Chris Siemers enters his ninth season as the head cross country coach at Colorado School of Mines in 2020. Siemers joined the Orediggers in 2010 as an assistant cross country coach and took over as interim head coach in 2012 with the interim tag going away in 2013.
Siemers headed the 2015 and 2019 NCAA Division II Men’s Cross Country National Champions. Over nearly a decade, he has built Mines into a national power in distance running. On the men's side, 18 Orediggers have earned 31 Cross Country All-America honors under Siemers guidance. That has led to three RMAC crowns (2016, 2017, 2019) and three NCAA South Central Regional titles (2016, 2018, 2019). On the women's side, six individuals have earned Cross Country All-America honors. As a team, the women earned their first podium finish in 2019 by finishing third at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships. Mines’ women have also finished as high as second at the RMAC and Regional Championships as recently as 2019. Furthermore, no men's team coached by Siemers has ever finished lower than fifth in the nation and his women's team boast five top-10 national finishes.
Academically, Siemers has guided 15 Orediggers to 25 CoSIDA Academic All-American honors while overseeing two Brechler Award-winning women’s teams as owners of the RMAC’s highest GPA. His efforts on and off the course have led to numerous honors including USTFCCCA NCAA Division II Men’s Cross Country National Coach of the Year (2015, 2019), CaptainU Division II Men’s Cross Country College Coach of the Year (2012), three-time USTFCCCA South Central Men’s Coach of the Year (2016, 2018, 2019) and three-time RMAC Men’s Coach of the Year (2016, 2017, 2019).
The 2019 campaign turned into Siemers' most historic effort to date. He guided the men to a sweep of the RMAC, South Central and NCAA Championships marking the second national title in program history. The women also made history by taking second at the conference and regional meets before claiming third in the nation. It was the women's first podium finish in program history. A total of nine Orediggers earned USTFCCCA All-America status including six men and three women. The men were led by Kyle Moran who posted the men's highest individual finish as fourth in the nation. Chloe Cook accomplished the same feat for the women by finishing seventh in the nation. Capping it all off were team-best scores of 133 for the women and 57 for the men. The men's 79-point margin of victory over Adams State was the largest gap between #1 and #2 since 1978.
Siemers' first national title came in 2015 as the Oredigger men brought Mines its first national championship in any sport as they raced to a NCAA Division II crown. The Orediggers got All-American performances from Marty Andrie (18th), Nathanael Williams (21st), Dan Mahoney (22nd) and Grant Colligan (33rd). Along with Seth Topper, Josh Hoskinson and Logan Winfield, Siemers’ Orediggers upended three-time defending champion and RMAC rival Adams State by 27 points (100-127).
With Siemers as an assistant coach, Mines’ men placed fourth at the NCAA Championships in 2010 and fifth in 2011. He also helped the Oredigger men climb as high as No. 4 in the USTFCCCA Division II Program of the Year standings in the 2011-12 academic year.
As a student-athlete, Siemers attended and competed at Western State where he was a three-time cross country All-American and helped the Mountaineers to two national championships (2001, 2002). He graduated from Western State in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and continued his running career as a two-time Olympic trials qualifier.
Siemers broke the 18-year old Colorado state marathon record in 2011 with a time of 2:18.48 at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Denver Marathon. He was also a three-time all-state selection and Foot Locker All-American as a prep runner for Fenton High School in Bensenville, Illinois with two all-state honors in track & field.
