FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (September 21, 2022) – The historic career of decorated runner Kristi Klinnert was a work of fate. Her accomplishments with Northern Arizona Women's Cross Country and Track & Field almost never happened.
From leading the 1991 team to a program-best third place at the NCAA Championships to winning a dozen individual Big Sky Conference titles, Klinnert would have never achieved those things if it wasn't for one fateful day when she was discovered by 1999 NAU Athletics Hall of Fame inductee Ron Mann, who coached NAU Cross Country/Track & Field from 1980-2007.
Klinnert originally attended the University of Minnesota after a decorated career at Kodiak High School in Alaska but transferred to NAU to be closer to her father, who was studying at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott at the time to be a pilot.
She won the Alaska State Cross Country Running Championship at Kodiak High School all four years there from 1983-87. Klinnert also still holds the state record in the two-mile for track and field.
Klinnert originally transferred to NAU just to be a student and not an athlete, which changed when Mann saw her running on the street.
"My assistant coach at the time, Brice Allen, and I were going to lunch and we both observed her and said 'that's not just a normal jogger going down the street. That's somebody special,'" Mann said.
Mann and Allen stopped Klinnert and asked if she would be interested in trying out for the cross country team. After she declined, Mann asked if she was willing to simply run with the team for a little bit.
The rest is history.
"By maybe three or four weeks in, she was very much bought into the team because the team bought into her… She was literally the sparkplug of the team," Mann said.
In her four years at NAU, Klinnert won 12 individual Big Sky titles to catapult her to All-American status three times. The 1991 season marked the peak of her career where she matched her wins in 1990 in the 3K and 5K indoor Big Sky titles and the 5K and 10K outdoor conference championships as well. She was the first female runner to be a double champion in the indoor 3K and 5K.
Klinnert is also the only runner in Big Sky history to win the outdoor 10K Championship four times.
"The longer the distance the better," Mann said about Klinnert's running style. "She didn't have a lot of speed. She was a grinder and did what she needed to do all the way through."
The 1991 season is especially important to Klinnert and the program. The Lumberjacks finished third at NCAA Women's Cross Country Championships, a result that remains the best by a women's team in Big Sky Conference history. Kilnnert rounded out her storybook season with a 26th-place finish overall.
Klinnert was just one part of the podium-winning Lumberjack roster. The 1991 team was stacked with talented runners that put the women's program on the map.
"This was the thing that we needed," Mann said about realizing who she was when she began running with the team. "You look at the others that were a part of that team and you add an athlete of Kristi's caliber to the already great team we had assembled and that made for a podium team."
Mann and Klinnert maintain a strong relationship despite not getting to see each other very much. Mann said the two can go five years without talking and pick up right where they left off.
However, their relationship goes beyond just athlete and coach.
"She would say, and has publicly, that I saved her life," Mann said, "I became a second father to her and Charlene – my wife and I – became second parents to her. We went up [to Alaska] on a family vacation and we were able to get together with her and we hadn't missed a beat and we hadn't seen each other in 10 years. Kristi and I have a deep relationship that will transcend this world."
Klinnert resides in Alaska today where she is a math teacher at Central Middle School in the Anchorage School District where she also coaches running.
She has also taken part in the Alaska Run for Women, an event supporting the fight against breast cancer since 1993. In the event's history, Klinnert holds the most top three finishes with 10, including four wins in 1997, 1998, 2008 and 2009. Her 1998 winning time marks the 16th-fastest in event history at 28:27.9 and her 1994 time is 20th-fastest (28:44).
