Virginia Cavaliers Official Athletic Site
Martin Maric
Assistant Coach - Throws
martinmaric@virginia.edu
Two-time Olympian Martin Maric was named assistant track and field coach in September 2012. Maric has coached the UVA throwers to 21 All-America honors and three NCAA champions.
During the 2019-20 indoor season, Maric coached Brittany Jones to a career-best mark in the shot put. Jones recorded a mark of 16.27m (53'4.5"), the third-best shot put performance in UVA history and the fourth-best in the ACC during the season.
Maric's athletes recorded three All-America honors during the 2018-19 season as Ethan Dabbs (javelin), Hilmar Jonsson (hammer) and Oghenakpobo Efekoro (shot put) competed at the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Championships. All three athlete also captured ACC titles in their respective events. Jonsson became the first male ACC competitor to capture four consecutive titles in the hammer throw. Jonsson also set the Icelandic national record in the event during the regular season.
During the 2017-18 season, Hilmar Jonsson captured his third ACC title in the hammer throw. He advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, earning second-team All-America honors in the event.
Maric led the Cavaliers to a program-best third place finish at the 2017 NCAA Outdoor Championships. Virginia scored in five throwing events, tallying all 36 of the team's points, the most by a throwing unit since SMU in 2002. Filip Mihaljevic captured the NCAA title in the shot put and discus, earning him recognition as a Bowerman semifinalist. Mihaljevic was named the ACC Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year, ACC Championships Outdoor Field MVP, the 2017 USTFCCCA Southeast Regional Field Athlete of the Year and ACC Outdoor Scholar Athlete. At the ACC Championships, Mihaljevic placed first in the shot put and discus, while Hilmar Jonsson won the hammer title. Maric led five males and one female student-athletes to All-American honors.
Jordan Young was named an All-American in the weight throw at the NCAA Indoor Championships, finishing third in the event. He also won the ACC title in the event, earning the Indoor ACC Field Performer of the Year. Mihaljevic finished first in the shot put at the conference meet.
Maric's group had a stellar 2015 season, which earned him USTFCCCA Southeast Region Men's Assistant Coach of the Year honors. He guided the throwers to six NCAA Championship entries during the outdoor season, as Jordan Young was the only male to compete in three individual events in Eugene. Young earned first-team All-America honors in both the discus and hammer throw, while Filip Mihaljevic finished third in the discus.
The Cavaliers broke four school records during the outdoor season, with Mihaljevic setting the marks in the shot put and discus, Young in the hammer throw and Christine Bohan in the shot put. During the indoor season, Young had a fourth-place finish in the weight throw at the NCAA Championships. Between the indoor and outdoor seasons, Mihaljevic and Young won a combined four ACC Championships. Maric spent the 2015-16 school year as a member of the Virginia IM-Rec staff.
In 2014, Maric coached Mihaljevic, the ACC Outdoor Track & Field Freshman of the Year. Mihaljevic won the ACC Outdoor Championship in the discus and earned first-team All-America honors in both the shot put and discus.
Maric is the Croatian national record holder in the discus and he represented his home country in the discus at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and the 2012 Games in London. He finished 29th in 2008 before placing 17th in 2012. He was named Croatian Athlete of the Year for this effort in London.
He also represented Croatia at the 2011 World Championships in Dague, South Korea, and at the 2007 and 2009 World University Games.
At the University of California, Maric was the NCAA Champion in the discus in 2009, as well as an All-American in the discus in 2008 and the javelin in 2007.
Maric spent the springs of 2010 and 2011 as a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Florida and served as an assistant coach at the ASK Split Athletic Club in his native Split, Croatia.
Maric graduated from California with a bachelor's degree in political economy of industrial societies in 2009. He has a masters' degree in exercise science and kinesiology from Virginia.