A Legacy in Motion

Jill Jamison loves to run. She has ever since her time at King’s High School in Seattle. She has run through college, through multiple careers, through life milestones. In her time at George Fox, she earned 14 All-America awards, and became the first Bruin athlete to be inducted in the NAIA Hall of Fame in 1998. After college, she even won the Seattle Marathon.

She doesn’t just run. She excels at it.

Emily Foote comes from a family of runners. Her mom, Denise, was a high school cross country coach, while her siblings, Alex and Alyssa, both ran in college. Emily herself ran at the Division I level for four years, graduating from Oregon State in 2024. She was an alternate at both the NCAA Championships and West Regionals, and raced in the Pac-12 Championships for the Beavers.

She doesn’t just run. She excels at it.

And on October 18, 2025, these two runners’ paths intersected at the George Oja Invitational. Foote got out of the gates strong, ran hard, and downed a 34-year old George Fox program record in the 6k — one set by current GFU math professor Jill Jamison in 1991.

It all started with an email that George Fox cross country head coach Mike Wilson received two days prior to the Bruins’ start to the year — a seemingly harmless one titled “cross country season.”

Hi Mike,

My name is Emily Foote. I ran cross country and track for Oregon State University and graduated in 2024. I am now currently enrolled at the George Fox Portland location for a Masters in the arts of teaching. I am in the accelerated program so I started in June and will end in April. I am emailing you because I believe I have extra cross country eligibility from 2020 covid year. I'm not sure if I am eligible to run with my program and location, or if it is too late, but I thought I would reach out. I love cross country and have been training on my own, so I would be interested in running  for George Fox. I’m looking forward to hearing from you!

Thanks,

Emily Foote

Wilson read the email and looked at Foote’s times online. The two called later that day and determined that she did have remaining eligibility. Two weeks later, Foote was racing for the Bruins at the PLU Invite.

While Foote started strong for the Bruins, winning NWC Student-Athlete of the Week honors for her 22:31.5 in her first race, she was anxious to compete for Fox — after all, it had been over a year since her last true race, and this team looked far different than her old one in Corvallis.

“ The first day, I was a little nervous,” Foote said, “I'd never been on quite this big a team. OSU doesn't even have a men's team.”

The nerves of her first race went back farther than a cloudy September day in Tacoma — in fact, the graduate student had to be pushed by her family and friends to even email Wilson.

Foote had been a talented, record-setting runner at Aloha High School, and originally committed to run at the University of Montana. After one year, she decided to move closer to home, running three years at Oregon State. While at OSU, she had several top-10 finishes at smaller meets, but found her niche as a mid-pack racer.

“ I was always on that brink of being on the travel team,” Foote said, “I was around the 7-10 position. It was a lot more competitive, but it was good. We all pushed each other a lot.”

After graduating from Oregon State in 2024, Foote worked at the Portland Running Company and tried to figure out her next steps. But while she waited, she continued to do the one thing she knew best: run.

“I did not meet every goal I wanted to at OSU,” Foote said, “and it was a little disappointing. I also knew, though, that there was a lot of other stuff going on, with school, work, and workouts. It can be mentally draining.”

Now, at George Fox, those goals could be realized. Instead of settling in the middle of the pack, she led it. The lofty expectations that a high-school aged Foote had set for herself suddenly seemed attainable.

But certainly, on October 18, Foote wasn’t thinking about her journey from Aloha to Montana to Corvallis to Newberg. She was focusing on what Coach Wilson had told her – running hard from the start and running efficiently. When she crossed the line, she knew her time was solid. What she didn’t know was that she had etched her name into the George Fox record books.

“ I love racing,” Foote said, “and I expected to come in here and run some good times, but I didn’t know just how much of a legacy I would be leaving. It feels good. I hope people eventually break that record, but hopefully I'll be remembered, even if I was only here for a few months.”

Jamison still remembers that day 34 years ago when she ran in the 6k. In those days, the Bruins were not members of the NCAA, but the NAIA — and for cross country, the women ran the 5k, as opposed to the common 6k today. But this one time, at the USA Cross Country Championships in Boston, the Bruin runner competed in the 6k, setting a mark that wouldn’t be touched until the next century: 20:53.0.

For Jamison, her time at George Fox as a student was a positive one. She had come to Fox from King’s High School in Seattle without lofty ambitions; she simply wanted to succeed in cross country, whatever that may look like.

“Coming into college, I really didn't have real high expectations of myself,” Jamison said, “So I trained a lot the summer before I came. I think there was a little bit of fear that I was going to come in dead last. I didn't want to embarrass myself.”

It was quickly made clear that Jamison would not embarrass herself. She set record after record — whether it be the 10k, 5k, whether in cross country or track and field. When all was said and done, Jamison left as a 14-time All-American, one of the most successful tenures in George Fox history. And yet, even after leaving the place where her name occupied every record book, she still ran.

She won the 1992 Seattle Marathon with a time of 2:48:07. She continued to run after, even after the birth of her kids, after moving to Connecticut for several years, and after moving back to Oregon. After working as in data analytics for over 15 years, after returning to her alma mater to serve as a math professor, she ran.

Even today, after overcoming a six-year struggle with knee issues, Jamison runs between 30-50 miles a week. In 2025, she competed in the Portland and Eugene Marathons. Why do it all?

“[Running] really is part of my life,” Jamison said, “I don't even think about it. I do it almost every day. It’s just the kind of thing that got me out of the house and helped me clear the mental space. It’s good for your health and easy for me to do.”

Through all the running, Jamison has kept up with the GFU cross country teams, especially with their recent success. Under Wilson’s tenure as head coach, the Bruins have established themselves as a national presence. Fox has swept the NWC Championships for five straight seasons, and sent the men’s and women’s teams to nationals three of the past three seasons. 

So, it was no surprise to Jamison that someone had finally caught up to her record. And while it may sting a little from losing such an impressive mark after so many years, it also shows how far the cross country teams have come.

“I had this idea that the record is not going to last, just given what's happening in the program,” Jamison said, “What Coach Wilson is doing, building the depth and with the athletes that are coming through. I was prepared for this.”

Foote and Jamison met each other for the first time three days before the 2025 NCAA National Championships. The two exchanged words, a smile, and congratulations.

While the Bruin teams did not qualify for nationals, Foote, who was named the Northwest Conference Runner of the Year and finished fourth in the NCAA West Regional after breaking Jamson’s record, will be making the trip to South Carolina alongside two teammates to compete as individuals. For the graduate student, it will mark the end of an otherworldly three months in Newberg — a journey that all started with a nervous email.

Through grading tests for her math classes, Jamison will be following along with the live stats on Saturday morning, tracking how the woman who took down her record fares. Though she ran the 6k just once, Jamison herself was a three-time NAIA champion in the 10k — a fitting accomplishment for one of the Bruins’ most decorated. 

The two are a testament to the story of George Fox cross country: an impressive history and a bright future. A place where, as Foote puts it, “cross country matters [to the school] in a way she hasn’t seen before.” 

There will be a future athlete who will come in one day and dethrone Foote’s record. It may be another 34 years, it may be 34 months. But no matter who steps in to take the next leap for Bruins XC, one thing is for certain:

She won’t just run. She’ll excel at it.