May 16, 2023
If ever there is someone in sport to personify the term multi-sport athlete, Marissa Janning fits the bill. Here is a sampling: swimming, wrestling (until 4th grade), football (until 5th grade), softball, cross country, volleyball, basketball, track, and, most recently, marathoning. She earned 18 letters at Watertown-Mayer High School, achieving all-state recognition as early as a 7th-grader.
Born in 1993, Marissa joined older siblings Jackie and Matt as she grew up in rural Watertown, a growing community of 4,800 people located 30 miles west of Minneapolis. Her father, Jeffrey, owns an acoustic (ceiling tile) business and was active in high school athletics while her mother, Tara, competed in barrel racing as a horse rider. “My father knows everything sports,” says Marissa citing people instrumental in her athletic career. “He was a huge influence on my work ethic. And my brother too.” Matt is the 4th all-time leading basketball scorer at Northeastern University and has had a lengthy professional career overseas.
In 7th grade, Marissa ran on the Watertown-Mayer varsity cross country team and made an immediate impact at the state level, finishing 9th at the 2006 Class A state meet won by Nikki Swenson from Lac qui Parle Valley. In her second and final year of running cross country, Marissa climbed to 3rd with a time of 14:48.7 in the 4K race won by Linda Keller of Paynesville. Similar success followed in track as Marissa earned all-state honors with a 3rd-place showing in the 1600-meter run and 6th-place finish in the 3,200-meter run (both won by Swenson) as a 7th-grader and placed again in both events (both won by Keller) in 8th grade. Watertown-Mayer won the 2007 Class A team title behind two sprint championship races by Megan Geyen, a victorious relay team, and Marissa’s point contributions in distance events.
Continuing to qualify for the state track meet, Marissa ran in the 1600-meter run in 9th grade, switched to hurdles and qualified as a junior and then claimed the 300-meter intermediate hurdles Class A state championship as a senior in 2012 in a time of 45.39 seconds, and was on multiple relay teams including the 4 x 800-meter 2012 state championship quartet (with teammates Katie Heilman, Liz Miller, Hannah Johnson) which helped Watertown-Mayer to a runner-up finish. “It was memorable to capture a relay title with teammates,” Marissa says of the event which helped Watertown-Mayer to a runner-up finish. “It was particularly rewarding after the relay team finished last the previous year at the state meet.”
Excelling in basketball, Marissa earned 6 varsity letters and was named to the all-conference team for 5 years. As a 5’ 8” guard, Marissa proved to be a deadly shooter and prolific scorer with good court vision and endurance, ending her high school career with 3,587 points, still the 5th most on the Minnesota State High School League girls’ basketball all-time list. Her 458 3-point shots made is the state record and she recorded an impressive 725 assists and remarkable 601 steals during her high school career. Her high school career was highlighted by being named the 2012 recipient of the Ms. Basketball Award.
Opting to play volleyball starting in 9th grade because of the aspect of a team game, Marissa earned another four letters in that sport, twice being named all-conference honorable mention. Here is a summary of her 18 athletic letters: basketball, 6; track and field, 6; cross country, 2; and volleyball, 4.
Recruited for years, first for track and then for basketball, Marissa received athletic scholarships from across the country. “With my AAU North Tartan [basketball] experience, I fell in love with team sports,” Marissa says of her decision to pursue basketball at the collegiate level. “Creighton felt right. The coaches seemed like they were going to stay. I committed to them in March of my junior year.”
Creighton head coach Jim Flanery was excited to have the prospect who made an imprint on the team her first year and appreciates Marissa to this day, summarizes his experience: “Marissa is one of the best players we’ve ever had at Creighton. She ranks fourth on our all-time scoring list and was a conference freshman of the year and [Big East] Player of the Year in separate seasons. She was a really good passer and defender on top of her ability to score the ball. Marissa worked tirelessly on her game as a player and is a great ambassador of our program as an alum.” And Marissa appreciated her time at Creighton, saying, “When you have great teammates on the same page, it’s so much fun! All my coaches at Watertown-Mayer and the whole staff at Creighton were awesome. Coach Flanery’s expectations were always clear. He wanted us to be successful in life too.”
Statistics certainly made the case for Marissa to be Big East Player of the Year, her sophomore year in the 2013-14 season. She averaged 17.6 points per game and 5.2 rebounds per game as she scored 599 points and received All-American Honorable Mention. Her 2015-16 senior season was reduced to six games due to a broken left fibula, but she rebounded stronger from lifting weights throughout her rehab for a solid season in 2016-17 when the team qualified for its second NCAA appearance during her tenure at Creighton. “You’re playing against the best of the best,” says Marissa. “It was memorable playing at places with so much history, like Tennessee.” Marissa finished her collegiate career with 1,938 points, co-captaining Creighton for three years, and receiving the Big East Sportsmanship Award.
With undergraduate degrees in marketing and entrepreneurship and then obtaining a master’s degree in organizational leadership, Marissa decided to pursue the opportunity to play professional basketball in Germany until a back injury curtailed that path.
In 2020, Marissa and Brennan Murphy, a baseball player at Creighton who now works at Boeing, married. They live with their dog, Motley, in Oklahoma City where Marissa works in marketing as a civilian at Tinker Air Force Base for the software engineering group. She also coaches an AAU basketball team, saying, “I can use all of my experiences in sport to impact others in sports or otherwise to reach their goals.”
Marissa rediscovered her love of distance running and placed 3rd out of more than 2,400 women runners in the 2021 Oklahoma City Memorial Half Marathon. That led her to try a full marathon in 2022 and finishing in 3:23:11, a qualifying time for the 2023 Boston Marathon—which she just completed—with a bump. Yes, Marissa was 15 weeks pregnant! She and Brennan are expecting a baby in October.
Marissa Janning Murphy and husband Brennan are expecting a baby in October 2023. The dog is Motley.
Minnesota Athletes 