records. The Visa program brought together the top 10 US ranked decathletes, providing them with training stipends, medical coverage and numerous training camps, as well as performance bonuses. The unique aspect of the training camp featured the five US Olympic Gold Medalists: Bob Mathias, Milton Campbell, Dave Johnson, Bill Toomey and Dan O’Brien, who not only attended the camps, but also mentored the decathletes. Another aspect of the program that has made a lasting impact has been the lineage of coaches who came out of the program who are now coaching nationally.
Samara received a bachelor of science degree in economics from Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and Finance in 1973.
He and his wife Lorraine live in Pennington, N.J. Their son, Ben, is a graduate of The College of New Jersey where he competed on the track and field team.
| By the Numbers | ||
| 6 | Olympians | |
| Auggie Wolf, shot put | 1984, Los Angeles | |
| Debbie St. Phard, shot put | 1988, Seoul | |
| Tora Harris, high jump | 2004, Athens | |
| Donn Cabral, steeplechase | 2012, London | |
| Ed Trippas, steeplechase | 2020, Tokyo | |
| Sondre Guttormsen, pole vault | 2020, Tokyo | |
| 10 | NCAA Champions | |
| Tora Harris, high jump | 2002, indoor & outdoor | |
| Donn Cabral, steeplechase | 2012 outdoor | |
| DMR (Callahan, Dinkins, Hollimon, Williams) | 2013, indoor | |
| Sondre Guttormsen, pole vault | 2022, indoor & outdoor, 2023 indoor | |
| 101 | All-Americas | |
| 4- Weight Throw (Pellagrini, Pessala, Kelly-2) | ||
| 3- Hammer (Pearce, Kelly-2) | ||
| 7- Shot Put (Licata-2, Wolf-3, Purcell, St. Phard) | ||
| 1- Javelin (Meyer) | ||
| 10- Pole Vault (Sondre Guttormsen-4, Simen Guttormsen-2, Slovenski, Bragg-2, Kiles) | ||
| 9- High Jump (Richards-2, Harris-5, Frick, Forlidas) | ||
| 3- Long Jump (Foster,Ikpeowo, Dyer) | ||
| 3- Triple Jump (McLean-3) | ||
| 5- Mile (Burke-2, Nightingale, Callahan, Williams) | ||
| 12- DMR teams (3) | ||
| 8- 4x400 teams (2) | ||
| 9- 5k (Cabral-3, Nightingale, Maag, Amirault, Stilin, Lundy, Bendtsen) | ||
| 5- Steeplechase (Trippas, Cabral-3, Owens) | ||
| 7- 10k (LeMay, Macreery, Franklin, Leung, Bendsten-2, Pons) | ||
| 5- 1500 (Ellis, Burke, Van Ackeren, Paulson-2) | ||
| 4- 800 (Rodman - 2, Dinkins-2) | ||
| 1 - 400h (Hollimon) | ||
| 3 - Cross Country (Macreery, Nightingale, Maag) | ||
| 1 - Decathlon (Soerens) | ||
| 1- Heptathlon (Iosivas) | ||
| 1- Discus (Otal) | ||
| 51 | Ivy League Team Titles | |
| Cross Country (5) | ||
| Indoor Track & Field (25) | ||
| Outdoor Track & Field (21) | ||
| 502 | Ivy League Champions including Relays | |
| Indoor (269) | ||
| Outdoor (233) | ||
| 12 | USTFCCCA Coach of the Year Awards | |
| Mid-Atlantic Indoor Men's Coach of the Year | 2004, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2018, 2020, 2022 | |
| Mid-Atlantic Outdoor Men's Coach of the Year | 2001, 2002, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2022 | |
| Coaching Experience | ||
| US Decathlon Team | 1982, Leningrad | |
| 1984, France | ||
| 1994, Germany | ||
| 2012, Germany | ||
| US Field Events Coach, US World Championships | 1987, Rome | |
| US Assistant Coach, Olympic Games | 1992, Barcelona | |
| US Head Coach, Pan American Games | 1995, Argentina | |
| US Team Coordinator, Goodwill Games | 1998 | |
