.png)
Earlier today, the University of Missouri announced that former head distance coach, Lindsey Anderson, is leaving the Tigers to be an assistant distance coach at Weber State. She will assume the "head coach in waiting" role at her alma mater, per Missouri Athletics.
The announcement also noted that Kyle Levermore, the team's assistant distance coach who was hired back in June, "will assume additional responsibilities." According to a source, the understanding is that Levermore will ultimately take over the head distance duties at Missouri.
When it comes to cross country and the distance events, the Tigers have had a few encouraging moments. But for the most part, the Missouri men and women have largely settled in the middle of the SEC standings in recent years.
Luckily, Coach Lindsey Anderson will be leave behind a promising core of distance athletes, specifically on the men's side. More specifically, The Stride Report ranked Missouri's men's freshman class (distance) at TSR #10 back in January. Among that group was Drew Rogers who just won the American U20 title over 5000 meters this past weekend.
Missouri has also been able to produce a small handful of sub-four minute milers as of late.
The women's team, meanwhile, has a history that is headlined by Karissa Schweizer. The former Tiger and current Nike Bowerman Track Club standout is often viewed as one of the greatest collegiate distance runners in NCAA history.
With Coach Kyle Levermore now at the helm (or shared helm) of Missouri's distance program, the highly-effective recruiter from Georgetown may have a chance to significantly bolster the Tigers' roster in the coming years.
Anderson, meanwhile, will join a Weber State program that showed nationally competitive promise via their men's cross country team back in 2019 and 2020. The Wildcats are also responsible for producing individual distance standouts such Bronson Winter, Christian Allen and Billie Hatch.
By venturing back to Weber State, Anderson will reunite with the school where she became one of the most dominant BIG Sky distance runners ever. She is also a 2008 Olympian.
It is not yet clear to The Stride Report which side of the Wildcats' program (men vs women) Anderson is expected to take over in the future.