Men's Cross Country
- Title:
- Director of Track Operations
- Email:
- kk8213@princeton.edu
- Phone:
- 609-258-1231
Kim Keenan-Kirkpatrick was named Director of Operations for Track and Field in November of 2023. She comes to Princeton after a long career in collegiate administration and coaching.
Keenan-Kirkpatrick began her career as the Head Cross Country Coach at Drew University. From there she spent 25 years in college administration. In her administrative roles she always had oversight for track and field and served as the chair of the Big East Seeding Committee for nine years and on the ACC Track and Field Committee for five years.
In her last administrative stop, at Syracuse University, the men’s cross country team won the NCAA Championships as well as the ACC Indoor Track and Field Championship. The Orange also won the ACC Men’s Cross Country Championship four of the next six years.
Keenan-Kirkpatrick’s passion for coaching track and field was re-ignited when she had the opportunity to become the Associate Head Cross Country and Assistant Track Coach at Colgate University. In her first year at Colgate, she recruited one of the best recruiting classes in the last decade with 18 talented distance commits by early decision. During her Colgate tenure, the program won three individual Patriot League titles, advanced two student-athletes to the NCAA Regional, and broke several long-standing records including four within the distance squad. In the past two years, the distance crew scored more points than the previous classes and helped the team have its best team finish in several years at the 2023 Outdoor Patriot League Championships.
Outside of the collegiate world, Keenan-Kirkpatrick is very involved with USATF. She has served on two US Olympic staffs, as the women’s distance coach in 2008 in Beijing, China and more recently as an event manager in Tokyo, Japan in 2021. She has also held the title of Women’s Head Manager for the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon and the 2011 Pan Am Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, and Assistant Manager for the Pan Am Games in 2015 in Toronto, Canada.
A collegiate runner herself, Kimberly Keenan set three individual and one relay school record while at Kent State University and was awarded the First Bob James Memorial Graduate Scholarship which she used while attending Seton Hall Law School.
