Mary Lynn Guyer Barnwell (2000) - Hall of Fame - Montana State University Athletics

Mary Lynn Guyer Barnwell

Induction:
2000
Class:
1984

Mary Lynn (Guyer) Barnwell- Track and Field, 1981-84 Years at MSU: 1981-84 Honors Earned: Four-time Conference Champion Twice finished 13th at NCAA Championships MSU female Athlete of the Year, 1984 Big Sky All-Decade Team Family: husband Bob, daughters Allison, McKenzie and Isabel\ Hometown: Carson City, Nevada Dale Kennedy remembers the thought that passed through his mind the first time he saw Mary Lynn Guyer run. “’Oh my gosh,’ I thought,” Kennedy recalls thinking as he watched Montana State’s women’s cross country intrasquad meet in early September, 1982. A young coach in his own right- Kennedy had arrived just a year before- Kennedy was in the formative stages of building what would become a dynasty at Montana State. His squad would win the Big Sky indoor track title in ’83, and would win back-to-back cross country championships in ’85 and ’86. In fact, under Kennedy’s guidance Montana State would produce an impressive parade of distance runners, conference champions and All Americas, that remains the staple of the MSU program to this day. And leading that parade is the group’s standard bearer, Mary Lynn Guyer, whose sensational career we celebrate tonight. That Guyer ended up at MSU at all was a surprise. After two years at Washington State, the Charson City, Nev., native transferred to Central Oregan, and took a one-year hiatus from competition. “I have no reason for being here at all,” Guyer wrote at one point during her career. “I didn’t know a thing about the program until after I applied and got here. I had heard it was really nice.” She showed up in Kennedy’s driveway on the eve of MSU’s 1982 cross country intrasquad meet. Her impact was immediate. “It looked like we were going to have a good team anyway, but you put Mary Lynn on the track with Janet Buntin, and wow, then we had something.” Guyer, in her own right, was really something. She finished second at the Mountain West Conference cross country championships during her first fall and was 7th at the NCAA District 7 race, as well. She won the Conference 3000m outdoors in ’83, and indoors in ’84. She was 13th at the 1984 NCAA Championships in the 5000m and the 10,000m in ’84, and was MSU’s Female Athlete in ’83-84.