In the nearly 100-year history of men's and women's outdoor track and field at Western Washington University, just one Viking relay team has won a national championship.
 
That came on Saturday, May 23, 1981, when the Western women's 4x800 meter relay took top honors at the first Division III national meet sponsored by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW).
 
This spring WWU celebrates the 40th anniversary of that accomplishment, which took place on the campus of Cal State University, Hayward.
 
Making up the victorious Viking quartet, which posted a school record time of 9:14.37 that still stands, were Dawn Graham (North Bend/Mount Si), Carla Randall (Bothell/Inglemoor), Bethany Ryals (Bellevue/Newport) and Janis Swanson (Mount Vernon). Each of them received All-America recognition for their accomplishment.
 
Following Western across the finish line on that hot and humid day were Wisconsin Lacrosse, St. Olaf (Minnesota), Cal State Sacramento, Cal State Hayward and Central College (Iowa).
 
"We're all floating right now," said WWU Coach Tony Bartlett in an article that appeared in The Bellingham Herald the following day. "These kids will remember this for the rest of their lives."
 
"Patience was the key. We'd been battling the heat (in other events) and this time we decided to take it easy and not burn ourselves out. And it worked."
 
Western went into the race with the third best time in the field. But Bartlett had learned the hard way over the course of the three-day meet that what it says on paper isn't necessarily what happens on the track.
 
"I thought if everything went right, we had a chance at second," Bartlett continued. "But after three days of having not much of anything go right, I wasn't too sure what to think."
 
All four members of Western's national champion 4x800 relay had begun the year as quarter-milers. In fact, earlier that season, they had established a school record of 3:58.5 in the mile relay.
 
And each of the quartet had qualified nationally for individual events, Ryals in the 400 (58.9), and Graham (2:18.2), Randall (2:18.0) and Swanson (2:13.6) in the 800. But their times, with one exception, were not fast enough to have a realistic chance of placing high. So, rather then wasting their energy on individual preliminary efforts, the decision was made for them to rest and run the relay.
 
The exception was Swanson, who had set a school record in running her first 800 just a few weeks earlier in Canada at Simon Fraser University. With the third-best time entering the meet, Bartlett made the decision for her to compete in the 800 where she reached the semifinals.
 
On Thursday, May 21, the Vikings ran in a 4x800 relay semifinal and, though assigned to lane six, placed third, good enough to qualify for the final.
 
"It was so exciting to have qualified and knowing that we would have fresh legs compared to our competition whose runners were competing in other events," said Randall.
 
Their strategy for the final was simple. Have a lead going into the final leg and leave it up to Ryals, then a 25-year-old senior, nicknamed "The Beast." The 5-foot-9 Ryals was a strong and powerful runner. "I would certainly be afraid to run against her," said fellow relay runner Graham.
 
Two days later, the Vikings competed in the final.
 
Swanson, 23 and a fifth-year senior, despite running in her fourth 800 in three days as well as a 4x100 meter relay prelim, put Western solidly into third place.
 
Swanson handed off to Graham, a junior, who took the lead, kept it most of the way and barely lost it on the exchange.
 
"I wanted to start the first lap easy and just relax," said Graham in a Western Front story. "Then at the 300-meter mark, I decided to go for it. When I started passing people, I couldn't figure it out. I was thinking 'I can't believe it.'"
 
That's when freshman Carla Randall took over.
 
"As the youngest, I didn't want to do anything wrong," said Randall. "So, during the first lap I ran on the heels of the leader. Then I saw Tony (Coach Bartlett) motioning me to get going and I had a 40-meter lead when I handed off to Bethany."
 
Getting the baton with a commanding lead, Ryals not only held the advantage, but increased it, finishing almost 200 meters ahead of second-place Wisconsin-Lacrosse. Pre-race favorite Cal State Sacramento faded to fourth.
 
"It was so much fun watching her (Ryals) cruise and win by almost a quarter of a lap," Randall said. "Then we all attacked Bethany, jumping around. We couldn't believe it."
 
"With 200 meters to go, I ran as fast as I could the rest of the way," said Ryals. "It was not my fastest race, but definitely my smartest, and it was so much fun to run through that string."
 
Graham, whose parents had driven all the way from Seattle for the meet, said she still gets emotional recalling how "the girls from Bellingham, who had no business winning a national title, did just that."
 
"When we got on the track, we all brought something to the table, the intangibles," she added. "We were just gutsy."
 
Afterward, Bartlett said the day was one "none of us will ever forget."
 
"Division two, division three – it could be division 20 for all we care. All I know is that we won ourselves a national championship."
 
Western plays host to AIAW Region IX meet
 
The Vikings qualified for nationals by being runner-up at the combined AIAW Region IX meet Western hosted for Division II and III schools on May 7-9 at Bellingham's Civic Stadium.
 
In the 4x800 relay regional final on May 8, DII Idaho won in 9:06.3. Western's second-place time of 9:14.4 crushed by nearly 10 seconds the school record of 9:23.19 set earlier that spring. Following those two quartets were Pacific Lutheran (Washington), Portland (Oregon), Puget Sound (Washington) and Eastern Washington.
 
In all, 22 schools competed in that regional meet, eight DII and 14 DIII. They represented the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington, and the Canadian province of British Columbia. Idaho took team honors with 149 points, five ahead of Boise State, with Western third (60).
 
Since 1971, when the AIAW was formed following the passage of Title IX, the Vikings had sent qualifying women student-athletes to the Division I championships sponsored by that organization. DII and DIII meets were added in 1981 and held again in 1982 before the AIAW folded as both the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) added women's sports for the 1981-82 school year.
 
Dawn Graham was a graduate of Mount Si High School where she ran a school record 440 yards for the Wildcats in 1977 and was team captain in 1978. Two of her brothers, Dave and Larry Anderson, were standout runners for Western in the late 1960s, Dave setting a school record in the 220-yard dash and Larry in the 440-yard dash. Graham remembers watching them run at Civic Stadium. So, it was no surprise that she became a Viking.
 

After leaving Western in 1983, Graham worked in the corporate world for 13 years, 10 as a personal trainer. In 1987, she began a decade as a coach at the Eastside Track Club. She had been a member of that club as a youngster.
 
In 1997, Graham started a 22-year tenure as head girls track coach at Skyline High School, where she also coached girls' cross country for 17 seasons.
 
Graham's 2007 track squad won the Class AAA state championship and she was named Seattle Times and Washington State high school Coach of the Year. Her teams also won eight King County titles and six district championships.
 
Graham believes her coaching success goes back to that national title winning relay team at Western.
 
"The relays have always been my baby," she said. "I've got more kids involved in the 'Big Show,' which she calls the state meet, "by participating early in relays and then returning to add individual events."
 
Five of her relay teams won state titles.
 
"They allow athletes, who may never get to a state meet on their own (individual event), to experience what it's like to go. We had one, two or three relays go to state every year that I coached."
 
During Graham's time at Skyline, many of her athletes went on to Western. Oftentimes they would come back to tell her they had seen her name on the school's track record board.
 
Graham also has played a huge part in the Washington State High School Track and Field Coaches Association, becoming the organization's first female president.
 
During a 10-month span in 2005, Graham earned a master's degree and teaching certificate at City University, and the next year obtained endorsements in health and physical education at Seattle Pacific University. She taught physical education for two years at Pacific Cascade Freshman Campus and health at Maywood Middle School for the last 13 years. Both schools are located in Issaquah.
 
While attending City University, Graham met Sarah Tenace, who also competed in track at Western. In comparing notes, Graham found out that Tenace had run on a 4x800 relay in 1998 that posted the sixth fastest time in WWU history and the best since 1983.
 
Carla Randall graduated from Inglemoor High School in Bothell. There she was team captain and inspirational award winner as a senior after setting a school record in the 400 meters (58.5) as a sophomore.
 
Randall, who began her running career at the Eastside Track Club (competed in a national cross country meet at Portland, Oregon, in 1971, placing fourth in the nine and under age group), attended Western for two years before transferring to Washington State University to become a dietician. She graduated in 1984 and after a 16-month dietary internship at a hospital in New York City, she returned to the state of Washington.
 
For 35 years, Randall, now Andringa, has worked as a dietician in Yakima, the last six with the Veteran's Administration Home Based Primary Care Program. She also has served as a clinical dietician at two hospitals in the city and taught two years at Yakima Valley College.
 
The mother of three grown children, two daughters and a son, Andringa is an experienced alpine skier and cyclist. She has skied in Japan and Chile and biked all over the western United States as well as Croatia, Canada and Ireland.
 
Bethany Ryals, who was 25 in 1981, had returned to Western following a five-year absence. In 1974, she had established a school record of 26.6 in the 220-yard dash. Ryals also competed in basketball, helping the Vikings to a national tournament appearance, field hockey and cross country.
 
A graduate of Newport High School in Bellevue, Ryals helped the Knights to three state titles in swimming, competing in freestyle events.
 
During her sophomore year at Western in 1975, Ryals' best friend, Peg Bolek, died of a heart attack. Devasted, Ryals dropped out of school, and traveled the country. 
 
Ryals spent one year (1979-80) at Seattle University before returning to Western and graduating in 1984 with a degree in physical education. She taught for 22 years, 18 of those at University Prep, a private school in Seattle.
 
She then joined the U.S. Air Force, spending 11 years in Aeromedical Evacuation and 21 as a liaison officer for the Air Force Academy and the ROTC. She had four years of active duty, being a veteran of the Iraq War and Operation Desert Storm. Ryals retired as a Lieutenant Colonel after 32 years of service.
 
Ryals also was a travel guide and cruise director for 15 seasons on "Uncruise" adventure cruise ships. During that stretch she sailed the "seven seas," visiting every continent and 70 countries while circumnavigating the globe.
 
Ryals earned a master's degree in education while in the Air Force, and received a degree in earth science via continuing education. Now retired, she lives on Orcas Island.
 
Janis Swanson, a graduate of Mount Vernon High School and a transfer from Skagit Valley College, was in her third year at Western in 1981 after changing her major from community health to health education.
 
Upon graduating from Western, Swanson, who earned a master's degree at University of Oregon, went on to teach health and coach 37 years at the middle school level, 20 in the Arlington and 17 in the Sedro-Woolley school districts.
 
Swanson had followed older sister, Shirley, to Western. Shirley also earned All-America honors and three times went to the AIAW Division I national meet, placing second in the 440-yard dash (59.2) in 1971. Shirley was inducted into the WWU Athletics Hall of Fame in 1986.
 
"The day prior to our relay winning the national title, I had a record setting experience in the open 800, record setting in that it had to be the slowest time recorded," said Janis Swanson. "So slow that as I rounded the last corner, I heard the (public address) announcer say, 'Clear the track a runner is still coming in.' I had a lot of time to reflect as I nearly crawled across the line. I remember thinking, 'It's okay, I tried.'"
 
"So, coming back to win the title with my teammates taught me that life gives us challenges and we need to learn to deal with disappointments and handle victories with humility. I know sharing the joy of the win with others meant more and 'together' is a powerful feeling.
 
"I shared this story throughout my career as a teacher and coach to encourage children to give their best effort and to learn to cope with different emotions. Life brings sadness and joy, and tomorrow is a new day."
 
History of 4x800 Relay
 
The 4x800 meter relay became an AIAW event in 1978, sandwiched between two two-year stints as a two-mile relay (1976-77, 1979-80) before returning for the last two years of that organization (1981 and 1982).
 
The NAIA ran the 4x800 relay for five years, 1981-85, before dropping it. The event returned in 1998 and continues to this day. It has never been contested in the NCAA.
 
 
Vernacchia Quote
 
"Thanks for sharing this article with me.  It was a wonderful experience reading it and reminiscing about the good old days (40 years ago!).  It was especially rewarding to read the 'where are they now' part of the article. These are four amazing women who are well accomplished in their professional and personal lives. Dawn (Graham) actually coached (WWU All-American) Katelyn Steen in her track club and had quite an influence on her. I remember Bethany (Ryals) as definitely being quite a 'force.' Janis (Swanson) and Carla (Randall) were the quietly competitive ones. This victory launched a great run of performances and team and individual accomplishments by our women's cross country and track & field teams under Tony's (Coach Bartlett) guidance and coaching." --- Ralph Vernacchia, WWU Hall of Fame Men's Track & Field and Cross Country Coach, 1973-87



Written by Paul Madison who served 48 years as sports information director at WWU from 1966 to 2015. He is now in his sixth year as the school's athletics historian.