Husky Teammates

I came to Seattle in 1980 on a cross country and track scholarship at the University of Washington. I still remember my first race as a Husky. We were competing in a local cross country meet at Seward Park. I found myself leading the race on a course that was not particularly well marked and when I got to a point in the race I could hear my teammate Susan Gregg yelling from behind to "turn left there". I was amazed, as she could easily have let me run off course and taken the lead herself. I'm sure she yelled more directions from 50 yards back again. Susan and her twin Sandra proved to me that day that I had a couple of the most amazing teammates ever. During our three years of training together I came to count on them as training partners and reliable teammates on and off the field. Together with Sandra and Susan Gregg and Laurie Coston (co-owner with her twin Leslie of The KingFish Cafe on Capital Hill) we set a National record in the Distance Medley Relay. It was a tremendous experience being a collegiate athlete.

I can only hope that what I brought to the Huskies in the early 80's was as memorable an experience for my teammates and Husky fans.

In my three years as a Husky I set numerous field, meet and school records. I left with five school records on the books in all distances from the 1500 to the marathon. In the 30 years since I ran as a Husky only one of my school records have been broken. One day (maybe) all of those records will be broken, but I can still remember winning my one and only National Championship in the 3000 meters in Austin in 1981, and being the first collegiate woman to run 3000 meters under 9 minutes.

As a mother, I was proud of my daughter making it to play collegiate soccer at my rival Washington State Cougars. For both of us, being a collegiate athlete really made our college experiences more fun mostly because of the teammates we were surrounded with.

So if you are out an about in Seattle this weekend and come across a rowdy group of beautiful girls, they're probably my daughter and her Cougar soccer teammates!!

Go Huskies!! Go Cougs!