Juan Carrillo begins his third season as head coach of the Northern Illinois University women’s cross country team in 2025-26. Carrillo, who earlier in his coaching career spent time at NIU as a volunteer assistant, returns to DeKalb following stints at Tulane and Bowling Green.
Carrillo returns to NIU following two seasons as an assistant coach at Tulane, working under former Huskie cross country head coach Adrian Myers. Carrillo helped both the Green Wave men’s and women’s cross country teams to top-five finishes at the 2022 American Athletic Conference Championship. The Tulane men’s cross country team also finished fifth at the NCAA South Central Regional and Bradley Makuvire advanced to the 2022 NCAA Championships. Carrillo also helped the Tulane women’s indoor track and field team to a fourth-place finish at the 2023 AAC Indoor Championships, the best finish in program history.
Prior to his time in New Orleans, Carrillo was an assistant coach at Bowling Green for four seasons (2017-21). While with the Falcons, Carrillo led the Bowling Green men’s cross country team to a pair of top-three finishes at the MAC Championships, including a second-place finish in 2018, the program’s best performance at the conference championship since 1995.
Three Falcon runners earned All-MAC honors during Carrillo’s tenure, including two-time All-MAC honoree Noah Schaub who finished third at the MAC Championship in 2017 and second in 2018. Schaub also earned All-Great Lakes Region honors in 2018 as the Falcons posted their best team finish at the regionals in program history, finishing 10th.
Carrillo was a volunteer assistant at NIU for two years prior to moving to Bowling Green. During his first stint with the Huskies, he helped the NIU women’s cross country team produce a second-place finish at the 2016 MAC Championships and a ninth-place finish at the 2016 NCAA Midwest Regional. Carrillo helped mentor Hope Schmelze, who earned All-America honors in the steeplechase in 2017 and also qualified for the 2016 NCAA Cross Country Championship.
Before joining the Huskies, Carrillo began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Robert Morris (Ill.) in Chicago from 2013-15. Carrillo assisted in the development of two-time Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference cross country champion Mizael Carrera, who also finished third at the 2013 NAIA Cross Country Championship.
Carrillo, who holds USA Track and Field Level 1 Coaching Education Certification, was an accomplished runner prior to his coaching career. Carrillo ran collegiately at Lewis University, where he was part of two Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) cross country championship teams (2002 and 2004) and a GLVC indoor track and field championship team (2003). Following his collegiate career, Carrillo was sponsored by the New York Athletic Club from 2006-07 and the Indiana Invaders Olympic Development Track Club from 2009-12. He was also a member of Mexico’s Track and Field All National Team from 2008-12.
Carrillo earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration from Lewis in 2005. He and his wife, Natalie, have one son, Vincent.
