Cross Country
An All-American in cross country and a multiple MIAC champion on the track, Cassie Funke shared her passion for running with a new generation of collegiate athletes. She helped her the Knights post second-place results at both the 2001 and 2002 MIAC Cross Country Championships before leading her squad to the crown in 2004, the program’s first conference title since 1991 and the second in program history. She was the conference’s individual runner-up as a senior, earning her second All-MIAC award. Funke turned in All-Region performances in 2002, 2003, and 2004, before capping her senior cross country season with a 22nd-place individual result at the NCAA Championships, earning her All-America status and propelling the Knights to an 11th-place team result, their best finish since 1991. Funke competed at the MIAC Indoor Track & Field Championships her final three years, contributing to Carleton’s point total each time. Her best results came as a junior, when she claimed the 3000-meter run crown and was runner-up at the 5000-meter distance, securing All-MIAC recognition for both events. During the outdoor track & field season, Funke earned three more all-conference honors and a pair of MIAC titles. After finishing as conference runner-up in the 3000-meter steeplechase as a sophomore, she smashed the MIAC Championships record for that event by more than 12 seconds the following season, a performance that came the day after she won the 10,000-meter race by 15 seconds. She broke the school steeplechase record multiple times during her career, ultimately trimming a total of more than 80 seconds off the standard when she first joined the program. Her best time (11:09.34) came at a last chance meet in 2004. Winner of Carleton’s Ele Hansen Award as a senior, Funke moved into coaching after her collegiate career concluded. She served as an assistant coach for Carleton’s women’s cross country and track & field programs for six years before securing the head coach position for both sports at Amherst College in 2012. Six years later, she made history by becoming the first female head coach of a men’s program at Amherst when she took over the men’s cross country program as well as continuing to guide the women’s team, while transitioning to an assistant coach position with the track & field programs for both genders.
A biology major at Carleton, Funke earned her master’s in kinesiology and exercise physiology from the University of Texas-Austin in 2008. he and her husband Stephen Harris (inducted into the ‘C’ Club Hall of Fame in 2016) reside in Glastonbury, Conn. with their two children.