LARAMIE – Twenty-five years after the loss of eight Wyoming cross country runners, the Cowboys and Cowgirls will honor their former teammates the best way they know how.
 
By running in their memory.
 
About 15 current members of the UW cross country team will participate in the annual "Memory of the 8" race at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in Gillette.
 
During the eight-mile run around town, the community will remember Morgan McLeland, 21, of Gillette and his seven Cowboy teammates lost on Sept. 16, 2001, in a two-car collision that occurred 17 miles south of Laramie on U.S. 287 near Tie Siding when their vehicle was hit head-on by a southbound pickup truck.
 
Justin Lambert-Belanger, 20, of Timmins, Ontario; Cody Brown, 21, of Hudson, Colorado; Kyle Johnson, 20, of Riverton; Joshua Jones, 22, of Salem, Oregon; Kevin Salverson, 19, of Cheyenne; Nicholas Schabron, 20, of Laramie; and Shane Shatto, 19, of Douglas died together with McLeland after a night of team bonding.
 
"It's super important to keep their memory and to keep reminding the team of part of our history," UW cross country coach Scott Dahlberg said. "Even though 25 years is a marker, this is on the timeline every year. It's important to remember our history, even though it's a tragic part of our history and it's hard to even put into words. To be a part of that group during that time, whether it's family, friends, teammates, coach, I couldn't fathom it.
 
"The best thing we can do is to keep the memory in front of our minds."
 
There are memorials on campus in Laramie and throughout the state to the lost Cowboys.
 
The image of the Hermes foot and wings symbol with an "8" inscribed at the ankle of his socks — a tribute to the Wyoming Eight — can be spotted throughout UW's athletic facilities.
 
The cross country team trains on the Memorial 8 Track. They pass by the "Come Run With Me" memorial located outside the War Memorial Fieldhouse every day on the way to practice.
 
There is also a memorial at Riverton High School honoring the eight and a large statue of Shatto's silhouette atop a steep hill behind Douglas High School.
 
"May we look up to Shane for strength and perseverance," the plaque reads.
 
Dahlberg was still a teenager and high school runner aspiring to compete in college in 2001. He went on to earn all-American honors three times at Western State before breaking into coaching as an assistant at his alma mater and Colorado State.
 
Now in his 10^th season at UW, Dahlberg led the Cowboys to the men's NCAA Championships in 2018 for the first time since 1986 and again in 2024. Katelyn Mitchem qualified for the women's NCAA Championships as an individual in 2022.
 
None of the student-athletes on this year's cross country teams were even born in 2001 when the UW program suffered its stunning loss five days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
 
"Part of remembering that group of eight guys is also to be in the present," Dahlberg said. "Let's remember what we have in front of us and take care of each other and not take for granted the time we have in doing the things we're doing. Whether that is within the team or outside the team, it's a good reminder for everybody to just not take what we have in front of us for granted."
 
Jim Sanchez coached 14 NCAA All-Americans at UW, including three-time WAC champion John Wodny (1986, 1987, 1989) and Cowgirls running pioneer Andrea Everett Blocher, who won the 1983 conference cross country title.

Despite the incredible highs the program experienced in competition, Sanchez is most remembered for keeping the program together in the painful hours and years following Sept. 16, 2001. He attended all eight funerals, comforting the rest of the team and families of the victims in the aftermath of the Wyoming Eight tragedy, and then rebuilt the Cowboys.

"It still haunts me," Sanchez said in 2024 before being inducted into the UW Athletics Hall of Fame. "It was really hard. We didn't have too many boys left and every time I start talking about the girls, I tear up just for what they went through and the look on their faces.
 
"We still carry the torch, and we quietly beat the drums. In the background I can always hear the drums beating and we're always thinking about them."
 
Follow Ryan for more stories on Wyoming athletics on X at @By_RyanThorburn on Facebook at Wyoming Athletics and Instagram at wyoathletics. Also follow him at Pokes Insider at Gowyo.com/pokesinsider.
 
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