UCM Coaches (Kip Janvrin & Kirk Pedersen)

The coaching tandem of Pedersen and Janvrin has produced 12 MIAA men's indoor championships (1997-2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009 & 2010), four MIAA women's indoor titles (1999, 2005, 2006 & 2007), ten MIAA men's outdoor titles (1998, 2001-2004, 2006-2010), and three consecutive women's outdoor conference title (2005-2007). Pedersen and Janvrin have also helped produce at least one individual national champion in 10 of their 12 previous years, including four during the 2009 school year (Indoor: Drew Frizzell - Men's Weight Throw, Anne Carlson - Women's Pentathlon, and Jenna Schmidt - Women's High Jump) (Outdoor: Drew Frizzell - Men's Hammer Throw). Nine times they have been MIAA Indoor Coaches of the Year (seven times for the men and twice for the women), and eight times they have been named MIAA Outdoor Coaches of the Year (five times for the men and three for the women).In 2002, Pedersen and Janvrin were also named USTCA National Indoor Coaches of the Year.

Kip Janvrin shares the head-coaching duties for track & field with Pedersen. He is in his 21st season on the Central Missouri staff, his 13th as co-head coach. Janvrin works primarily with the sprinters, hurdlers, and multievent athletes.

For years, ranked as one of the world’s top athletes in the decathlon, winning the 2001 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Janvrin 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.

The 45-year-old 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, who is 14, and Mason, born just hours before the Pedersen twins in 1998, who is 12.

 

Kirk Pedersen is in his 24th season as head coach of the Mules and Jennies cross-country teams, it is also his 14th season as co-head coach of Central Missouri track and field. Pederson served as an assistant under former head coach Les Stevens for 10 years, and now shares the head coach’s position for track and field with Kip Janvrin.

Pedersen has guided the Mules’ cross-country team to nine MIAA championships in the past 20 years, with 11 straight Top-25 finishes (from 1996-2007) at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships. He has also coached the Jennies CC team to a trio of MIAA championships. In his career, Pederson has earned MIAA Cross Country Coach of the Year honors on 11 occasions.

Since 1994, Pederson has helped coach the Mules to 14 MIAA indoor championships, and 11 outdoor. In the last ten years, he and Janvrin have garnered nine MIAA outdoor Coach of the Year awards, adding 11 more Coach of the Year honors for the indoor season. In 2002, Pedersen and Janvrin were also named USTCA National Indoor Coaches of the Year.

In 2010 the Mules tied the school’s highest national finish with a third-place showing at the NCAA outdoor National Championships. From 2000-2002, and 2004-05, both the Mules and Jennies qualified for the national championships. In 2000, Mules placed 13th and the Jennies finished 14th. 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.

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 the individual national champion in Alexander 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.

The 48-year-old 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 and they are the parents of twelve-year-old twins, daughter Jodi and son J.D., and six-year-old daughter Amber.