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Kirk Pedersen is in his 25th season as head coach of the Mules and Jennies cross-country teams, it is also his 15th season as co-head coach of Central Missouri track and field. Pederson served as an assistant under former head coach Les Stevens for 10years, and now shares the head coach’s position for track and field with Kip Janvrin.
Pedersen has guided the Mules’ cross-country team to ten MIAA championships in the past 21 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 12 occasions.
Since 1994, Pederson has helped coach the Mules to 15 MIAA indoor championships, and 12 outdoor. In the last ten years, he and Janvrin have garnered ten MIAA outdoor Coach of the Year awards, adding 12 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 49-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 thirteen-year-old twins, daughter Jodi and son J.D., and seven-year-old daughter Amber.
The coaching tandem of Pedersen and Janvrin has produced 18 MIAA men’s and seven MIAA women’s indoor championships, 20 MIAA men’s outdoor titles (1994, 1998, 2001-2004, 2006-2011) and three Jennies outdoor championships.
