November 25, 1985. To many, it was just another Monday in November, three days before Thanksgiving. But to the men and women of Division 1 cross country teams, it was the day of the NCAA National Championships in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This was the day that these student-athletes had worked hard for all season. All their hard work would either pay off with a trophy or would leave them disappointed and waiting for the next season. The Iowa State Cyclones Women’s Cross Country team was no stranger to success. Since the program began in 1976, the team had won five national championships. The team did not know what to expect in 1985. Tom Kroeschell stated that Ron Renko, the head women’s cross country coach, believed the team’s “best case scenario” was a “sixth-place finish.” However, the team had been preparing all season for that five-kilometer race and it showed during the race. The seven Cyclones ran their hearts out and ended up with a second-place finish in the National Championships.
Three planes carrying student-athletes from both the men and women’s cross country teams, coaches, a student athletic trainer, and pilots departed from Milwaukee airport late that afternoon. Tom Kroeschell remembered that the weather that morning was “Iowa nasty,” and he had to pull his car …show more content…
Around 6,000 people were in attendance. They listened to speeches from Dr. W. Robert Parks, the Iowa State University President; Reverend Ann Clay Adams, the campus minister; and Max F. Urick, the Iowa State Athletic Director. Teammates and friends of the victims gave eulogies in honor of the people they had known, loved, and lost. Those in the audience who had not known all or even any of victims learned a little about each one. They saw that these seven people were not just victims of a tragedy, but were much more than
Three planes carrying student-athletes from both the men and women’s cross country teams, coaches, a student athletic trainer, and pilots departed from Milwaukee airport late that afternoon. Tom Kroeschell remembered that the weather that morning was “Iowa nasty,” and he had to pull his car …show more content…
Around 6,000 people were in attendance. They listened to speeches from Dr. W. Robert Parks, the Iowa State University President; Reverend Ann Clay Adams, the campus minister; and Max F. Urick, the Iowa State Athletic Director. Teammates and friends of the victims gave eulogies in honor of the people they had known, loved, and lost. Those in the audience who had not known all or even any of victims learned a little about each one. They saw that these seven people were not just victims of a tragedy, but were much more than