Ladies and gentlemen — howdy & aloha!In this episode of Airey Bros Radio, we’re lacing them up and heading down to Columbia, Missouri for a deep dive into Missouri Tigers Cross Country and a full preview of the 2025 NCAA Cross Country Championships at Gans Creek with Mizzou Head Cross Country & Distance Coach Kyle Levermore.Coach Levermore is a North Jersey native who starred at Don Bosco Prep, battled with Christian Brothers Academy at Homedale Park, and went on to run at Oregon and Arkansas before jumping into coaching at Georgetown. With a background in sports industry management, sports marketing, and now working on his MBA, Kyle is helping turn Mizzou XC into a Top-25 NCAA program while the Tigers get ready to host nationals on their home course at Gans Creek.

We cover:

• 🐯 Inside Mizzou XC & Gans Creek
  
  
  • How Missouri built toward hosting the 2025 NCAA Cross Country Championships
    
    
  • Turning a struggling SEC squad into Top-25 men’s (22nd) and women’s (23rd) teams
    
    
  • Using regular-season races to “do ourselves favors” with at-large points
    
    
  • SECs, a loaded Midwest Region with Oklahoma State, and the mindset heading into championship season
    
    
• 🧠 Origin Story: Don Bosco, CBA & New Jersey running culture
  
  
  • Growing up in a multi-sport household: soccer, ski racing, swimming, track
    
    
  • Getting rejected by Don Bosco, emailing the coach & admissions, and getting himself admitted at 14
    
    
  • High standards vs burnout: “sports factory” done right, culture, and leadership
    
    
  • Homedale Park, rivalries with Christian Brothers Academy, and the legendary Bosco/CBA battles
    
    
• 🌍 Recruiting, International Athletes & NIL
  
  
  • Why Kyle recruits Missouri first, then the region, then the rest of the U.S. and world
    
    
  • Working with agencies, tracking World U20 lists, British Power of 10, European descending order lists, and trips as far as Australia
    
    
  • His defense of international recruiting in the NCAA and why diversity makes teams better
    
    
  • Helping Kenyan and other international athletes adjust to food, weather, and culture (shoutout to the African store in Columbia and team “international food nights”)
    
    
  • Honest talk on NIL & scholarships: why a scholarship is an investment, not a reward, and how he recruits athletes who want Mizzou for more than the money
    
    
• 🏃‍♂️ Training Philosophy & Double Thresholds
  
  
  • Coming from a strength-based system and methodically adding double threshold training
    
    
  • Who gets to do double threshold (and who doesn’t)
    
    
  • How the Tigers structure cycles: 3 weeks of double threshold / 1 week long tempo, and how this year’s group differs from last year
    
    
  • Developing range from 800m up through 10K, and why Kyle refuses to recruit “one-trick ponies”
    
    
• 📈 Coaching, Marketing Brain & Hosting NCAAs
  
  
  • How Kyle uses his degrees in advertising and sports industry management + current MBA in day-to-day coaching
    
    
  • Applying business strategy (like Porter’s Five Forces) to recruiting and program building
    
    
  • His role as a “marketing consultant” for Gans Creek meets, seeding 95 teams at the Gans Creek Classic, and collaborating with Columbia Parks & Rec and Mizzou events staff
    
    
• ☕️ Final Four: Coffee, Training, Music & Guilty Pleasures
  
  
  • Kyle’s coffee obsession: espresso, AeroPress, Chemex, Onyx Coffee Lab “Southern Weather”, and geeking out on water profiles
    
    
  • Hybrid training, lifting, maybe a HYROX race in the future
    
    
  • EDM & electronic playlists for training and coaching
    
    
  • Ice cream (mint chocolate chip), UberEats benders, and a good old New Jersey bagel with Taylor ham
    
    

If you’re into college distance running, SEC XC, NCAA Cross Country strategy, double threshold training, recruiting (domestic & international), or just love hearing a Jersey coach build a big-time program in the SEC, this one’s for you.🔔 Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with a recruit, parent, or coach who needs to hear it.



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🐯 Mizzou Distance & Coach Levermore:
IG: @mizdistancexc
IG: @kylelevermore