Michelle Clayton - Track & Field (M) Coach

Michelle Clayton

Title:
Assistant Coach: Throws and Weight Training
Email:
miclayton@troy.edu
Phone:
808-6631

Michelle Clayton enters her 12th season at Troy, where she fulfills a dual role for the track and field program as both the throws and strength coach. Clayton is also the Director of Operations for the indoor and outdoor track and field teams.

Clayton saw plenty of success in 2024-25 with her star pupil, Altwayne Bedward. She led Bedward to the NCAA East Region First Round for the shot put event after he shattered the program record at 18.87m in the Sun Belt Outdoor Championships for second – he earned All-Sun Belt Second Team. Their combined success saw him claim eight podium finishes with gold medals at the South Alabama Invitational and Doc Anderson Invitational. Overall, she coached nine first-place finishes in the shot put events in 2024-25, with two for the discus throw.

She coached four top-three finishers at the Sun Belt Conference Outdoor Championships in 2024: Cole Stewart, Biniosa Ezukuse, Javon Osbourne, and Morgan Reese. Clayton coached Cole Stewart into a 2024 Summer Olympic Trials qualifier.

Since she arrived in 2014, Clayton has helped coach the throws student-athletes to two All-America honors (second team & honorable mention), five Sun Belt conference crowns, 26 NCAA East Preliminary Round qualifiers, 4 USA Indoor National qualifiers and a 2024 Summer Olympic qualifier Cole Stewart. She has seen the throws student-athletes garner spots on the Trojans top-10 all-time performance list, with 14 school records being set under her tutelage (men’s indoor and outdoor shot-put, women’s indoor and outdoor shot-put, men’s and women’s discus throw, men’s and women’s weight throw and men’s hammer).

In 2023, Clayton coached Javon Osbourne to secure the gold medal for the men’s shot put at the Sun Belt Outdoor Championships. In 2021, Michael Alvarez capped off his collegiate career by being crowned the 2021 Sun Belt Champion in the men’s hammer throw and setting the school record for the same event. During the 2018 indoor season, Indyia Summerville earned the top spot in the women’s shot put at the Sun Belt Indoor Championships. At the 2017 Sun Belt Outdoor Championships, Zach Douglas finished atop the podium in the men’s discus and was runner-up in the men’s shot put. He preceded that in 2016 by bringing home the lone Sunbelt Championship, winning the men’s shot put with a personal best mark. Also in 2016, Jaevyn Wortham became the second Trojans thrower in Clayton’s tenure to earn All-American honors after competing at the NCAA Championships and earning her a spot as an Honorable Mention. Jaevyn was also the Sun Belt runner-up in the same event that season. Clayton’s first Trojans All-American thrower was Corina Cox, whose 11th-place finish in the women’s discus at the NCAA Championships earned her a spot on the Second Team.

Before arriving in Troy, Clayton spent five years as the throws coach at Dartmouth College (2009-14), where she also served as the strength coach for the throwers and sprinters. While working with the Big Green, Clayton developed and guided strong performers, including 10 NCAA East Preliminary Round qualifiers, two USATF U20 National qualifiers, and numerous All-East and All-Ivy performers. During her tenure with the Big Green, Clayton coached several throwers across all five throwing events to a top-five spot on the school’s all-time performance list.

Before Dartmouth College, Clayton served as the throws coach for two years at Duke University (2008-09). During the 2009 outdoor season, she coached four throwers to the NCAA Regionals and one to a fifth-place finish in the men’s shot put at the USA Track and Field U20 Nationals. During the prior outdoor season, Clayton helped one of her male javelin throwers, John Austin, achieve the IC4A title and All-American honors, finishing eighth at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

From 2001-04, Clayton served as a part-time track and field and strength coach at East Carolina University. In 2004, she joined the ECU staff full-time as an assistant strength and conditioning coach and remained in the role until 2007.

Clayton had a two-year stint (2000-01) at Virginia Tech, where she coordinated strength and conditioning for women’s Olympic sports. She also became the first female to work with the football team under Head Strength Coach Mike Gentry.

As a student-athlete at East Carolina University, Clayton was a four-year letter winner for the Pirate Track and Field team (1995-99). In 1999, she qualified for both the Indoor and Outdoor NCAA Championships in the weight throw and hammer throw, earning All-American honors in the hammer throw. During her ECU career, she was dominant in several throwing events, setting school records in the weight throw, shot put (indoor and outdoor), discus and hammer throw.

Clayton earned multiple All-East accolades and won Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) titles in the shot put, discus, and hammer. In her final season, she set the conference record in the hammer and was named the Colonial Athletic Association Outdoor Championships MVP. She also earned Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) titles in the weight and hammer throws.

Following her collegiate career, Clayton continued competing in the hammer throw for five more years. In 2000 and 2004, she qualified for the USA Track and Field Olympic Team Trials. She was consistently ranked in the top ten in the country from 2000-05, climbing as high as seventh in 2003. After her throwing career ended, Clayton went on to compete for USA Weightlifting, finishing third in the country at the Senior Nationals in 2005.In 2015, Clayton broke the USA Master’s Track and Field American Record in the hammer throw at the Master’s National Championships in Jacksonville, FL.

Clayton graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1998 with a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. In 1997, due to her efforts in the classroom, she was named to the GTE Academic All-America team and ECU’s Outstanding Female Student-Athlete. Clayton completed her M.A.Ed in Athletic Administration from East Carolina in 2000 and earned a second Master’s Degree in Sport and Exercise Psychology from Argosy University in 2011. While earning her Master’s Degree at ECU, she also served as a graduate assistant strength coach from 1998-2000. Additionally, she holds her USA Track and Field Level II certification in the Throws, USA Weightlifting Club Coach certification, Advanced Olympic Lifting Certification, CSCS through the National Strength and Conditioning Association, and SCCC certification through the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association. Clayton is a member of the East Carolina University Athletics Hall of Fame (Class of 2011), the East Forsyth High School (Kernersville, NC) Hall of Fame (Class of 2012) and the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County (North Carolina) Sports Hall of Fame (Class of 2023).