They became known as the “Steeple Chicks,” a self-branded title of a group of post-collegiate female runners who became the pioneers of the women’s steeplechase event in track and field back in the mid-2000s.
For her part, Carrie Messner-Vickers of Carbondale, a four-time All-American cross country and track athlete at the University of Colorado Boulder, would go on to take third place in the 3000-meter steeplechase at the 2004 Olympic trials at storied Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.
Though it was only an “exhibition” sport that year ahead of the 2004 Summer Games in the birthplace of the Olympics, Athens, Greece, the stage was set for women to compete at steeple.
The unique track event involves jumping over 28 barriers, each 30 inches high for the women (3 feet for the men) and seven water jumps on the track for a distance of 3000 meters.
Messner-Vickers made the finals in the inaugural women’s steeplechase at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki, Finland, finishing 15th. The next year she would take ninth in the World Athletics final of the event.
And she would give it a go two years later at the Olympic trials, when the women’s steeplechase finally became an official event, for the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, China. She didn’t qualify, but by then she had certainly made her mark in the sport.
In recognition of that contribution, Messner-Vickers was inducted into the Colorado Running Hall of Fame on Tuesday, April 9 at the Denver Athletic Club.
“It’s exciting, and quite an honor,” Messner-Vickers said from her home outside of Carbondale, where she and husband Matt are raising three daughters: Jen, 13, and 11-year-old twins Tillie and Ray.
Joining her for Tuesday’s induction were the likes of “Marathon Marvel” Edna Kiplagat of Longmont, who started racing as a junior-level athlete in 1996 and is still at the top of women’s elite racing; high school and college coach Del Hessel; and Dennis Giannangeli, a past owner of the Runner’s Roost running store franchise.
“The great thing is it’s not just recognizing what we did back then, but the major contributions to running we’ve made over the years,” Messner-Vickers said. “I retired from competing quite some time ago, but I’m still in the running world.”
Messner-Vickers started the cross country running program for both boys and girls at Ross Montessori School in Carbondale five years ago as part of the Access After School programs. The program has blossomed, and other middle school programs have since started up serving as feeders for the area high school cross country and track programs.
Professionally, Messner-Vickers has been a longtime pilates instructor at Studio 360 in Willits, and she performs with the Mt Cirque Entertainment aerial dance troupe and is an instructor and artistic director for the Sopris Soarers Aerial Academy for youth.
Look for her at the Cirque d’Sopris youth fashion and dance show happening this Friday and Saturday, April 12-13, at Roaring Fork High School at 6pm both evenings.
Although she didn’t make the Olympics in 2008, Messner-Vickers said the “golden egg” of that summer was being able to pace Roaring Fork Valley native and former CU teammate Zeke Tiernan to second place in his first Leadville 100 ultramarathon. It was Tiernan who had introduced Carrie and Matt to each other before they got engaged at those same 2005 World Championships where Carrie ran the steeplechase, and then encouraged them to relocate to the Valley.
Messner-Vickers, now 46, was a cross country and track state champion for Mullen High School in Denver before going on to CU, where she specialized in the 1500 meters and the indoor 800 meters and mile. When injuries plagued her in those shorter events, she followed in the footsteps of CU alum Shayne Culpepper, an eventual Olympic 1500-meter runner who was one of the first women to start running the steeple.
“Shayne is someone I really looked up to,” Messner-Vickers told the Boulder Daily Camera’s Mike Sandrock in a recent article about her Running Hall of Fame induction. “She was one of the forerunners and was always a big support.”