Staci Foster became Azusa Pacific first women’s track and field NCAA Division II National Champion with her win in the mile event at the NCAA Indoor Nationals on March 14.
Foster’s 4:47.18 time was less than a half second off her program-record mark. The 23-year-old University of Colorado transfer broke the mile and 3,000-meter event in February before advancing to the national meet.
Foster’s career began her freshman year of high school as a means of staying in shape for soccer. That year she ran a 5:04 mile, which was good enough to make her stop soccer to pursue track and field. By the time her senior year came, she was running a 4:49 mile. She won third place in the state championship and was ranked 12th nationally for the mile.
Throughout her time in high school, Foster wanted to attend the University of Colorado and found that through her excellence in running, she could make her dream a reality. She loved the track program because of its history and reputation of transforming the cream of the crop in high school to Olympians.
“I had always dreamed of going to Colorado. The guys won cross [country] nationals this year and last year, and one of my best friends is an Olympian and one of my roommates was Olympian,” Foster said. “They have such a strong program that every distance runner dreams of going there.”
Foster competed at Colorado for three seasons while earning her bachelor’s degree in psychology. However, her time there was not what she had hoped it would be. She wasn’t able to achieve her goals and expectations, which were to go to nationals. She came very close but always fell just short.
“I still gave 100 percent the whole four years I was there, and I didn’t ever give up trying even though I wanted to,” Foster said.
Photo: Katie Richcreek
The transition from high school athletics to the collegiate level is a big change. The levels are completely different, as Foster found out at Colorado.
“That was probably the biggest struggle I have ever faced in my life. My high school was really good at running, but going to Colorado, the pace of the long runs were probably about a minute faster than my high school,” Foster said.
Expectations were very different in high school, where she just had to run for a time because the coaches would give her the practice sets. At CU, she was required to know what days of the week she is running and how many miles she was running that day. The coaches would still interact with them, help them improve and give the runners workouts, but the running was up to the runners.
After her four years at Colorado, Foster transferred to APU to continue competition and earn a degree in sociology. The Cougars’ head women’s track and field coach, Preston Grey, resembled Foster’s high school coach in the sense that he took a more hands-on approach to coaching.
“That’s something I was looking forward to, someone that could take me under their wing and tell me exactly what to do on each day,” Foster said. “I was the low man on the totem pole, but now the coaches care about me and want to see me do well.”
Foster has never had to fight alone because she has always had her family to back her up with whatever she did.
“I don’t think my parents missed one meet. They’ve flown all over the place for me; especially when I was out in Colorado,” Foster said. “Even when I was doing terrible, they kept supporting me. Them not giving up on me made me not give up on myself.”
This is Foster’s last year of eligibility in the NCAA. After college, she would like to pursue a job coaching track or working in the sports office doing academic advising for athletes.