Karl Thiessen joined Charleston Southern in August 2024 as the assistant track & field/cross country coach where he works primarily with the women's distance runners. He arrived in Charleston after a stellar career at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and a professional career with Asics GTC Elite.
In his first full year with the Buccaneers, he has helped in continuing the great string of success with second-place finishes at each of the Big South Championships during the 2024-25 academic year to tie their highest in program history. In the fall, the Bucs' Keerstin Augustin finished as the individual runner-up at the Big South Cross Country Championships with a time of 17:00.5 tying the best individual finish in school history becoming just the fourth CSU student-athlete to finish that high. Additionally, each of the runners within the scoring five for CSU earned All-Conference status with a top-14 finish at the meet. They opened the year with a victory at the CSU Buc Open in his coaching debut.
Across the indoor season, he oversaw a complete overhaul of the record book with four new performances slotted in to the top seven for the mile, 3K and 5K including the school record and second-fastest times in each event. Sarah McCartney's indoor times in the 3K and 5K each rank within the top four all-time in the history of the Big South, the only one to rank that high on each. McCartney's also broke the outdoor record for the 10K with a time of 34:56.94. Between the Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field Big South Championships there were five podium finishes and 18 total scoring finishes in events that he coaches.
During his time in Knoxville, he earned three All-SEC selections and All-Region awards, becoming one of the top runners in the South. His best finish at the SEC Championships came in the 2020 season where he finished in 11th. Additionally, he qualified for the NCAA National Championships twice, racing in it during the falls of 2021 and 2022. During the track and field seasons, he competed as a 5K/10K runner and scored six times.
Away from the course, he served as the SAAC representative for the squad for four seasons as well. He was seen as one of the team leaders, earning the title of team captain as voted on by his teammates and coaches for the Volunteers' cross country.
Thiessen spent the past year as a member of Asics GTC Elite (Greenville Track Club). One of the highlights of his year came in the US 10K championships in Newport, New Jersey where he took 11th overall in the star-studded field. He also worked with Blue Collar Endurance Training where he wrote training schedules for up-and-coming athletes and oversaw the development of over 15 athletes per month.
