Kip Janvrin
Head Coach | 28th Season
United States Olympian Kip Janvrin shares the head-coaching duties for track & field with Kirk Pedersen. He is in his 35th season on the Central Missouri staff and his 28th as co-head coach. Janvrin works primarily with the sprinters, hurdlers, pole vaulters and multi-event athletes.
Janvrin helped to bring Central Missouri their first-ever National Championship in women’s track and field, winning the Indoor and Outdoor Championships in 2014-15.
The coaching tandem of Pedersen and Janvrin has produced 16 MIAA men’s and six MIAA women’s indoor championships, 12 MIAA men’s outdoor titles and three Jennies outdoor conference championships.
Central Missouri's men's team swept the indoor and outdoor MIAA Championships in 2018-19. They have won three of the last seven MIAA Championship meets dating back to 2017.
After a six-year absence, the Mules returned to the top of the MIAA in the outdoor season of 2017, sharing for the team-title with Lincoln, their first since 2011. They took second place outdoors in 2018 and third indoors, while the Jennies were second indoors and third outdoors.
The Jennies won the MIAA Indoor Title in 2021 -- their first since 2015 -- and finished runner up at the outdoor conference championship meet that year. The Mules were fourth in indoor and third in outdoor, respectively.
Janvrin’s squads have also been successful on the national level. In addition to winning the 2015 Indoor and Outdoor National Championship with the Jennies, he has led UCM to a combined 30 NCAA top-10 finishes on the men’s side and 16 on the women’s side.
The Mules finished fifth at the 2021-22 NCAA-II Indoor Championships -- marking their highest finish since 2013. The Mules and Jennies combined for 10 All-American performances at the indoor meet.
At the 2021-22 NCAA-II Outdoor Championships, the Mules posted a 10th place finish. Senior Christopher Goodwin captured UCM's first-ever NCAA Long Jump Outdoor National Championship, highlighting nine All-American performances between both the Mules and the Jennies at the meet.
The Mules earned a seventh-place finish indoors in 2018-19. The Mules and Jennies totaled 10 All-Americans between the indoor and outdoor season with freshman Vincent Hobbie the National Champion indoors in the pole vault.
Both the Mules and Jennies finished 11th at the NCAA Indoor Championships in 2016 with two All-Americans on the women’s side and three for the Mules. The Jennies 4x400m relay team also received All-American honors, the first Jennie 4x400m relay to ever win an All-American award at the indoor national meet. Outdoors, the Mules finished in seventh place while the Jennies were eighth and UCM took home 10 All-American honors.
While the Jennies deservedly received all the attention for winning the 2014-15 national championships, the Mules enjoyed their most successful season since 2012-13. Central Missouri took second place at the indoor conference meet and 19th at indoor nationals. They then finished third at outdoor MIAA’s and just missed the top-10 finishing 11th at outdoor nationals, their highest outdoor national finish since 2011.
During Janvrin’s tenure at UCM, he has overseen 26 National Champions win 49 titles. In 2011-2012, Janvrin coached multi-event athlete Lindsay Lettow to two National Championships in both the heptathlon and pentathlon. She is the only athlete in UCM track and field history to win four National Championships in a two-year span.
Janvrin also helped coach thrower Heavin Warner who won three consecutive hammer throw national championships. The 10-time All-American placed fifth at the 2016 United States Olympic Trials.
For years Janvrin was ranked as one of the world’s top decathletes, winning the 2001 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. He reached the pinnacle of his career in 2000 as a member of the U.S. Olympic Team in the Sydney Olympic Games. To make the U.S. team at the Olympic Trials, he had to run the final decathlon event, the 1,500m, in under 4:13. He won the event in 4:12.01 to make the U.S. team.
In Sydney, Janvrin, the oldest U.S. decathlete to ever compete in the Olympics, placed 21st and was the winner in the 1,500m. He is the world record holder for most career decathlon wins (41) and the American record holder for most career decathlons over 8,000 points (26).
After placing fourth in the decathlon trials, Janvrin just missed making the 1996 U.S. Olympic Team. Later that summer, he scored a personal-best 8,462 points, which, at the time, made him the sixth-highest performer in U.S. decathlon history.
In the fall of 2003, Janvrin set a world record in the double decathlon, competing in 20 track & field events over two days in Turku, Finland. In 2005, he set a World Masters (40+) Decathlon Record in San Sabastian, Spain.
Janvrin has won the decathlon a record 15 times at the Drake Relays, the most by any athlete in the history of the competition. In 1996, he was inducted into the Drake Relays Hall of Fame. He also won the decathlon at the 1989 U.S. Olympic Festival and 1995 Pan Am Games.
A 1988 graduate of Simpson College (Iowa), Janvrin had an outstanding collegiate career, winning three NCAA Division-III championships in the decathlon, as well as individual championships in the pole vault and 400m hurdles.
In July 2012, Janvrin led the U.S. team as head coach at the NACAC Under-23 Championships, a competition between North American, Central American, and Caribbean nations, taking place in Guanajuato, Mexico. He was also the head coach of the US Team in the 2018 Thorpe Cup, an annual multi-event competition held between the United States and Germany.
Janvrin is married to the former Teresa Snyder, who was a stand-out performer for the Jennies’ track team (1986-89). They have two sons, Jaxon and Mason. His son, Mason, played for the Mules baseball team and was drafted with the first pick in the 14th round by the Baltimore Orioles in the 2019 MLB Draft.
