Running to the Altar

Alex Anderson and Jennika Wright. They first met in 2011
 at a track & field social. He proposed at the 2014 Big Sky Outdoor
Track & Field Championships from the medal podium
after winning the gold in the men's triple jump.

Earlier this summer when work began on the fall 2014 edition of the SUU In View Alumni Magazine, we decided to include a fun story about the marriage proposal of track & field athletes Jennika Wright and Alex Anderson ('14). Their proposal took place during the 2014 Big Sky Outdoor Track & Field Championships and the couple were married August 9, 2014. 

Their experience got us to thinking about all the other couples who met while at SUU. So we asked our alumni, via Facebook, to share how they met their spouse along with their proposal story. Here are the stories and comments that were shared: 

• Chad Carter:  I met my wife in stats class. I invited her to my study group and the probabilities worked their magic. I proposed on dixie rock in st George.
  
  
• Christie Fisher: I met my husband while attending SUU. He was a friend of a friend and we spent a lot of our courting time at SUU. We even spent plenty of dates on campus. We were lucky enough to graduate the same day after three years of marriage, with our baby girl attending. SUU will always hold a special place in our hearts!
  
  
• Kathy LaRussa:  I saw my future husband leaning against a wall in front of Juniper after a football practice. I remember at that exact moment thinking, "if I could marry anyone, this is the man I would choose". 3 years later we were married, and that was 38 years ago!
  
  
• Michael Winslow:  I met my wife at SUU. We were both in the band and both music ed majors! We have been happily married for 12 years and both of us are teaching music in St. George.
  
  
• Cara Reese:  I met my husband in a study group for an accounting class. We didn't start dating until a year later and then were engaged 3 months later. We will be married for 5 years in August.
  
  
• Lisa Childs: I met my husband on the first day of my freshman year in the bookstore in 2011. It was the most romantic and meant to be story, and every girl swoons when she hears it. SUU is the best school ever, and we had the most incredible memories there.
  
  
• Maggie Hurst:  I met my husband in German class at SUU. He proposed at Three Peaks. We got married during Spring Break of my Senior year. '06. He also graduated from SUU in '09. We have so many happy memories of SUU and Cedar City. Picnics on campus. Homecoming. Shakespeare Festival.
  
  
• Julie Wasden Hunt:  I met my husband Samuel Matthews Hunt while I was a student secretary in the biology department office and he was a biology student. Seventeen years ago...still as happy as the day we met! 
  
  
  
  

• Justin King: I was an RA on campus, and my fiancé was a resident. I proposed two years later, shortly before graduation.
  
  
• Jennifer Carroll Springer: These are all very sweet, but my guess is few state universities outside of Utah would bother asking this because it (getting married and starting a family while still in college) is extremely rare outside of Utah. Cheers to all your young loves (and to Utah for being so different and original...ha ha)!
  
  
• Amy-Sue Hales:  I met my husband our freshman year. We both lived in Juniper Hall. We went on many dates on campus. Some of my favorites were the concerts, dances, a hypnotist show and capture the flag on campus. I even took an astronomy class with him so I could spend more time with him up at the observatory looking at the stars  Because of timing we didn't get married 10 yrs later, but we often talk about how we met at SUU. Some of our favorite memories were at SUU. Thanks to SUU I met my husband!! Happily married for 10 years.
  
  
• Amy Larsen Guymon: I met my husband at SUU. We both lived in College Ave. we were also both education majors as well. I may have even pulled some strings to get him into the special ed program;). He proposed to me up at C on the mountain and we were married May 1998. We had 2 children while at SUU and have since added 3 more!
  
  
• Maddie Wiscombe Sopeña: I met my husband Gus J Sopeña at SUU. We were both Physical Education majors. We both have always known we wanted to teach PE. He wanted to coach basketball and I wanted to coach soccer. He helped with the Men's Basketball team under Roger Reid while there. We took the same classes; at first we were surprised to see each other in the sane classes. Eventually, after we had met and went on a couple of dates, we took the same classes together, even partnered up on all the group projects. We even went to the same middle school (cedar) for Dr. Lopour's adaptive PE class. We didn't know each other at the time but Gus would always sign in at the front office after I did- coincidence? We both student taught up in Utah county. We eventually put SUU on hold for a semester so we could go out to Virginia so I could play collegiate soccer. We came back to SUU and got engaged. (I went on a National Treasure themed hunt of significant places to us throughout Utah County). We were married 3 years ago on July 9th. We both graduated from SUU with our bachelors degrees. We are both teaching PE in Utah County, and both teaching in Provo School District. Gus is coaching basketball and I'm coaching soccer. We have a beautiful 9 month old daughter, Brielle, and life is just fantastic! It's all thanks to the great institution of SUU! We both eyed attending the state's best educational program and I'm grateful we both had the same vision to attend the same university. We absolutely loved our time in Cedar City. SUU will always be very special to the Sopeña family! It's where we got started. Thanks SUU! Go T-Birds!
  
  
• Caroleen Chamberlain: I took an Econ class and he was the student assistant for mr. Schmitz. We also took a Success inMarriage class at the LDSInstitute, he asked to take me home when we were watching the drama production Princess and the Pea in 1967. He was on the senate. We were married that fall. He lived Oak Hall and I lived in Manzanita. 20 yrs later, our son loved in the very hall F that I lived in. We have 8 of our 12 children (includes in-laws) attend SUU. My father in law went to the BA as did numerous aunts uncles cousins etc. I didn't graduate then, I went back 30 yrs later and finished my early childhood and taught kindergarten in Orderville for 8 yrs. I just retired in May and we are planning on an LDS mission the end of the year.
  
  
• Megan Stephens: My husband and I met at SUU our freshman year 2006. We both lived in Juniper Hall, but we didn't officially meet until Homecoming Week at the Main Street Fair...We kissed on Old Sorrel on Homecoming Eve to become True T-Birds. Six months later he left on his mission to France and told me not to wait for him (which I hadn't planned on doing, but it kind of seemed to happen anyway lol) He returned two years later, and we picked up right where we had left off. He proposed the following Valentine's Day, we married that summer and had our first child later that year. 

• Hayley Titus Winslow: I had 3 classes with my future husband throughout my freshman year. We had to sing in front of each other in class voice, we played our instruments in small ensembles nearly every day. We each remember every other person in those classes EXCEPT each other  He left to serve an LDS mission and when he returned we ran into each other in the music building hallway. He was wearing a yellow shirt and was carrying his trombone. I remembered he had played before and he looked a little familiar. Later that week, he called my house and asked me on a date (I found out later he had decided to ask out whoever it was that answered the phone- lucky me). We were engaged 6 weeks later and were married within 6 months.
  
  PS- my husband is Michael Winslow who posted above. He gave the lame version so I HAD to add the longer story 

• Kami Syrett Stevens: I went with one of my roommates to meet people in our apartment complex. I saw Mike and told my roommate he had the most gorgeous eyes i had ever seen. I told her i was going to get a date with him. She bet me i couldn't kiss him by February (it was October). I asked him out and from the way he acted so bored i thought, i will never hear from him again. A week later he was at my door asking for me and the rest is history! Oh, my roommate lost the bet!!
  
  
• Joe Oliver: We met at SUU in January 1996. On Valentine's Day she actually proposed to me. But I was traditional, so when her ring came in it was our 1 month anniversary of our first date and I couldn't wait. I proposed to her in the middle of a snow storm on the 50 yard line of the football field. We both graduated in 1998 from SUU and we've been together ever since.
  
  
• Meleece Hansen: My husband was a star on the track team and I was a student athletic trainer. He pulled his hamstring and I helped him get healthy, and the rest is history! He proposed to me in one of the suites in the football stadium. There were lights on the football field that said, "Will You Marry Me?" and his friends set off fireworks. ; )
  
  
• Kylee Landon:  I knew by husband's brother and sister in law before I met him. My husband was out of the country and his brother and sister in law would always tell me I needed to go out with him when he got back, so when he finally came back they set up a triple date with some other friends of ours. It was the first day of the spring semester in 2010 and our date was set for that night. But when I walked into my Spanish class that morning, a stranger asked me what my name was, and although I was confused and a little creeped out, he told me he was the guy I was set up with. We met before we were "supposed" to meet! We ended up dating for about a year and a half, and got married in Las Vegas. Also everyone in that Spanish class got to witness our "love story" because they all were there on day 1. Bless them...
  
  
• Mandy Whitaker: I met my husband when he came down to visit campus and his sister. Monica was my sorority sister and we went the institute dance where he asked me to dance and the rest is history!
  
  
• Katie Stander Miller: My husband and I met through mutual friends. We also would see each other at the gym where I worked. Then one day we had math classes next to each other and we finally talked to each other for the first time.
  
  
• Chelsey Macfarlane: We met at SUU back in 2010 he was my chemistry tutor.
  
  
• Angela Leddy: I met my husband in the science building in our freshman math class and we also had the same English class the next day. One year later he proposed to me in the same classroom that we met.
  
  
• Wes Mangum: I met my wife at SUU in January of 2008, while we worked as janitors in the Student center. I somehow managed to get a date out of her in the he early morning hours wearing one of those stylish vacuum backpacks. Six years later, two kids, and one year of law school under our belts, it is still the best decision I have ever made.
  
  
• Kacy "Smith" Backlund: My husband Bradford M. Backlund and I met while living at the Stadium Way apartments. He said he saw me driving in my little red civic and had to meet me. I was friends with one if his roommates and so he and his roommate pretended to go get the mail, but really just wanted to stop by to say hi. The rest is history. We dated for about 8 months and then he proposed at the "C"!:)))
  
  
• Bradford. M. Backlund:  Kacy 'Smith' Backlund and Bradford M. Backlund now happily married for a little over 12 years and two amazing boys!!
  
  
• Jess Price Wayman: Justin Wayman and I met in the fall of 2009 at Country Swing Dance Club at SUU. I was a freshman excited to learn how to do all the tricks and Justin an instructor. He says he still remembers the outfit I wore the night we met right down to the belt buckle. We spent almost every Wednesday night together. He finally asked for my number and we hit it off quite nicely. Four years later on Valentine's Day, he proposed. We were married July 27, 2013! We are quickly approaching our 1yr anniversary and often reflect back on the wonderful night at SUU Swing Dance Club that we met! We have continued dancing and now teach other couples to Swing Dance as well!
  
  
• Kelli Ellertson Blake:  My parents met at SUSC when they were students in 69' and my dad proposed the next year. I thought they had a perfect love story do when I went to SUU I was excited. Kirk and I met in 2005 at a Presidential Ambassador retreat. We saw each other a lot doing on campus events and tours. He propose after 2.5 months of knowing each other on upper campus by the waterfall during Distinguished Scholars day. We were married 1.5 months later. We finished school and Kirk worked there for over 5 years.
  
  
• Tawny Betts: My Husband lived in my apartment building, and I liked his roommate. 

• Emmy Brown: On study day in 2011, I went with a bunch of friends to Sand Hollow to cliff jump. This weird guy ( Rich Fauci )I'd never met ripped off a sleeve on his shirt and said, "Will you wear this for me?" I begrudgingly took it. A year later he punched my fish and stole my Oreo brownies. Another year later, we talked constantly over the summer. The next summer, he was my rebound after a bad break up and even though I said I'd never even kiss him, he won me over by kissing me in the rain. We got a dog and both graduated in '14. We're planning our life together currently, but our love story continues...
  
  
• Kol Gibson:  My wife Kelli and I have known each other since we were four years old, but SUU is where we fell in love. In 2011, she started as a freshman and I came back to school after serving a mission. We had choir together, but we didn't date. That fall semester, we spent most of our free time together and did almost every school activity hand in hand. In March of 2012, I told her that I loved her for the first time, and I asked her out on a date. We dated for the following months, and on September 14th of 2012, I took her up to the third floor of the library again, told her how much I loved her, and asked her to marry me. She said 'yes,' and we were married on December 15, 2012.
  
  
• Shea Diepeveen: My husband & I met at SUU through some mutual friends. After a year of dating, he took me out behind the golf course and wrote 'Will you marry me?' in flames over the snow!
  
  
• Marisa Wonnacott: My husband and I met at an activity on campus where we found out we lived in the same apartment complex. We quickly became close friends and he finally asked me out at the end of Fall Semester 2009 just before I graduated. We continued to date long distance after I graduated and were married in 2011. We spent the next 2 years in cedar while he finished his bachelors degree. SUU will always be a special place to us.
  
  
• Ashley Goodrich Dixon: It was impossible for Jay and I not to meet at SUU; our paths crossed in so many ways. We both held positions in SUUSA, we were both involved in Greek organizations (he's a Sigma Nu, I'm an Alpha Phi), and we were both radio DJs for Power 91. With so much in common, we had to get together! After dating for ten months, he came to my house in the middle of the night, woke me up and whisked me away to the top of the Providence Lighthouse where he proposed. We were married October 9, 2004, which also happened to be SUU's homecoming game day. I love looking at pictures from our wedding reception with so many people dressed in red with painted faces, rushing through our line, scarfing up cake so they wouldn't miss kick-off. This year we celebrate our ten year anniversary! We owe so much to SUU and will always try our hardest to return and visit as often as possible.
  
  
• Kendra Gleason Wheeler:  I met my husband through my friend the SUU tennis team. She was dating someone on the basketball team and my husband also played. We had fun double dates as we all had so much in common. In 2001 the basketball team made it to the NCAA tournament. Such a fun year for SUU to get such national coverage. Sometimes our vans would pass on the freeway tennis heading to the Las Vegas airport and basketball on their way back. We all graduated from SUU, and now its been over 10 years of marriage for both couples and 5 kids between us. Grateful for our SUU education, the amazing experience, and for the athletic department.