When CU cross country coach Mark Wetmore opened the van door with newly crowned champion Kara Grgas-Wheeler Goucher (Psych’01) to tell his team they had just won the 2000 NCAA Women’s Cross Country Championships, they told him, in no uncertain terms, “Shut the door!” They were in Ames, Iowa, and it was minus 19 degrees Fahrenheit.
This was just one of the many stories recounted at the Cross Country and Track & Field Reunion Oct. 22-24 in Boulder to honor both the 2000 women’s cross country team and the 1985 men’s cross country team that finished third nationally.
Sprinter Wayne Hardy (CivEngr’54) recalls taking his first ever airplane ride to a meet in Kansas. And Cliff Branch (A&S’72) — after winning three Super Bowl rings with the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders — tells of the bitter disappointment he felt losing the Big 8 Indoor Track & Field Championship team title by only a few points.
As the night progressed, some stories may have been embellished, but there could be no denying the genuine friendships that were forged as CU student-athletes.
“As a student-athlete the experiences you have on a team are irreplaceable,” says Sara Gorton Slattery (Bus, Econ’03, MEdu’05), who placed eighth in 2000 and is an Alumni C Club assistant. “You work together for the same goal each season and see your teammates go through the same sacrifices and struggles you do each day. Often, you’re away from home and your teammates become your family. You can’t re-create those friendships with anyone.”
Clint Wells (Psych’98) had a successful postcollegiate distance running career, but his time at CU was invaluable.
“Look at this,” he says, his arm sweeping over the crowd of former athletes. “This is what it’s all about; it was always about being part of a team.”
Dan Reese (Psych’85), pictured above and an inductee into the Colorado Running Hall of Fame and member of the 1985 men’s cross country team, says his team came together when Mick Bannister’s (Geog, Math’85) father died before regionals. Mick flew back to England for the funeral and missed the meet. He told the team that if they qualified for nationals he would “run out of his mind.” He did.
Jerry Quiller, coach of the 1985 team, sums up the weekend best when he says, “As you get older your priorities transcend past winning and losing to health, family and friends.”
Photo by CU Athletics
