Weber State University Athletics
Lindsey Anderson named one of Big Sky's greatests
2/10/2014 5:29:00 PM | Women's Track & Field
After 50 years of competition, the Big Sky Conference has began a year-long journey celebrating the league's success both on and off the playing field by honoring 50 years of men's athletics and 25 years of women's athletics.
The 50th anniversary will celebrate the all-time individuals, teams and moments in the Big Sky's history, including the selection of the league's “50 Greatest Male Athletes” and the “25 Greatest Female Athletes.” Along with these lists, the league will unveil the most memorable moments for both men's and women's competition.
On the women's side, former Weber State track All-American and Olympian Lindsey Anderson has been named the ninth greatest female athlete in conference history. Anderson is currently an assistant coach with the WSU track and field teams.
Big Sky's Greatest Female Athletes - No. 9 - Lindsey Anderson
(written by Megan Lobdell Big Sky Conference)
Former Weber State distance runner Lindsey Anderson was a two-time All-American and an Olympian.
It's no surprise the member of the 2008 United States Olympic team ranks ninth on the Big Sky Conference's list of “25 Greatest Female Athletes.''
“Awesome,” said Anderson. “That is a huge honor to be that high in the top 25. That is awesome.”
Anderson competed for the Wildcats from 2004-07. She won six individual Big Sky Conference championships, three relay championships, earned NCAA All-America honors two times, and set the NCAA record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
Head women's track and field coach Jim Blaisdell, who will be retiring after this season, recruited Anderson out of Morgan High School in Morgan, Utah.
“I didn't really get recruited a whole lot by any other coaches,” said Anderson. “But he is the main one that showed me a lot of attention because I mostly played soccer in high school. Once I decided to run, Weber State was just kind of the best fit for me.”
“I watched Lindsey several times as a senior at Morgan High school excelling in several sports, and knew this was a young lady who was very special,” said Blaisdell. “It didn't happen overnight, but step by step Lindsey developed into one of the best athletes ever at Weber State.”
“I appreciated her positive attitude and especially her work ethic that she brought every day,” added Blaisdell. “Lindsey was a fearless competitor and what a thrill it was for me to have been associated with this young lady.”
During Anderson's first two years at Weber State, she finished seventh in the 3,000 meters at the Big Sky indoors, and fifth in the steeplechase at the outdoor championship. During her sophomore year, Anderson won her first steeplechase championship with a time of 11 minutes, 23.29 seconds. At that meet, she also took second in the 10,000 meters and third in the 5,000 meters.
Anderson competed at her first NCAA Championships during the 2005 outdoor season. She was 19th in the steeplechase and failed to advance to the finals.
“I had great freshman and sophomore years under Blaisdell,” said Anderson. “And then Coach (Paul) Pilkington came back into the mix and started to coach the distance team again. So he came back during the junior year, and I kind of had an adjustment to fit into the different strategies and stuff. So my junior year I kind of struggled a little bit for most of indoor and outdoor. That year wasn't my best year. Then my senior year, everything kind of clicked together and I was able to just take off and do all sort of records.”
During Anderson's senior year of cross country, she was ranked first going into the Big Sky Championships. Then she got sick with what she found out to be bronchitis, and didn't have a good run. But that didn't stop Anderson, who then went on to finish fourth at the NCAA Mountain Regionals in Albuquerque, N.M., and punched her ticket to the NCAA Championships.
“I was ranked first going into conference and I ended up getting really sick and found out later that I had bronchitis,” said Anderson. “I still ran at conference but I didn't tell my coach I was sick. They didn't know I was sick until the race when I couldn't perform and feeling awful. So it took me some time getting back from that.”
“I ended up at regionals and I ended up getting back to finish fourth overall to qualify for nationals. And then at nationals I wanted to be All-American and I should have been if I was healthier, but I just didn't get back enough from my sickness to finish higher.”
Anderson finished 62nd overall in the race out of 253 runners with a time of 21:45.4 on the 6,000-meter course, and was the top Big Sky finisher at the NCAA Championship.
“It was kind of a disheartening race,” said Anderson. “It was great because I hadn't ever placed that high before, but I expected a lot more out of myself in that race. So it was kind of a bummer but it gave me some momentum going into indoor track.”
Anderson had one of the best indoors and outdoors campaigns in 2007. During the indoor season, she earned All-American honors for the first time in her career. She finished seventh in the 5,000 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championship in March.
“Lindsey set an example to our entire team to follow,” said Head Cross Country/Distance Coach Paul Pilkington. “She did all of the small things to make herself better. She was one of the best competitors that I have ever been around. She learned to handle pressure as a positive thing, the bigger the stage, the more pressure on her, the more she would focus and turn it into a positive situation.”
She posted a time of 16:00.77, to break her own school record. That time is second all-time in the Big Sky Conference.
“It was my first time being All-American, so that was really exciting,” said Anderson. “And that is when it started hitting me that I was getting into a different level of racing that I never experienced before. So it was kind of exciting to me.”
That momentum continued on into the outdoor season, where Anderson won the steeplechase, 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters at the Big Sky Championship, becoming the first female athlete to win all three of those races in the same championship. She went on to win the steeplechase at the NCAA West Region and qualified for the NCAA Championships.
At the NCAA Championship Anderson enjoyed her highest finish, taking second in the 3,000 steeplechase in a time of 9:46.48. Anna Willard of Michigan won the race with a time of 9:38.08 and Colorado's Jennifer Barringer was seventh.
Earlier that season, she set an NCAA record in the steeplechase by posting a time of 9:39.95, which automatically qualified her for the United Sates Olympic Trials. Anderson's time is still the top time in the Big Sky Conference.
“Outdoors was a lot of fun because I started with the 10,000 meters at the Stanford Invitational,” said Anderson. “I set a school record and then the next time I ran the steeplechase, I set a NCAA record in that meet.”
“It was me, Anna Willard and Jenny Barringer who were the top steeplechasers in the US at that point and so we just battled back and forth and I was just able to finish second,” added Anderson. “Which was pretty exciting and it was just a fun outdoor season and a great way to finish it. It was a little disheartening not winning it. But it was a really good race.”
After her career at Weber State, Anderson kept the momentum. In the summer of 2007, she ran the steeplechase at the World Championship in Japan. She reached that event by finishing third at the USA Track and Field Championships.
In 2008, Anderson finished second in the steeplechase at the U.S. Olympic Trials, punching her ticket to the Summer Olympics in Beijing.
“I had an awesome experience at the Olympics,” said Anderson, the only female Weber State athlete to compete in the Olympics. “This was stuff that I never, ever dreamed that was possible until my senior year, when I started to run those fast times. I realized then, that it might be possible.''
In 2009, Anderson qualified for the World Championships in Berlin, Germany.
“All three were awesome experiences,” said Anderson.
Currently, Anderson is an assistant coach for Weber State where she is helping with the distance team. She has a daughter and continues to run. She hoped to qualify for the World Championship again this past summer, but sustained a foot injury when she hit a steeple barrier last spring. The injury left her unable to run.
