New Memorial Marks Site of 1985 Plane Crash

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

The last time the NCAA Division 1 Cross Country Championships took place in Wisconsin, not everyone made it home safe. 

It was 1985 and the meet was held in Milwaukee. 

Iowa State chartered a pair of small planes to take its women's cross country team and coaches back to the campus at Ames after a triumphant day. The Cyclones had finished a surprising second that day.

One of the planes got into trouble in the icy, windy conditions and never made it back home.

Head coach Ron Renko, assistant Pat Mohnihan, pilot Burton Watkins, student trainer Stephanie Streit, and team members Sheryl Maahs, Sue Baxter and Julie Rose, all perished when the small plane went down and crashed in residential Des Moines. 

The new memorial, across the street from where the lane went down, will be unveiled Nov. 25 -- 33 years to the date after the tragic accident.