GRETCHEN
SAAR TRIANTOS '77
Inducted 1996
Gretchen Saar Triantos '77 made track history at Montgomery College.
She was not only the first woman to compete with the all-male track team, but also the
first MC runner--male or female-- to win a gold medal at the National Junior College
Athletic Association Track Championships.
Triantos competed against men because there was no women's track
program at the time. Though Triantos never placed among the top three in a race, she
recorded times low enough to qualify her for the women's national meet. She would often
start with the men in a mile race and drop out halfway through to get a clocking for the
880-yard run. In her first-ever women's competition, the JUCO Championships in 1997,
Triantos won a gold medal in the 880 and a bronze in the mile.
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impressed her coach, Jim Davis, and her competitors alike was her spirit. Davis said it
was refreshing to coach somebody who was so enthusiastic. She was so popular at the
National Championships that women on the other teams were rooting for her to win. Triantos's love of running led her to another love--her husband, Vasili. Her
running partner at Montgomery College, Vasili has been at her side for more than 18 years.
The Triantoses have two boys, Eliot and Alec.
Triantos still competes in road races in the Montgomery County Road
Runners Club. In addition, she works part time at Safeway and volunteers with Pets on
Wheels.
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