Amy Rudolph - Track & Field Coach - University of Tennessee Athletics

Amy Rudolph

Title:
Assistant Coach (Distance)
Email:
arudol11@utk.edu

Updated: December 2025

Amy Rudolph joined the Tennessee cross country and track & field staff in August 2024 as an assistant coach for UT's distance runners and cross country athletes. One of her generation's great American distance runners, she enters her second year with the program in 2025-26.

Rudolph has been instrumental in Tennessee’s recent success at the conference, regional and national levels. Over the past two seasons, she has helped guide the Lady Vols to consecutive NCAA Cross Country Championships appearances and supported the development of two individual men’s national qualifiers. Tennessee distance athletes have totaled six All-SEC honors, 11 All-Region performances and one All-America certificate during that span.

During the 2025 cross country campaign, the Lady Vols finished seventh at the SEC Championships and runner-up at the NCAA South Region to earn their third straight NCAA Championships berth. Freshman Mary Nyaboke Ogwoka led the postseason charge with All-SEC and All-Region honors before placing 24th at the NCAA Championships to become Tennessee’s first cross country All-American since 2015, while three additional Lady Vols earned All-Region recognition. The men’s team placed ninth at SECs and fourth at regionals, highlighted by All-Region performances from Zouhair Redouane and Ty Steorts and Redouane’s individual NCAA Championships qualification.

Rudolph’s impact has extended to the track, where Tennessee distance athletes earned a bronze medal in the steeplechase at the SEC Outdoor Championships and posted 11 all-time top-10 performances during the 2025 indoor and outdoor seasons. Rookie standout Gavin Genisio also established Tennessee freshman records in the indoor 1,000 meters, indoor mile and outdoor 1,500 meters.

Rudolph spent the previous six seasons on staff at Iowa State, including the last three years of her tenure as the head women's cross country coach. At the close of the 2024 track and field season, Rudolph's runners at ISU had garnered nine All-America honors and 14 conference titles.

Her first season in charge of Iowa State's women's distance runners saw Cailie 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).

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, Janette 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.

Rudolph led numerous women to see major time improvements, including Schraft's 23-second time cut in her steeplechase school record from 2023 to 2024. Schraft's 9:34.82 took possession of the bronze medal at the NCAA Championships and made her a Top 25 all-time collegiate performer. Schraft went on to compete at the 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.

"I am extremely excited to join Coach Duncan and the staff at the University of Tennessee," Rudolph said. "I am grateful for the opportunity to work with amazing student-athletes and coaches and look forward to being a part of making history with this program."

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.