Amy Rudolph - Cross Country Coach - Iowa State University Athletics

Amy Rudolph

Title:
Associate Head Women's Cross Country Coach
Email:
rudyrun@iastate.edu

One of the great American distance runners of the last generation, Amy Rudolph is entering her fifth season with Iowa State, currently serving as Head Women’s Cross Country Coach/Assistant Track and Field Coach. The 2024 cross country season will be Rudolph’s third with the title of Head Women’s Cross Country Coach.

Rudolph’s strong work with the women’s cross country program continued in 2021, as she led the Cyclones to a ninth place finish at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, their first top-10 as a team since 2014. The Cyclones had six All-Big 12 performers and four All-Region performers, with Cailie Logue claiming her third NCAA Cross Country Championships Midwest Region title and fifth All-Big 12 honor.

Rudolph closed the 2024 track and field season totaling nine All-America honors and 14 Big 12 titles under Rudolph’s tutelage. Logue took fourth place individually at the 2021 NCAA XC Championships, ISU’s highest finishing individual since 2012. Rudolph’s work with Logue has seen the Erie, Kansas native named a finalist for the 2022 Honda Sport Award for Cross Country. On the track, Rudolph helped Logue become a U.S. Olympic Trials qualifier at 10,000m.

Rudolph led numerous women to see major time improvements, including Janette Schraft’s 23 second time cut from her steeplechase school record from 2023 to 2024. Schraft’s 9:34.82 took possession of the bronze at NCAA Championships and made her a Top 25 all-time collegiate performer as Schraft went on to compete at U.S. Olympic Trials. Seven of Rudolph’s women advanced to NCAA West Prelims in 2024 while 10 top 10 program performances were set through indoor and outdoor season.

Her development of talent beyond Logue showed during the 2022 track and field season, with Dana Feyen earning her first career Big 12 title at 5,000m, Schraft continuing her progress in the steeplechase, and Madelynn Hill and Kiki Connell both making themselves into scoring options in the steeplechase at the conference level. In 2023, Schraft became the first women's steeplechaser to earn All-America honors and Cyclone women earned 11 All-Big 12 honors.

Her first season in charge of Iowa State’s women distance runners saw Logue claim three Big 12 titles (cross country, outdoor 5,000m and 10,000m) and three other Cyclones earn All-America honors (Anne Frisbie, cross country; Erinn Stenman-Fahey, outdoor 800m; Amanda Vestri, outdoor 10,000m run).

Rudolph is a two-time United States Olympian (5,000 meters), seven-time World Championship team member and three-time USA National Champion. She was a finalist in the 5,000 meters (finishing 10th) at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Rudolph set an American record in 1996, running the 5k in 14:56.04.

She was a two-time (1997 and 2002) U.S. Indoor Champion in the 3,000 meters, a two-time (1998 and 1999) U.S. short course cross country champion and the 1998 U.S. 8-kilometer road racing champ.

As a collegian at Providence, she won two NCAA Championships (indoor mile and outdoor 1,500) in 1994, earned 10 All-American awards and was a three-time BIG EAST champion in the 3,000. Rudolph was inducted into the Friars’ Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008.

Prior to coaching at Drake, she served as a volunteer assistant coach at Auburn for seven seasons (2010-17), while also serving as an assistant coach at Providence (2005-07) and Bryant (2004).

Rudolph earned a Bachelor of Science degree (1995) from Providence in Health Policy and Management.

Women's Cross Country