As her high school career neared its end, CMU women’s track and field coach Katrice Thomas made a decision that would forever change her future and the legacy she would leave behind. Predominantly a basketball star at Doherty High School in Colorado Springs, Thomas chose to pursue track and field in college over basketball, the sport she focused on throughout her life. The impact of that decision has lasted much longer than just her four years of collegiate competition.

Thomas began running track and field in her sophomore year of high school as an offseason activity to improve her strength and speed on the hardwood. However, as she improved as a sprinter, she began receiving offers to different schools for track as well as basketball. When it came time to make a decision, Thomas went out of her comfort zone and followed the school that showed the most interest in her talents.

“I could have gone to some other schools to play basketball, but they didn’t seem as interested in me as the schools that were offering me track and field scholarships,” she said. “I felt like I could make a bigger impact in track and field, so I took a leap of faith.”

That leap of faith landed Thomas at Colorado State University in 2001 as a sprinter specializing in the 200-meter and 400-meter races. Although she was an elite high school athlete, the level of talent at CSU proved to be a challenge to match in the early years of her career.

“When I went in to CSU I was kind of a wild card,” Thomas said. “I wasn’t one of the fastest athletes there when I started, but I was just as determined, if not more determined, than everyone else.”

Her dedication propelled her to become one of the best sprinters in the Mountain West Conference during her four years at Fort Collins. In 2003, Thomas set the school outdoor record for the 400-meter event with a time of 53.64 seconds and set records in the 200-meter (24.03 seconds in 2004) and the 100-meter (12.08 seconds in 2005). Thomas explained that a lot of her improvement came from an increase in studying rather than training.

“During the early years of my career when I was getting my butt kicked, I turned to reading,” she said. “I read every book I could pull from the library about track and field. It helped me learn a lot and strengthened my passion for the sport.”

After graduating with a degree in technical journalism, Thomas returned home briefly to work at a pre-school before taking an assistant track and field coaching job at Mesa State College during its first year as a program. She has since taken over full time duties as the head women’s coach and is grateful for the opportunity she was given as a young coach with a young program.

“It’s been a whirlwind,” she said. “When I came in, I was so young I couldn’t even rent vans for the team when we traveled, but I had that passion and hunger to succeed when I was an athlete, and I wanted to transfer that over to the athletes I was coaching.”

mfreter@mavs.coloradomesa.edu