Andrew Epperson - Cross Country Coach - Colorado State Athletics

Andrew Epperson

Title:
Assistant Coach

Andrew Epperson begins his first season as the head cross country and distance coach in 2022 after five seasons as the program's assistant.

The distance Rams have accrued two indoor conference individual champions and eight outdoor conference individual champions since Epperson's first track season in 2018. Additionally, he has been involved in coaching four All-Americans – Jacob Brueckman, Cole Rockhold, Grant Fischer and Eric Hamer – to 10 honors between the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships. At the 2022 NCAA Championships, Brueckman finished 14^th in the 1,500 meters.

Hamer's 2021 campaign was memorable in and out. He reestablished his 5K school record in his runner-up performance at NCAA Indoor Championships, garnering the Mountain West Men's Indoor Student-Athlete of the Year Award. The outdoor season came in stride. Hamer swept the conference 5K and 10K to earn the MW Outstanding Performer of the Meet en route to helping the Ram men win their fourth-straight conference title. At nationals, he doubled the 5K and 10K, resetting school records in both, and placing fifth in the latter to sure up the MW Outdoor Student-Athlete of the Year Award.

In all, Epperson has been a part of eight school records and 31 additional top-5 finishes on CSU's indoor and outdoor record list. The 2021-22 season alone produced five school records, all on the women's side (indoor mile, indoor 5K, outdoor 1,500, outdoor 5K, outdoor 10K).

During the 2019-20 season, Epperson traveled with Hamer to the Boston Opener where the senior obtained the school record for the 5,000-meter race and qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships. Hamer went on to win the 5,000m at conference and was one of two Ram student-athletes set to compete at the national meet prior to COVID-19 canceling the event. Additionally, senior Ali Kallner notched a school record in the 3,000m at the Iowa State Classic. The indoor season ended with the men's team winning their second-straight indoor Mountain West title and third overall conference title in a row.

Since coming to Colorado State in 2017, the men's cross country team, led by individual champion Jerrell Mock, won the Mountain West title for the first time in school history and then proceeded to place ninth at nationals in 2017 and 2018 for the best two-year period in the program's history. The women's side started to show strides in the 2020-21 COVID spring cross season when the Rams earned their first trip to nationals since 2007 and finished 23^rd. The Rams made it back-to-back NCAA appearances with their 17th-place finish in 2021.

Prior to CSU, Epperson spent three years as an assistant cross country and track & field coach at the Colorado School of Mines. His accomplishments at Mines include helping lead the 2015 men’s cross country program to the school’s first-ever NCAA championship in any sport, as well as the school's first indoor conference title in men's track and field.

Epperson helped lead the men's cross country team to national finishes of fourth in 2014, first in 2015, and third in 2016. Over that span, the women's team placed 10th, 19th, and 13th nationally. In all, Epperson coached his distance athletes to 46 total All-America honors, including 11 cross country runners and 35 members in track and field.

As an athlete, Epperson was a two-time NCAA Division II All-American in cross country, earning accolades in 2012 and 2013. He was an NCAA qualifier in the indoor 5,000 in 2013, and an NCAA qualifier in the outdoor 5,000 and 10,000 in 2013 and 2014. He remains ranked in Mines’ all-time top 10 in the 3,000 meters and the outdoor 10,000 meters, as well as the program’s top five in the indoor and outdoor 5,000 meters.

Epperson continues to run professionally and qualified for his second U.S. Olympic Marathon trials in October of 2018 (2016, 2020). Epperson represented the United States in the marathon at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar and has a personal best of 2:13:11.

A 2013 graduate of Colorado School of Mines with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, Epperson went on to earn a master’s degree in mechanical engineering with a biomechanics focus in 2015.

THE EPPERSON FILE
Birthday: November 24, 1990
Hometown: Houston, Texas
High School: Cypress Springs High School in Cypress, Texas
College Education: Colorado School of Mines (B.S. Engineering, 2013; M.S. Engineering with a Mechanical Focus, 2015)
Wife: Kaitlin

Coaching Career:
2014-2017: Assistant Coach Cross Country/Track & Field, Colorado School of Mines
2017-2022: Assistant Coach Cross Country/Distance, Colorado State
2022-Present: Head Coach Cross Country/Distance, Colorado State

Athletic Career:
2009-14: Colorado School of Mines