How a 100-Mile Challenge Helped Kristine Renninger Reconnect with Her Alma Mater
Sometimes, there’s a moment when a place stops being just where you went to school and starts becoming something else entirely. For Kristine Renninger, that moment came three decades and countless twists and turns later.
Since competing on Colorado Mesa University’s inaugural women’s soccer team in the late 1990s, when the university was known as Mesa State College, Renninger has built a successful legal career, raised a family and competed in long-distance triathlons.
Her life had taken her all over the country. And yet, when the question “What’s next?” came up, the answer felt surprisingly clear.
Come home.
“I said, ‘Let’s move back to Grand Junction,’” she said. “We’re sporty people. My family is still here. It just made sense.”
In 2024, she returned to where it all began.
Not long after returning, CMU’s 100 for 100 Challenge gave Renninger an opportunity to reconnect with her alma mater through something that had always been central to her life: movement.
The completely virtual challenge invited alumni, friends and CMU supporters from around the world to log 100 miles in celebration of the university’s centennial year. Participants could complete the miles by running, walking, biking, swimming, hiking or choosing another activity that kept them moving. The first participant to log 100 miles would also win two VIP tickets to the CMU Through the Decades Party, presented by Shaw Construction, which was held April 10 as part of the university’s Centennial Celebration.
“I knew I could do the 100 miles quickly,” she said, laughing. “And I wanted to go to the party!”
Renninger completed the challenge first and won the tickets. But the experience also gave her a way to reconnect with CMU while supporting a cause she understood personally.
Registration fees from the challenge supported the Century Scholarship, which helps Mesa County students pursue higher education regardless of their family’s income.
“It was fun to be part of something again,” she said. “To feel connected.”
Her connection to the challenge began long before she logged those 100 miles.
Long before law school, before her life in Houston and before the early mornings spent training for an Ironman, Renninger was part of something new.
In the late 1990s, she played on Mesa State College’s inaugural women’s soccer team. The program was finding its way, and the players were building something from the ground up.
“It was really fun,” she said. “I got to live my dream of being a college athlete.”
Her path to Mesa State College and onto the soccer field was anything but predictable. She was a non-traditional student, older than many of her teammates and, she joked, the only one old enough to drive the team van to games.
She struggled early on as she navigated the sudden independence of college life, but scholarships and support helped keep her in school and on the soccer field.
“I had a partial scholarship when I was on the soccer team, and it really helped,” she said. “My mom couldn’t afford to help me with tuition, so every little bit mattered.”
Having experienced firsthand how much scholarship support can matter, Renninger found the Century Scholarship’s connection to the 100 for 100 Challenge especially meaningful.
“I think people don’t always realize how much scholarships matter,” she said. “It’s not just tuition. It’s everything. And when you’re 18, you don’t really understand what you’re signing up for with loans.”
She paused before adding, “If people had more opportunities for scholarships, even small ones, they could be life-changing.”
After graduating, Renninger attended law school in San Diego, where she initially felt out of place among classmates from larger, more prestigious institutions.
But that feeling didn’t last.
“The education I got at Mesa, the small classes and one-on-one time with professors, shaped how I think and write,” she said. “It actually gave me an advantage.”
She went on to build a successful legal career, working remotely for much of it before remote work became common. Athletics also remained a constant. From college soccer to amateur triathlons, sports continued to shape her discipline, confidence and sense of community.
“My whole life has been shaped by being an athlete,” she said. “It teaches you how to show up for yourself and for other people.”
That combination of movement, community and support made the 100 for 100 Challenge a natural way for Renninger to reconnect with her alma mater.
Her perspective has also been shaped by watching her children navigate college, internships and the realities of balancing time, work and finances. Those experiences reinforced her belief that one major opportunity does not always change a student’s life. Sometimes, a series of smaller opportunities makes the difference.
Now that she has returned to Grand Junction, Renninger continues her involvement with CMU and her support of student-athletes. Athletics helped shape who she is, and she wants students to experience that same sense of structure, belonging and possibility.
She hopes to mentor students, support teams and simply be present.
“Just having people there, people who aren’t even parents, it makes a difference,” she said.
At 54, Renninger still trains, still races, still pushes herself — sometimes to find her limits and sometimes just for the joy of moving — grateful for what her body can do.
“I just want people to keep moving,” she said. “Whatever that looks like for them. Just don’t stop.”
For Renninger, completing the 100 for 100 Challenge gave her a way to reconnect with CMU, support future students and continue giving back to the community that once supported her.
Inspired by Renninger’s story? Help fund Maverick futures by giving to the CMU Century Scholarship at engage.supportingcmu.org/century-scholarship.