Robert Ayling enters his eighth season with Saint Peter's in 2025-26, serving as a volunteer assistant for the cross country and track & field programs.
Ayling has been with the track and field program since the fall of 2018. Ayling comes to Saint Peter's with a fine pedigree in track and field. His father was a 440-yard sprinter in high school and college and was a member of the high school national indoor mile relay championship team at Brooklyn Prep. Coach Ayling's uncle, Bob Giegengack, coached at Yale University. During Giegs' 29 years at Yale, he was an assistant coach for Team USA’s men’s track team at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and as head coach of the 1964 Olympic team.
Ayling followed in the steps of his family and was a pole vaulter at Princeton High School, where he was conference champion his senior year. He then attended Monmouth College (NJ), where he earned his undergraduate degree in sociology. While there, he placed in various conference and invitational meets.
Not a year after his college graduation, Coach Ayling started his coaching career in the Spring of 1984 at the high school level. He coached in the Shore Conference (NJ) for several years until he was hired at William Patterson College in the fall of 1986. After several years at WPC and then Kean College, He went to Trenton State College (now TCNJ), where he coached the men’s team as the field event coach and worked towards earning his master’s degree in Education/Sports Management. While there, he guided several athletes to both the ECAC Championships as well as the NCAA Division 3 National championships and coached two-time All-American javelin thrower Marc Rullo.
After earning his master’s degree while at TSC, Coach Ayling was recruited and hired to coach internationally in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. There, he was a member of the national coaching education staff and coached athletes in Jeddah, the port city of Saudi Arabia. While there, several of his athletes won or placed in some of the country’s national meets and championships. Immediately upon his return to America a year later, Coach Ayling was tabbed to help organize and join the coaching staff, for the first of two times, with the USA East Association Team in its duel meet against the Québec, Canada team. He was then hired at his alma mater, Monmouth College, as the field events coach in the fall of 1993. During his time at Monmouth, now University, he worked with athletes that placed high in the NEC Championships and qualified/placed in the IC4A's and ECAC's. He finished his tenure as the interim head coach.
Ayling left coaching to pursue other opportunities, but he continued to compete locally and volunteered his time to help other athletes when they asked for assistance. Out of the blue in March 2013, Coach Ayling got a call from Nottingham High School and was asked if he would be interested in coaching their pole vaulters there. Not a month later, the coaches saw the depth of Coach Ayling's knowledge and abilities, and for the next five years, he would help and coach all the field events in some capacity. Nottingham saw some great success due in part to Ayling's abilities.
After five years and several individual and team championships, Ayling was hired to join a very young and promising Saint Peter's track program in August 2018. Coach Ayling has worked hard with his young throwers, pole vaulters, and high jumpers, and they are now a team to be reckoned within in the conference as well as the region. During his tenure, the peacocks have had athletes qualify for prestigious meets such as the IC4A's, ECAC's, The Millrose games, and the Princeton Elite Meet. Each year other than the COVID year, Coach Ayling has had at least 1 athlete qualify for the IC4a's or ECAC's every season. Originally a central New Jersey and shore area resident, Coach Ayling now lives in Bayonne with his wife.
