Women's Cross Country | February 16, 2018
Four straight conference championships. That's what Christa Plummer is most proud of. And who could blame her? One championship is special, but four, now that's something entirely different.
From 2004-2007, Plummer helped the La Salle women's cross country team capture four consecutive Atlantic 10 titles, something that's only been done one other time in the history of A-10 women's cross country.
"We had a great team," said Plummer. "We accomplished a lot of things. And it was kind of neat because we were from this small school, and we did a really good job of putting ourselves on the map when I was there, which was a lot of fun."
Plummer made an immediate impact for the Explorers as a freshman, earning the Most Outstanding Rookie Performer award at the 2004 A-10 Cross Country Championships after she finished in sixth place, helping La Salle claim the conference crown. That was the start of a special cross country and track career and a historic championship run.
And it all happened by accident for Plummer, as she revealed.
In high school, when Plummer was looking at colleges, she didn't know much about La Salle and "stumbled upon it." When visiting Saint Joseph's and other colleges within Philadelphia, her mother mentioned, "Why don't we check out La Salle?"
So they did.
During her visit at La Salle, Plummer revealed that she ran track, and someone had advised her to meet with the track coach.
So they met.
Plummer had an impromptu meeting with long-time La Salle track and cross country coach, Charles Torpey, and the coaching staff at the time. She knew that La Salle was definitely the place for her.
"I just clicked with everyone I met that day," Plummer stated. "And I hadn't felt that at any of the other places I went to. The people were really inviting and just nice and fun to be with."
As for her La Salle teammates, she considered them family.
"We were like a family. All the way from the cross country team with the distance runners down to the sprinters, throwers and jumpers. It was like a big family. And I think that was a lot in part due to our coaches. We did everything together. A lot of those people are still friends of mine today."
Reflecting on her teammates and the memories she made, Plummer admits that the fondest memories were the team's training runs.
"Every day a big group of us would get together. We would lace up our sneakers and head out for a run. We would get to pick where we were going, and we would talk for like 10 miles. It was fun. We always had fun. Whether it was raining or whatever."
There was a strong chemistry and a clear family-like bond between Plummer and her teammates. And when meet day rolled around, the Explorers were a force to be reckoned with.
"One of the teams I was on," Plummer continued. "The fourth time that we won [the conference championship], it was kind of a team that nobody really saw doing that. So that was pretty meaningful."
While helping her team raise four championship trophies, Plummer also had a tremendous amount of individual success. In cross country, she was a four-time all-conference runner and a two-time all-region performer. Her success goes far beyond just cross country, with a very impressive track record as well, both indoor and outdoor.
At the A-10 Indoor Championships, Plummer was a two-time champion in the 3,000-meter event and was a member of the 2006 conference champion 4x800-meter relay team as well. She also won titles in the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters at the 2009 A-10 Outdoor Championships, earning Most Outstanding Track Performer honors.
Plummer held the school record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the time and was a part of the 4x1500-meter relay team that set the school record in the event in 2006.
When asked about her individual success as well as the team's accomplishments, Plummer gave credit to Coach Torpey, who she said motivated each and every one of them in different ways.
"He was great. He found a way to motivate all of us. Everyone's different. You have a group of women, and we all have our different lives and things going on in our lives. And he found a way to bring us all together and make sure that each one of us was training the way that we should be."
Earning degrees in biology and nursing, Plummer was close with a few of her nursing professors, including the mother of one of her teammates. Plummer had gotten a summer job at the hospital near her house, and she studied biology because she thought she wanted to go to medical school.
"Working in the hospital, I knew," said Plummer. "Kind of the same thing as finding La Salle, I just hit it off with the nurses. It was just something that I knew I could see myself doing and where I belonged. I've been working as a nurse for eight years now, and it's still exactly what I want to do. So it was a good decision."
Even as a nurse, she feels that same sense of family that she felt with her La Salle teammates.
"It's the same type of family atmosphere there," expressed Plummer. "The people that I work with, they're my friends, but it's more than that. We spend a lot of time together. It just seems to fit."
Looking back now, Plummer reflects on her time at La Salle, reminiscing on the good memories and recalling something that had been passed along to her as a student-athlete.
"You're going to get to a point in your life where you look back at this, and you look back at all the great things that you did and all the times that you had there," she recollected. "And you can reflect on it, but you can never go back and do those things again. You're on to life and working at a job, then you have children, or wherever your life takes you. You may run, you may go and run for another 10 years, but even if you do that, it's still never going to be exactly what it was when you were there."
Plummer urges others who were in her shoes to "embrace it while you can. Put as much energy and effort into doing the things that you enjoy while you're there. You only get a few years, and while you're there, it seems like a long time, but in hindsight it goes by in a flash."
