Lauren Martin won multiple All-American recognitions during her career at Adams State. Photo by Alan Versaw.
Colorado, of course, has junior colleges, but those schools have traditionally been reluctant to embrace sports in the fashion that our neighbors to the east in Kansas have.
Some of that is starting to change. Trinidad State Junior College is adding men's and women's cross country in the fall. And, they selected a coach who will help lend instant recognition to the program in Lauren Martin. Not only is Lauren Martin an eight-time DII All-American, but she is also the daughter of Damon Martin, long-time coach at Adams State University.
Martin also ran high school cross country at Alamosa High School, where she was part of the Mean Moose state championship team in 2009, finishing ninth as an individual in the 4A race.
At first glance, you would think this means Lauren Martin would be moving to Trinidad, but it appears the cross country program will be run primarily out of the Alamosa campus of Trinidad State Junior College. A press release from the school, however, suggests that a piece of the program could also be run from the Trinidad campus. All of this strongly hints at TSJC becoming something of an unofficial feeder program for Adams State, though student-athletes would not be locked into that model.
Trinidad State Junior College has had a cross country program in the past, but it has been nearly 20 years now since the program was abandoned, and that program was run out of the school's main Trinidad campus.
At this point, track and field does not appear to be in the works for TSJC.
Trinidad State Junior College Press Release