One of the best runners ever to come out of Sweet Home, Daisy Lalonde, signed a letter of intent Tuesday, May 27, to compete for Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, Colo.
Lalonde spent her high school years at East Linn Christian Academy, but she is well known to many Sweet Home athletes and their families because she attended Holley Elementary and Sweet Home Junior High – up until COVID shut Sweet Home schools, and she has swum for Sweet Home all four years in high school competing on state relay teams as a junior and senior.
Lalonde, though, just won the 2A 1500 and 3000 state titles for the third time after winning the state cross-country championship twice – and finishing second and third the other two times.
Three days after the signing ceremony she outkicked Santiam’s Averie Peterson down the stretch to win the 1500 Friday evening in a meet-record 4:41.35 in a finish that left both runners on the turf. She ran 17.39 for 5000 meters last fall in Albany.
Lalonde had taken a break from the 2A girls pole vault competition (she finished third with a jump 8-2¾) to run the 1500.
“She was one of the hardest workers I’ve ever coached,” said Kellen Peters, head coach of the East Linn track program and the Eagles’ former cross-country coach. “She’s been successful because she has the talent and she works hard.”
Sydney Nichol Roth, who has coached Lalonde in cross-country during the final three years of her high school career, said it was hard to tire Lalonde out.
“I just could not get a workout to get her dead tired,” Roth said. “I just had to work and work and up the ante to get this girl tired from a workout. I finally did it.”
She said Lalonde has had a big influence on her teammates, encouraging them and being a spiritual leader.
“She really affects the way people talk to each other and their attitude. She has a genuine heart of gold.”
Lalonde said she chose Colorado Mesa, an NCAA Division II school, because she likes the area and Coach Travis Floeck, whom she got to know while participating in the Steens Mountain Running Camp.
“I went to Steens Mountain the summer after my freshman year, and then I kept going back,” Lalonde said. “I just fell in love with the place. And Travis Floeck, who’s the coach from CMU, also went there, and then I think that’s where he found me.
“He’s been watching my times and reached out. And I wasn’t too sure at first, but then I visited the college and I was researching them, and they just seem like the best fit.”
She told the ELCA crowd at the signing ceremony that “Colorado is gorgeous. There’s a lot of trails to run, and their coach is really cool.”
The Mavericks compete in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, which is composed of 15 schools spread throughout various western states from South Dakota to New Mexico.
Lalonde said she plans to major in civil engineering with a view of getting into forestry.
“’ve done a couple of job shadows for land surveying, and I really like the timber company, so I’m hoping to go down that route. That’s my plan so far.