The College of Wooster was the women's powerhouse track and field program upon the establishment of the North Coast Athletic Conference, winning the first four outdoor conference meets and two of the first four indoor ones. Rhonda Belcher was a key find by the Fighting Scots' staff to bolster the talent pool even more.
"I never ran track until I came to Wooster," shared Belcher on the inductee questionnaire. "I never considered running until one of the coaches saw me run on the track and invited me to practice with the team."
Fortunately for Wooster, the persistence to convince Belcher to join the team paid off, as she earned All-America honors as part of Wooster's sixth-place 4x100 relay (49.1) at nationals and was an eight-time conference champion. Belcher's eight first-place NCAC finishes are tied for the fifth-most in program history.
"Rhonda was a huge addition to the sprint group," shared Craig Penney, Wooster's head coach at the time. "She attacked each race with a high level of competitive desire. She responded to each challenge with the attitude and approach to win and contribute to team success."
The NCAC All-Decade Team honoree captured first as part of Wooster's 4x100 relay (50.72) at the conference championships as a first-year. The relay title was one of 10 first-place finishes for the Scots, and Wooster logged 18 all-conference performances overall. The following year, Wooster was even more dominant, logging 11 first-place finishes at the outdoor NCAC meet, three of which came from Belcher. The NCAC's top sprinter won the 100- (13.03) and 200-meter dashes (26.26) and ran on Wooster's first-place 4x100 relay (49.12) with fellow W Association Hall of Famers Univer Bukhala and Colleen McCauley. The time of 49.12 in the 4x100 relay was good for a nationals berth, where their sixth-place time helped the program to a top-25 team finish.
Wooster's deepest team just missed a top-10 national finish Belcher's junior year, where she was part of a 4x100 that narrowly came up short of All-America status, finishing ninth. At the conference level, Wooster defended its outdoor NCAC title with 13 first-place finishes and 27 All-NCAC efforts. Belcher's 12.44 won the 100-meter dash, and she was part of the first-place 4x100 relay that crossed at 48.44.
Indoor highlights for Belcher included a first-place time of 7.63 in the 60-yard dash at the 1988 conference championships won by Wooster. As a sophomore, Belcher helped the 880-yard relay win with a time of 1:52.23, and her 7.6 in the 60-yard dash was third in the conference.
After graduating with a psychology degree, Belcher pursued graduate work at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is a lead benefits specialist working for the state government in Maryland.
Belcher and her husband, James, reside in Hanover, Maryland, and have a grown daughter, Ayahna.
