Eastern Washington University Athletics

A multi-sport athlete at Eastern who won four All-Big Sky honors in track and field and two in basketball, Stephanie Ulmer competed in the javelin at the 2006 NCAA Outdoor Championships in Sacramento, Calif. She competed with a torn anterior cruciate ligament/lateral meniscus knee injury and placed 27th with a throw of 133-4. She had suffered the knee injury in her previous meet at the NCAA West Region Championships on her second throw, but still managed a 146-4 effort in her final attempt to finish 13th. Ulmer had entered the West Region meet with high hopes, having won the Big Sky Conference title for the third time in her career with a 158-8 throw. Somehow, she survived the NCAA’s regional declaration process despite her 13th-place finish. That, and her school-record 165-8 mark earlier in the season -- which would have been good enough to win the regional title -- earned her an invitation to Sacramento for the NCAA Championships. Her career-best throw of 165-8 as a senior was a school and Big Sky record for one season (now ninth in the Big Sky and fourth at EWU through the 2024 season). It was a school record for one season and now ranks fourth in Eastern history (through 2024). She won a pair of Big Sky Conference championships as a freshman (2002 with a throw of 142-7) and sophomore (2003 with a throw of 148-3), joining Joyce Rainwater (indoors in the 55 and 200) as the only Eagles to win three conference titles in the same event (entering 2024). 

After her first two Big Sky javelin titles, Ulmer had double ankle reconstruction and concentrated on basketball heading into her junior year at Eastern, sitting out the 2004 track and field season. Ulmer also earned All-Big Sky Conference honors in 2005 with a third-place finish (152-9), making her a four-time All-Big Sky selection. Only eight Eagle women’s competitors have collected more than that through 2024, and she is one of four to be a four-time selection in the same event (two indoors and two outdoors). She also was selected to Big Sky Conference All-Academic teams three times in track and field, plus four times in basketball.
 
She ended her basketball career as a first team All-Big Sky Conference selection as a senior in the 2004-05 season after earning honorable mention as a junior. She finished her 113-game career (including 96 starts) with 1,031 points and school records at the time for career three-pointers made (195) and attempted (548). Her 1,031 career points ranked ninth at the time (now 18th through the 2023-24 season). On other career lists through 2023-24, she ranks second in 3-pointers attempted (548), fourth in treys made (195), sixth in steals (184) and sixth in steals per game (1.63). At the time, her 3-point percentage (.356) ranked fourth in school history. She played on Eastern teams which were a collective 57-58 overall and 26-30 in the Big Sky in the first four seasons of the head coaching career of Wendy Schuller. Eastern advanced to the Big Sky Conference Tournament all four seasons, going 3-4 in those four appearances.
 
Ulmer was a 2001 graduate of Ellensburg, Wash., High School, where she was the school’s first four-year letter winner in volleyball, basketball and track and field. As a high school senior, Ulmer had the best high school javelin throw in the nation with a 177-9 effort that ranked second all-time in the State of Washington and eighth all-time in the United States at the time. She also scored 1,141 points in her high school basketball career, ranking second all-time at EHS at the time in 2001. Because of her accomplishments in high school, she was inducted into the Ellensburg Athletics High School Hall of Fame in 2016. After receiving her marketing/finance and education degree at EWU, she coached basketball for a year at Foothill High School in Las Vegas, and taught elementary education for five years in Nevada, Arizona and Texas. She is now the financial bookkeeper for her father, Jay, and their family trucking business, and she also owns her own cosmetology/lash artist business in her hometown of Ellensburg. She resides there with her three children – Keynan (12), Kiiara (4) and Keyshawn (1).