He enrolled at the University of Akron in fall 2013. He began to train with the Akron Zips college track team. He is coached by the head distance coach, Lee LaBadie, who is a sub 4-minute miler and a former runner for the University of Illinois. At the 2014 Mid-American Conference indoor meet, Clayton won the mile run and was runner-up over 3000 meters. He went on to win the outdoor conference title in the 1500 meters. He ran 3:44.53 minutes for the distance that year while winning at the Mt. SAC Relays.
2015
He opened the following academic year with a fourth-place finish at the MAC Cross Country Championships, then followed this with an 800 m/mile double at the MAC Indoor meet. In February he ran a personal best and school record of 4:00.39 minutes for the indoor mile run. On his national debut at the 2015 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships he claimed third place in the 800 m with a new best time of 1:47.06 minutes. Similar results came outdoors, as he won a middle-distance double at the MAC Outdoor Championships and again placed third at the 2015 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships. He also won the 800 m at the Drake Relays and set a school record of 3:40.69 for the 1500 m.
At the end of the college season, he entered the 2015 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. He ran personal records in each round and ended the competition in fourth place with a time of 1:45.59 for the 800m. This earned him selection for the American squad for the Pan American Games. In his international debut – also his first time abroad – he surprised by winning the gold medal some four hundredths ahead of Colombia's Rafith Rodríguez, taking the lead in the final stretch. Murphy's roommate Ryan Martin was also a medalist in the event. Murphy was the first American in more than 15 years to win the title, following on from Johnny Gray's 1999 victory. Clayton earned a silver medal in the 800 meters at the 2015 North American, Central American and Caribbean Championships. This edition, 2015 NACAC Championships were a regional track and field competition held at the Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica in San Jose, Costa Rica from August 7–9, 2015. Murphy finished 12th in 2015 World Championships in Athletics – Men's 800 metres held August 21–25, 2015 in Beijing, China. He chose to run the 800 meters at the 2016 United States Olympic Trials, which paid off. His fast finish out-sprinted Boris Berianfor the win and Olympic team berth in a personal record 1:44.76. He won Bronze in the 800m at the 2016 Rio Olympics in a new personal record of 1:42.93, the fifth-fastest time ever by an American. At the 2017 USATF 1 Mile Road Championships, Murphy finished first with a time of 4:00.0. He chose to compete in the 800 meters at the 2017 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships then compete in the 1500 meters at the same championships and ran 1:45.70 to make the final, but did not start in the 800 meters final after an injury in the 1500 meters final where he finished in 3:50.55 to place 13th in the 1500 meters. Clayton Murphy joined Nike Oregon Project in August 2017 and moved to Portland in the Fall 2017 to train at the Nike headquarters with Matthew Centrowitz, the Rio Olympic gold medalist over 1500m.
Personal records
800-meter run – 1:42.93
1000 meters – 2:17.17
1500-meter run – 3:36.23
Mile run outdoors – 3:51.99
3000-meter run – 8:19.09
5000-meter run – 14:15.61
800-meter run indoors – 1:45.92
Mile run indoors – 3:53.30
3000 meters indoors – 8:16.70
Personal life
Clayton Murphy married fellow Olympian Ariana Washington on December 7, 2019.
