Eastern Washington University Athletics

Becoming the first Eastern female athlete to compete in the NCAA Track and Field Championships, Nancy Kuiper qualified both indoors and outdoors in 1991 to cap a record-breaking career. She was a four-time Big Sky champion in the shot put and two-time champ in the discus, winning a pair of titles at EWU after transferring from Boise State where she won four championships. She was the Field Athlete of the Meet in 1991 outdoors when she won the league’s shot put and discus titles for EWU with efforts of 50-11 and 153-1, respectively.
 
Kuiper sat out the 1990 season at EWU because of NCAA transfer rules that were in effect in that era. In winter of 1991, she had a school-record and personal-best throw of 50-11 to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships. She placed second in the Big Sky with a throw of 48-9 1/4 despite a jammed finger on her throwing hand. She went on to place 12th nationally with a mark of 47-2, but had she thrown her career best she would have placed seventh and earned All-America honors.
 
Outdoors, she matched her 50-11 best from the indoor season to set a school record in winning the Big Sky title despite extremely windy and stormy conditions at the championship meet in Bozeman, Mont. That mark broke her own Big Sky meet record of 47-4 set in 1988 while she was at BSU, but if fell short of the facility record held by Marcia Mecklenburg, who in 1995 would become Eastern’s head women’s track and field coach for the next 27 years. Kuiper’s career-best 50-11 mark also qualified her for a trip to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Ore. She placed 13th with a throw of 47-3, but had she achieved her career best, she would have placed ninth.
 
Her twin 50-11 performances stood as school records indoors and outdoors for 20 years until they were broken in 2011. Both also ranked in the top six all-time in Big Sky history at the time. Entering 2024, her Eastern bests indoors and outdoors in the shot put (50-11) both rank second in school history, and her best discus throw outdoors (155-1) is eighth. Including her seasons at Boise State, Kuiper scored 50 total points at Big Sky outdoor meets. She won a pair of Big Sky Athlete of the Week honors both indoors and outdoors in 1991.
 
Outstanding academically, she was EWU’s female recipient of the prestigious Big Sky Conference Scholar-Athlete Award following the completion of her collegiate eligibility in 1991. After graduating from Eastern in 1992 with her degree in physical education, she spent the next three decades working with youth via coaching and directing several youth programs, mostly in Coulee Dam, Wash., where she grew up. She was a 1986 graduate of Lake Roosevelt High School where she was a six-time State A champion in the shot put and discus.