The RoundHouse | 8/4/2021 9:56:00 AM

 
Aliphine Tuliamuk is Wichita State's greatest female track and field athlete and the owner of 13 NCAA All-American honors in track and cross country.
 
She is also an Olympian, a new mother (daughter Zoe was born Jan. 13) and an athlete willing to speak out on important issues. Recently, she is lending her voice and example to advocate for female athletes who compete as mothers.
 
On Friday (4 p.m. USA), she runs in the Olympic Marathon (organizers moved the time up by an hour due to heat concerns). Tuliamuk, from Kenya, became an American citizen in 2016.
 
Tuliamuk highlighted her Shocker career by finishing second in the 10,000 meters in the 2012 and 2013 NCAA Outdoor Championships and fourth in the 2012 NCAA Cross Country Championships.
 
It did not take coaches and teammates long to recognize her talent and focus after she transferred to Wichita State in 2011 from Iowa State. She finished 13^th in the NCAA cross country meet in 2010 as a Cyclone and her upward trajectory continued as a Shocker.
 
What impressions did Aliphine make at Wichita State? Here are the memories from coaches, teammates, and friends:
 
Sharon Zeller (teammate at Wichita State):  I don't think she's really changed much. It seems like she is still going after everything she wants hard-core. Having her baby before the Olympics – that's very much her. She wanted it. She was like "I'm going to make this happen, but I also want the Olympics, so I'm going to make that happen."
 
Pretty inspiring.
 
It's really hard to have a baby and then continue running at the same level, to have the support at the same level, to have the support to keep going. She's showing other females they can do it, too.
 
She would do lots of imitations. She would tell stories about where she grew up. One time, I remember she decided she wanted to take her braids out. She had a bunch of us helping her on the bus. When we were done, her hair was sticking out everywhere and she had us all taking pictures with her because she thought it was the best thing ever. She was fun to be around.
 
Tomas Cotter (teammate at Wichita State): Myself, Coach (Kirk) Hunter and Aliphine, in the post-season, NCAA regionals, NCAA championships, we were kind of a trio that would get there quite often, so we would bond.
 
She would be a bit extra in terms of travel. I would sit beside her on the airplane and she would be head to toe in layers upon layers of clothing with a blanket over her face, leaning all over me. You could never get mad at her. Coach Hunter would be laughing, because it was something else.
 
On a serious note, she was such a hard worker. She would work out with the guys all the time because she was on such another level. On long run days, she would sometimes be two, three minutes ahead of me. I would be like "Geez, I don' t know how she had the energy to keep going, but she did."
 
It didn't matter what level you were at, what kind of teammate you were, she would always be talking to all kinds of people.  She would always try to relate to other people. She would find people with common bonds, I think, always trying to learn and bond. And not always about running.
 
Kirk Hunter (distance coach at Wichita State): She needed to go to Boston to get a qualifier for the 3,000 meters to go to the NCAA Championships (in 2012). She was determined to get it. Looking around, Boston (BU Terrier Invitational) was the only place we could find anybody to race. Finding people to race Aliphine was very difficult. They just didn't exist back then.
 
We get there and she gets sick. She's really getting sick. Very sick. Then, she was also upset because there were family issues at home she was very concerned about. You just never see Aliphine have issues like that. It was bad enough . . . I told Aliphine "Why don't we just go home."
 
The next day, I get up and she's even worse. She was determined she was going to do it. She said, "I've got to try." She warms up and she's ready to go and you can tell she's struggling.
 
She gets on the line, gun goes off, and she ran great. I think it was a 23-second PR (personal record) that day, almost won the race against the pro athlete that out-leaned her right at the line. Qualified for the NCAA Championships. Walks over, does her interview with FloTrack, keeping her smile up and everything. As soon as the camera goes off, she basically collapses because she's so sick. I know I helped her out of that place.
 
I always knew she was mentally tough. I always knew she had a tremendous desire. Things just didn't get in the way of it. That was probably the toughest thing I've ever seen any athlete ever do in terms of mental strength.
 
Sickness is one thing. The stress from the things going on at home combined with that, and the pressure to get her time, all those things combined were enormous. I still don't know how she did it. At that point, I thought she could do anything in the world.
 
 

Marathoner. Olympian. Mom.

Former Shocker @mamaZoeCherotch helped change the game for mothers competing in #Tokyo2020.

"It boggles my mind to think that in 2021 we are still telling mothers 'No. If you decide to be a mom, then you can't go to work.'"

via @CBSThisMorning pic.twitter.com/dqIaC3iMAG

— Go Shockers (@GoShockers) August 3, 2021

Debbie Kennedy (Friend): She's in Tokyo, preparing for the biggest race. She knows my granddaughter (Karynne David) is down here in Houston at the Junior Olympics. Karynne didn't qualify for the semifinals, which is difficult her first time.
 
Aliphine wrote her the sweetest note. Even though, she should be concentrating on herself, she always concentrates on others. Even today, she is emailed my granddaughter at the Junior Olympics, giving her encouragement.
 
That just wrapped up Aliphine Tuliamuk.
 
She's been writing back and talking to Karynne throughout her whole season. We laugh and go "Karynne, you're getting pep talks by an Olympian."
 
Mike Kennedy (radio voice of the Shockers, husband of Debbie Kennedy): She told Karynne earlier . . . "I want you go to Wichita State and break all my records." Karynne said "But I'm a sprinter." Aliphine said "All long-distance runners started out as sprinters."
 
Debbie got to know her better first. I kind of got to know her through Debbie. I've found her to be a very determined young woman. She is so small, physically, in stature, it seems to especially strike you how determined she is. I think she is one of those people that almost does better if she can find a reason to have a chip on her shoulder.
 
I know she feels like she's been dismissed because she had a baby during this interim between winning the Olympic Trials last year and through the pandemic. That just spurs her on. That's something about her that's just amazing. She just won't give up.
 
Steve Rainbolt (director of track and field and cross country): What a tough person. She would not be denied.
 
At lots and lots of programs around the country, the developing distance runners on the men's side will sometimes run with the great female distance runners to help pace them. Here at Wichita State, it was not only the developing distance runners on the men's side, it was the upper-level guys like Tomas Cotter, who was an All-American for us.
 
He didn't want to do it. She was too tough. She ran in such a way that it was difficult for even some of our top guys to hang with her on some of the workouts. She was just an unbelievable grinder and held herself to an unbelievably high standard.
 
With regard to helping the team, there was nothing prima donna about her. She thought at a high level. She wanted us to help her achieve at a high level. If that meant getting to big races, she was expecting we would get her to big races, and rightfully so. She deserved to be in big races and she needed to be in big races. When it came time to help the team, she was all in, 100 percent.
 
Laura Burke (teammate at Wichita State): We knew she was going to be special, because she trained with the guys. She put in the work and when she was running, she was focused on that.
 
She was also a really fun personality to be around. She loved to joke around. Always smiling. I remember the guys nicknamed her "The Phine." They would always say "Pheeeen." It was a really good team atmosphere having her on the team.
 
I co-hosted her when she was looking to come to Wichita State. She was determined to go get pizza. So, we went and got pizza from Pizza Hut. I just remember that that made us laugh.
 
Pat Wilson (assistant coach at Wichita State): I don't know if I've ever met somebody so driven. Just watching how she operated every day; you could tell that there was always training on her mind. Great personality. You could joke around with her about anything. She wasn't the quiet type, like a lot of athletes we have. You felt comfortable approaching her.
 
Samantha Shukla (teammate at Wichita State): She had a heart for people. She was never someone who looked down on others. Encouraging, trying to inspire, especially to me. I had a lot of deep conversations with her. She was very helpful. She was an international athlete, and I was an international athlete. We related on that path, missing home, missing family. The struggles of an international athlete.
 
When you're an international athlete, it seems like two times the pressure. Wanting to be the best athlete you can be, because you're far away from home. Then there's the negative side of that, is that we don't have our family here to lean on like local athletes. She handled it really well and she was able to relate to me. She was like a big sister, in a sense, along with (teammate) Tonya Nero.
 
Emilea Finley (former teammate at Wichita State): It felt like she was kind of like the mom on the team, guiding us. I felt like she had a wisdom to her, which probably comes from being a senior.
 
A funny thing is, she is a strong, strong athlete. But she didn't like to do abs (abdominal workouts). She would always be dreading them. That was probably the one thing that it didn't seem like was on the top of her list. Now, abs and strength training, it seems like (in social media posts) it's a bigger priority now. Strength training is something she's really added into the program, where (at WSU) I think she would rather go do an extra run.
 
Larry Staton (former Shocker runner and member of Shocker Track Backers): Joyous attitude. You could tell she was having fun. Always concerned about others, how they were doing in their training. She would ask me how I was doing and gave me a few hints.
 
Heidi Benton (assistant coach at Wichita State): She probably doesn't eat as many French fries as she used to. She evolved. I can't tell you the moment when the switch flipped, but when it was flipped, it was clearly evident. She wasn't going to revert back to the Aliphine that showed up at Wichita State that ordered French fries and eating Panda Express every single meal.
 
Selfishness is not bad, because she wanted to be good. With that, comes a little selfishness. There is that air of "I'm going to get it done despite an obstacle." Determined. Self-advocating. I'm sure she felt some pressure to perform and be strong and to compete at the level she was capable of, because it was expected. I say 'selfish', but that's part of it, being focused. But being a cheerleader, as well, still being a team player in that regard. She was a good example. Never had to worry about her academically.
 
Leadership. And that can go into motherhood. Being a new mother and being allowed to have her daughter with her in Tokyo. That's self-advocating. That's being the best that she can be as a mother, as an athlete. She strives to be good at everything she does, and some athletes aren't like that, necessarily.
 
Scott Reed (volunteer coach and training partner at Wichita State): I ended up working with her and pacing her through workouts, since I was just coming off my undergraduate career. She certainly kept me in shape, helping her through those workouts. Even when the workouts were hard and she didn't want to go on, sometimes grudgingly, she would always continue going on.
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.