Wildcat Cross Country Team Starts Strong After a Big Change

By Skylar Mattson

After a big announcement a couple weeks before their season started, the Wildcat cross country season is underway with two meets down and some big goals for the season.

On July 10th, a little over a month before the start of the cross country season, it was announced that head coach Alisha Samuelson would be stepping down to pursue a Division 1 coaching opportunity at Marist College in New York. 

Samuelson leaves the Wildcats with two 11th place finishes at the MIAC Cross Country Championships. She made it clear that she put the student before the athlete in her coaching, as her cross country runners earned the Department GPA Award for the 2023-24 season.

Previous Assistant coach, David Pieper, was appointed as interim head coach of both cross country and track and field for the 2024-25 season. 

When asked about stepping into this new role, Pieper shared, “Although the transition was quick, I have felt nothing but support from our athletic department. Despite the fact this is my first head coaching title, I by no means feel new to the role and responsibility. One must be ready and prepared for all opportunities that may come, and I feel my experience and growth throughout the years has served me well in this transition.”

Experience is one thing that Pieper does not lack. His running career began in 2004 when he joined his high school cross country team in Stevens Point, WI. He continued his running career at the collegiate level on the cross country and track and field teams at St. Cloud State. His collegiate coaching career began in 2015 when he took on the assistant heading coaching role at Concordia University-St. Paul. While there, he also earned a master’s degree in exercise science. Pieper has been assistant coaching for the Wildcat cross country and track and field teams since 2022. 

As far as his athletes and this shift, Piper says, “The sense of community amongst our team is one of our greatest attributes. Any change requires some sort of adjustment, but our student-athletes are strong, independent and truly leaders. As such they are equipped to take on challenges and navigate them well, staying true to the sisterhood they have developed.”

Senior on the team, Lily Harvey (Occupational Therapy) believes the change will be felt minimally on the cross country team, since with his distance running background, Pieper did the majority of the coaching for the cross country team even when Samuelson was head coach. Harvey shared that Pieper has “done a good job just taking on that role and the extra responsibilities that he didn’t have before but still prioritizing the athletes making sure our experience as an athlete is still good even though he has a lot more on his plate now that he’s the head coach and doesn’t have an assistant right now.”

Harvey expects that the change may be felt more heavily when track season rolls around. “We’re adding more athletes, and then he’s gonna be responsible for all of the organizing meet stuff and team stuff. It’s not just our distance group. It will include throws, sprints, [and] jumps, so it won’t be just one group he has to focus on,” Harvey says. 

The current season has gotten off to a good start with an alumni meet and a regular season meet. Pieper says, “We were able to bring back our Alumnae 5K to cap off our preseason and had a great turnout of Wildcats both new and old. I think our runners were inspired by that too. At our season opener two weeks ago, we had a great showing, proving we have improved from last year.”

A group of Wildcat CC alumni at the alumni meet. Credit: Morgan Brandt

This improvement is a good sign as Harvey felt the first regular season meet went well for the team as a whole. She is “excited to see what this team can do. We have some big goals this year and looking for [more] improvements.”

The team hopes that fans can come out and support them at their upcoming meets this season. Their next meet is on Saturday, October 5th at Carleton College. You can find their season schedule here: https://stkatesathletics.com/sports/womens-cross-country/schedule.