“Coaching at Weber State University has been very satisfying and rewarding,” Pilkington said. “I have had excellent support from coaches and the administration. I have been fortunate to work with so many great student-athletes.”

Pilkington has been the women’s cross country head coach at Weber State for the last 18 years and is in his eighth year as the head coach of the Wildcat women’s track and field teams. From 2007-17, he was the head coach of both the women’s and men’s cross country teams and associate head coach for the track and field teams. In July 2017, he was named the head coach for the women’s track and field and cross country programs.

He has guided Weber State to four Big Sky Championships in cross country and one NCAA Mountain Region title. He also led the women’s team to the NCAA Championships three times and in 2012, the Wildcats won their first region title and were ranked as high as 13th in the nation, the highest ranking in school history.

The Wildcats finished in the top 30 at the NCAA Cross Country Championships four times, including 17th in 2012 and 22nd in 2015.

He has been named the Big Sky Coach of the Year four times and was named the Women’s Cross Country Mountain Region Coach of the Year in 2012.

Under Pilkington, distance runners have set multiple Weber State school and Big Sky Conference records. In his career, he has coached 11 Wildcats to All-American honors 16 times and has coached distance runners to several WSU school records. He has also coached five athletes who have been inducted into the Weber State Athletics Hall of Fame.

Pilkington has coached the Wildcats to 88 individual conference titles in cross country, and in indoor and outdoor track.

Among the athletes he has coached, Lindsey Anderson broke the NCAA record in the steeplechase and competed in the 2008 Olympics, the first Weber State athlete to ever compete in the Summer Olympics. She is a member of the Hall of Fame at Weber State, the Big Sky Conference, and the Utah Sports Hall of Fame. Anderson is now an assistant coach with the Wildcat track and field teams.

Pilkington also coached Ogden native Sarah Callister Sellers to Hall of Fame honors and multiple All-American honors. She finished second in the Boston Marathon in 2018. Pilkington has coached multiple other athletes to U.S. Olympic Marathon trials.

Pilkington was an assistant coach at Weber State under Hall of Fame coaches Chick Hislop and Jim Blaisdell from 2001-03. He was the head cross country coach at the University of Illinois from 2003-05 before returning to Weber State in 2005.

Pilkington, a native of Blackfoot, Idaho, was a junior college All-American in the steeplechase at the College of Southern Idaho, where he was coached by Blaisdell. He then ran track at Weber State from 1979-81, where he also earned All-American honors in the steeplechase. He graduated from Weber State in 1981 with a degree in Secondary Education.

He began his coaching career as the head cross country coach at Ben Lomond High School in Ogden from 1982-83. He received a master’s degree from Utah State in 1992.

As an athlete, Pilkington was a two-time national champion, winning once in the marathon and once in the 20-kilometer. He won both the Houston Marathon in 1990 and the Los Angeles Marathon in 1994 and was a four-time Olympic Trials qualifier. In 1995, he was a member of the USA Track and Field Team representing the United States at the World Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden. He also has top ten finishes in marathons in London, Berlin, Moscow, Venice, San Francisco, and Minneapolis.

“Paul Pilkington’s impact on Weber State and our track and field program cannot be overstated,” said Tim Crompton, Weber State Director of Athletics. “Throughout his long and successful career, he has not only built a legacy of athletic excellence but also shaped the lives of countless student-athletes. His dedication, knowledge, and leadership have elevated the program, and his influence will be felt for years to come.

“We are incredibly grateful for Paul’s unwavering commitment to Weber State and the positive mark he has left on our university. We wish him all the best in his well-earned retirement and celebrate the remarkable legacy he leaves behind.”