From Sub-14 5K to Signing Pros: Matthew Sonnenfeldt’s Journey from D1 Running to Elite Track Agent & Exclusive Insights From The Pro-Track World

THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCAST

Dominic Schlueter

Running, Sports

4.8 • 686 Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From cross country and track star to talent management guru -- Matthew Sonnenfeldt has seen it all.

Matthew’s journey from high school champion to collegiate athlete and now a mentor and representative for other athletes illustrates a career built on passion, resilience, and a commitment to excellence in track and field.

At Knoxville West High School, Matthew captured the Tennessee state cross country championship in 2008, including a 14:50 5000m at the Foot Locker South Regional, earning him a spot at the Foot Locker Nationals.

Matthew began his collegiate running at the University of Kentucky, where he earned All-SEC Freshman Team honors in cross country in 2009. He then transferred to North Carolina State University, where he earned All-ACC honors in 2012 and All-NCAA Southeast Region honors in both 2011 and 2012.

He has PRs of 3:52.74 in the 1500m, 13:59.10 in the 5000m, 29:51.52 in the 10,000m, and 1:07:57 in the half marathon.

After his competitive running career, Sonnenfeldt became a track agent with Flynn Sports Management, where he supports and represents elite track and field athletes.

In today's conversation, Matt takes me through his background in the sport, how that shaped his outlook on the sport, running in the NCAA, becoming an agent, the importance of networking, trends in the sport, and his future goals in the sport.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I thought being an agent, you know, it was going to be this super sexy thing.
0:04.0	You'd be signing all these deals and traveling the world and stuff like that.
0:07.0	And I did travel a lot, but my first job for Ray was taking his daughter to the Nike store.
0:12.0	Because Cap had given his daughter some gift card to the Nike store.
0:19.0	It was the very first thing he had me do.
0:21.4	So I was essentially babysitting his kid.
0:24.1	And, you know, that's not what I wanted to be doing, but I did it.
0:32.2	That was Matt Sondonfeld today on the Running Effect podcast.
0:35.2	I've long gotten questions, DMs about will I have an agent on the
0:40.4	podcast? People are curious about that world, which a lot of times has a lot of question marks around it.
0:45.4	So I wanted to get Matt on the podcast. He's been so good to me over the past year, helping me get some of the guests that I have on.
0:52.4	He's an agent with Flynn Sports Management,
0:55.5	headed by Ray Flynn, who I'm sure a lot of people are familiar with. And Matt back in the day
0:59.6	was a stud himself in the great state of Tennessee, where he was a Tennessee state cross-country
1:04.6	champion in 2008. And I believe that same season included a trip to the Foot Locker National
1:09.6	Cross Country Championships where he made it out of the South region.
1:13.0	He then went on to run for the University of Kentucky.
1:16.1	And then NC State, I believe, as he shares in this conversation, and then got into the world of running management, being an agent.
1:23.9	And so first part of this conversation is dedicated to Matt's journey in the
1:27.8	sport because I was fascinated by it. Wanted to give some context to him as a human being. And as an
1:32.4	athlete, and in the back half, I grill him and ask him all sorts of questions that I'm fascinated
1:37.1	about in terms of the sport of running, the state of running, what it's like to be an agent,
	...

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