ST. PAUL, Minn. – Longtime St. Olaf College Head Women's Cross Country and Track and Field Coach Chris Daymont and former three-sport student-athlete Julie (Hauck) Alexander '80 both received awards during the 2025 National Girls & Women in Sports Day-Minnesota Celebration on last Wednesday at the Minnesota History Center.

Daymont was honored with the Dorothy McIntyre Legacy Award and Alexander was one of three recipients of the Breaking Barriers Award at the celebration of the 39th annual National Girls & Women in Sports Day. Both honorees are members of the St. Olaf Athletic Hall of Fame, with Alexander being inducted in 2000 and Daymont in 2013.

Daymont, who coached well over 1,000 student-athletes during her 37-year coaching career at St. Olaf, received the Dorothy McIntyre Legacy Award, which is given to individuals who have dedicated themselves to a lifetime of groundbreaking results in their career, positively impacting the advancement of sports equity for girls and women in Minnesota. After having a cross country team of three runners in her first season, Daymont led St. Olaf to Midwest Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (MAIAW) state championships, top-two regional finishes, and runner-up performances at the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) Division III National Championships in just her fourth and fifth seasons.

From 1986 until her retirement in 2018, Daymont's cross country teams made 25 NCAA appearances, finished in the top 10 13 times, and won nine Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Championships among 26 top-three finishes in the conference. She earned two MIAC Coach of the Year awards, three Central Region Coach of the Year awards, and was inducted into the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Hall of Fame in 2014.

Alexander played volleyball, basketball, and softball at St. Olaf before going on to have an impactful career in sports medicine at St. Cloud State University. After joining the staff in 1989 as the first female athletic trainer in the department, Alexander was named head athletic trainer in 1999 and stayed in that role until her retirement in 2021. Alexander also served as an adjunct professor in the Athletic Training Education Program from 1992-2021.