Season 2 Episode 3: Matt Fecht, MCC

In April 2022, The Macomb Community College athletics department hired Matt Fecht as the head men’s and women’s cross country coach.  Fecht came from Wayne State University, where he was the assistant coach, and is an accomplished runner.  He was a 2002 All-American at MCC and his team placed in the top-10 at the NJCAA championships.  He went on to run for Wayne State after competing for MCC. He was a three-time national championship qualifier and an NCAA Division II All-American in 2005, taking 30th place. His 8K and 10K cross country PRs stand at 25:34 and 31:50, respectively.  After college, he ran as a sponsored professional runner, qualifying for the Olympic Marathon Trials in 2012, 2016, and 2020, with a marathon PR of 2:17 and a half marathon PR of 1:06.  For the high school runners listening, he ran at Warren Mott, where he currently teaches and coaches, and set the school record at that time during his senior year in 16:12.  

While at MCC, Fecht has led the program to new successes.  For the first time since 1996, the men’s program won the MCCAA Eastern Conference Championship this past fall, along with a second-place finish at the Region 12 championships, to qualify them for the national meet, where they finished in the top ten teams. The women’s team qualified two individuals to the national meet and Ava LaMilza was the MCCAA Eastern Conference Runner of the Year.

As posted on the MCC athletics website, Fecht had this to say about his position: “Having started my career here, coaching at Macomb is sort of like a homecoming for me,” Fecht continued. “While at Macomb, I was able to grow and have success at the national level and ultimately transfer on scholarship to a four-year institution. Had it not been for the opportunity I was afforded at Macomb, I don’t think I would have gone on to have the success I was able to have in both my collegiate career, as well as my professional running career. It will be my goal to provide future Monarchs the same opportunities I was afforded, both in the classroom and on the course.”

In this episode, Matt will give us insight into the growth and vision of the program, the benefits of running for a community college team, and what experiences students can expect as an MCC athlete in the cross country or track program.

I’ll leave you with a quote by the late great Steve Prefontaine, who would have celebrated his 74th birthday on January 25, “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”

Once again, thank you so much for tuning into today’s Blue Water Running podcast.  If you missed any of our episodes this year, be sure to check them out on the website at (www.bluewaterrunning.org), or by searching for The Blue Water Running Podcast on your favorite podcasting app. 

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