Cayla Pellegrini is entering her ninth season with the Merrimack College men's and women's cross country and track & field teams in 2022-23. She has been an assistant on the cross country coaching staff since the start of the 2017 season after arriving as a track and field assistant coach for distance in 2014. 

Merrimack continued to impress in its third season as a Division I institution in 2021, as the men ran out to a third place finish at the NEC Championship, while the women ended in sixth. TJ Corliss had the top time on the men's side, as he was eighth individually with a time of 26:16.9 on the 8K course. He also earned a major award, as he was tabbed the NEC's Student-Athlete of the Year for men's cross country. Two others earned top-20 times on the men's side, as Ryan Dyer (14th) and Ben Chase (18th) paced the Warriors as well. Samantha LiPetri narrowly missed out on a top-10 time in the championship, as her 18:59.3 mark on the 5K course was 12th-best. The Warriors' depth shone throughout the season and in the final event, as Hannah Brisson (23rd), Olivia Beaudet (27th) and Ava Mahoney (30th) all had top-30 finishes as well. 

The 2020 season was pushed back to the spring of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Merrimack still took strides forward with Pellegrini. She helped Julia Dempsey complete her illustrious Warrior career with an all-conference honor at the NEC Championships, while she also earned USTFCCCA All-Academic athlete honors. The women's team also improved from the year before with a fourth place team finish and both the men and women were named to the USTFCCCA All-Academic team list. 

Pellegrini helped the Warriors transition to Division I competition during 2019 as both the men and women claimed fifth place finishes at their first NEC Championships. They also garnered USTFCCCA All-Academic team honors. 

She helped coach the cross country teams to an incredible 2018 campaign to close out the program's Division II era on a high note. Both teams posted their best finishes in recent memory at the conference championship race highlighted by a second-place finish from the women's side that represented the best ranking for the program since their league championship three-peat in the late 1990s. The men's fifth-place finish came with a relatively young squad and was their best placement in over a decade. The women would go on to finish third at the NCAA Regional Championship to earn the program's third overall qualification for the national championship race (and second for the women), marking the second straight year that either of the two teams would make an appearance at nationals.

Rising senior Katherine Ferrara would become the program's first cross country All-American in school history to wrap up an incredible year full of individual accolades for both herself and her teammates. She was one of three all-region honorees and one of three all-conference selections, as well. Altogether, the men's and women's teams would combine for nine top-three team finishes over the course of the 2018 campaign. Merrimack also had five cross country performers earn USTFCCCA All-Academic accolades in addition to both teams earning similar honors, as well.

During the track seasons, Pellegrini guided rising junior Dempsey to all-conference honors during the outdoor campaign in the 5,000-meter race. The men's team posted two of its best-ever finishes at the league championship meets, including a historic runner-up performance during the outdoor season.

In 2017-18, Pellegrini helped guide the men's cross country program to a third-place finish at the NCAA East Regional meet to punch the team's first-ever trip to the national championship meet. That accomplishment highlighted a fantastic campaign that saw the team earn three straight second-place finishes to start the season before a sixth-place performance at the NE10 Championship meet in October. The women also had another impressive season with four top-three finishes among the six events they competed in. Their best team finish came with a second-place result at the Bowdoin Invitational in September, while their highlight of the postseason meets occurred at the league championship when they ran to their best finish in 18 years, placing third overall. The last time a women's team enjoyed more success at the NE10 Championship meet was during the team's run of three straight championships from 1997-99.

Pellegrini helped coach four USTFCCCA All-East Region performers during the cross country season and a pair of all-conference selections. During the 2017-18 track campaigns, she helped coach Keith Steinbrecher to the 3000m Steeplechase at the NE10 Outdoor Championships, provisionally qualifying for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the process. She also helped coach an all-region distance medley relay during the indoor season, as well. 

Pellegrini joined the Warriors after a successful four-year career with the University of New Hampshire, where she was a member of the cross country team and the track & field team. A former scholarship athlete, Pellegrini spent three years on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), as well.

While at UNH, Pellegrini helped lead the Wildcats to both an America East Conference Championship and a New England Championship title in 2013. She earned all-conference honors in the 10K, qualified for the ECAC Championships, and was an America East Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll selection.

Pellegrini earned her Bachelor's of Science in Kinesiology with a concentration in Physical Education Pedagogy in May of 2014. She resides in Derry, New Hampshire.