Kirk Pedersen
Head Coach | 38th Season
Kirk Pedersen is in his 38th season as head coach of the Mules and Jennies cross-country teams in 2025. It is also his 28th season as co-head coach of Central Missouri track and field. Pedersen served as an assistant under former head coach Les Stevens for 10 years, and now shares the head coaching position for track and field with Kip Janvrin.
Pedersen has guided the Mules’ cross country team to 11 MIAA championships in the past 30 years, with 11 straight Top-25 finishes (from 1996-2007) at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships. He has also coached the Jennies Cross Country team to a trio of MIAA championships. In his career, Pedersen has earned MIAA Cross Country Coach of the Year honors 13 times.
Since 1994, Pedersen has helped coach the Mules to 18 MIAA indoor championships, and 14 outdoor. In the last 14 years, he and Janvrin have garnered 18 MIAA Indoor Coach of the Year awards, adding 12 more Coach of the Year honors for the outdoor season. In 2002 and 2015, Pedersen and Janvrin were also named United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National Indoor Coaches of the Year and the 2015 National Outdoor Coaches of the Year, as they led the Jennies to NCAA National Championships both indoors and out.
Pedersen’s 1995 and 1997 men’s teams earned runner-up finishes at the Division-II Championships. In 1996 the Mules placed sixth at the NCAA Championships and produced an individual national champion in Alexandr Alexin. The 1995 men’s team became the first cross country team to be inducted into the UCM Athletic Hall of Fame. The 1993 team joined them, and in 2006, the 1997 team was also inducted.
In 1999 both cross country teams won MIAA titles, with the Mules finishing seventh overall at the Division II Championships.
In 2000, Mules and Jennies Cross Country both placed 13th at Cross Country Nationals. For the Jennies’ team championship performances in the 2000 and 2004 South Central Regional, Pedersen was named South Central Region Women’s Coach of the Year.
In 2010 on the track, the Mules tied the school’s highest national finish with a third-place showing at the NCAA Outdoor National Championships. In 2015, Pedersen coached Megan Glamann to a fifth place All-American finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 10,000m as the Jennies won the National Championship.
The Mules Cross Country team made it back to nationals in 2017 after finishing third in the central region and second in the MIAA.
The Central Missouri men returned to the NCAA-II Cross Country Championships in 2021 after earning an at-large bid and finishing fifth at the NCAA-II Central Region Championships.
The native of West Liberty, Iowa is a 1985 graduate of Simpson College (Iowa). While at Simpson, he was a five-time NCAA Division III All-American and won the 800-meter indoors his senior year. In 1995, he was inducted into the Simpson Athletic Hall of Fame.
Pedersen is married to the former Jill Green. They are the parents of twins, daughter Jodi and son J.D., and daughter Amber.
