No surprise Skieresz chosen No. 1
Amy Skieresz-Wilson was the favorite when she ran her final race in an Arizona Wildcats uniform, November 1998, at the NCAA cross-country championships in Lawrence, Kansas.
There was one unknown, a very big unknown: She feared she might have cancer in her right thigh, a lingering injury that had abbreviated her training. Yet with seven NCAA titles in cross-country and distance events, the senior from Agoura Hills, California, kept on running.
Skieresz somehow finished second on that autumn afternoon in Kansas, limping noticeably the final half mile. It remains one of the most compelling athletic events I’ve witnessed.
Last week, Amy was chosen the Pac-12’s Women’s Cross Country Runner of the Century. Looking back, it’s no surprise. She won three Honda Awards in distance running, which is that sport’s equivalent of the Heisman Award.
She retired from running three months before the 2000 Sydney Olympics, telling me “running isn’t a lifestyle I want to pursue.” She married Arkansas All-America distance runner Ryan Wilson and spent two years as a UA assistant coach. Amy and Ryan and their three children now live in Palm Desert, California. Ryan is the vice president of a wealth management company.
After Amy retired from competitive running, I would often see her jogging near Reid Park, or on the Rillito trail, incognito, just another athlete out for a run.
But to those fortunate to have watched her run at Arizona, she was never “just another anything.” She was the best.
