When you met Susan Paige King on campus during the late 1990’s, one of the first thoughts would have to be “that young lady is really nice”. She had a seemingly never-ending smile and a pleasant personality. It was hard to believe that when she stepped on the track, she possessed a fierce determination to win and a dogged competitiveness that made her one of the greatest long distance runners to ever wear the Augustana uniform.
Not blessed with an abundance of foot speed, Paige was very much at home on the cross country course and over the 5,000 and 10,000 meter distances in track. Three times in cross country she placed in the top five of the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin meet, taking second in 1996, fourth in 1997 and culminating with an individual victory in 1998.
During her sophomore season she exploded with a superb third place finish in the NCAA Division III Midwest Regional meet and her team narrowly missed qualifying for the national meet. Paige went to the national meet as an individual and over the next two years she led the Vikings to their only two team appearances in school history. She also won a pair of Illinois Small College state titles (1996 and 1998). She helped lead Augustana to three straight CCIW titles in 1996, 1997, and 1998.
Individually, she still holds the school cross country record for fastest time in a three mile race with a time of 16:54 in 1998, and she has the third fastest clocking over 5000 meters with a time of 18:00 in 1996.
When she left cross country behind in the fall she turned her attention to track and her success there was just as impressive. Paige won four consecutive CCIW titles in the 10,000 and her junior and senior year she was a double winner in both the 5,000 and the 10,000. She helped lead the Vikings to the team title in all four years of her career.
She earned NCAA Division III All-American honors three times in track & field. She placed in both the 5,000 and 10,000 as a sophomore in 1997 and again as a senior in 1999 in the 10,000. During her career she qualified for the NCAA national meet in a total of 13 events.
Paige holds the school record in the 3000 (10:02.85) and 10,000 (36:21.85) outdoors and the 1500 (4:40.84), 3000 (10:15.27) and 5000 (17:40.21) indoors. She has the fourth fastest time in the 1000 (3:05.89) and the third fastest time in the mile (5:12.75) on the indoor list and she is second on the outdoor list in the 5000 (17:39.83) and sixth in the 1500 (4:40.48).
She was a standout in the classroom as well as she earned CoSIDA Academic All-American honors in 1999 in the At-Large Division. She was also selected as the winner of the Jack Swartz Award in the CCIW in the fall of 1998.
A native of Elmwood, Illinois, Paige graduated with degrees in education and psychology and then went to Bradley University where she earned her Master’s degree in counseling. After working as a school counselor at Willowbrook High School in Villa Park, Illinois, she is now a stay-at-home mom with her four children. Her husband Jim was a team captain in football at Augustana.
