What: The fifth annual 4K Run/Walk for Shannon McNamara

When: 2 p.m. Check-in starts at 1 p.m.

Where: Campus Pond Pavilion

Cost: $15

*All proceeds go to the Shannon McNamara Outstanding Physical Education Student Scholarship

Shannon McNamara was a model student with a great attitude and personality.

The kinesiology faculty who knew her described her as a bubbly student who was happy, smiley, outgoing, athletic and involved.

“She’s the type of person that you’ll never forget,” said Larry Ankenbrand, professor of kinesiology.

On June 12, 2001, McNamara’s life was tragically cut short just before her 22nd birthday.

Charleston resident and former Eastern student Anthony Mertz raped and murdered McNamara in her apartment near Eastern -but not before she fought back.

In February 2003, Mertz was convicted largely on the DNA evidence found because of the struggle.

Mertz was sentenced to the death penalty.

The fifth annual 4k Run/Walk for Shannon McNamara will honor McNamara and the person she was.

The event begins at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Campus Pond Pavilion. Check-in begins at 1 p.m. Cost is $12 for those who have registered and $15 for those who haven’t.

An empty seat

Brian Pritschet, professor of kinesiology and sports studies, remembers the day he found out McNamara had been murdered.

He had McNamara in a class that summer.

Pritschet said she came to the first day of class, but was not there the second day.

“You just wondered about that because she didn’t miss class very much at all, and especially the second day of class – nobody misses that,” he said.

Later that afternoon, Pritschet received a call from the department chair telling him one of his students had died.

Pritschet said he was shocked and couldn’t believe it was true.

“She’s one of those students that every faculty member likes to see their name on their roster at the beginning of the semester,” he said.

She always sat in the front and was attentive, he said.

“She’d always give you a little encouragement if the rest of the class was kind of out of it,” Pritschet said.

Ankenbrand had McNamara in class the semester before, and he said McNamara wasn’t afraid to take a chance.

Ankenbrand said he is the type of professor to draw information out of students and have them participate.

“She was always willing to say something whether it was right or wrong, and usually it was always right, which was nice,” Ankenbrand said.

He said he could not believe McNamara had been murdered but said that it showed that anything can happen at any time.

“You always think it’s someone else or someone that you don’t know,” Ankenbrand said.

Pritschet said McNamara’s death was particularly noticeable the next day of his summer class.

“There was just this big hole there because she had picked her seat in the front as usual, right front and center,” Pritschet said. “Now, there was nobody sitting there, so it was a reminder every day that something like that had happened.”

He said she was so far from the type of person to even be remotely involved in a situation that would put her in danger.

He said the whole department was affected.

“We just kind of wandered around in a daze because it just seemed impossible,” Pritschet said.

An annual remembrance

Ankenbrand said everyone on campus was a little scared after the murder.

“I think everyone was a little edgy, not believing that something like that could happen right here on campus,” he said.

Now, most of the students who knew McNamara or had an interaction with her have left the campus.

Ankenbrand said the 4k run/walk allows the physical education department to remind people who McNamara was and what happened to her.

McNamara had been gone for a couple of years when Meaghan Clavey, a junior kinesiology and sports studies major, came to Eastern.

She found out about McNamara her freshman year when she saw fliers around campus advertising the run/walk.

Now, as the physical educations honors club president, Clavey is organizing the event.

“I thought it was terrible because she’s the kind of person that is such an outstanding individual that it shouldn’t happen to people like that. Not to say it should happen to anybody,” Clavey said.

She said she hopes people value life. The run/walk shows the importance to know self-defense and to protect oneself, Clavey said.

If McNamara had not fought back against her murderer, Mertz’s DNA might not have been found, and he wouldn’t be in death row right now, she said.

“Thank God she fought back, even though she didn’t survive,” Clavey said.

Pritschet said having the run/walk every year brings McNamara’s tragic story to people’s attention every year, and reminds them to think of safety.

“People get to this campus and to Charleston and they think, ‘Oh, this is just some sleeping little town. You don’t have to be careful here,'” he said.

He said if it can happen to someone like McNamara, then it can happen to anyone.

A high honor

The money raised from the run/walk is used to fund the scholarship in McNamara’s name.

“She’s still living along by the scholarship,” Ankenbrand said.

He said her legacy carries on through the physical education department and especially for those who win the scholarship.

The scholarship was founded in part to honor her memory, Pritschet said.

It wasn’t just about getting good grades, Pritschet said. It was work ethic, attitude and personality all into one, he said.

“It’s considered one of the highest honors that we give in this department,” Pritschet said.

All the attention McNamara has received since her murder might have embarrassed the modest student.

Pritschet said McNamara was not the type of person to draw attention to herself.

“I think she’d be pleased that what happened to her is ongoing enough that . to help a new set of students that come in be aware of what can happen,” Pritschet said.

He said if time passes and people do not talk about McNamara or know about her murder, then there is a tendency to let their guard down.

“Something good has come out of this terrible tragedy,” Pritschet said.

Emily Zulz can be reached at 581-7942 or at eazulz@eiu.edu.

Members of Alpha Phi sorority watch as runners begin last year’s fourth annual Run for Shannon McNamara on the Panther Trail. McNamara was an Alpha Phi who was killed in her off-campus apartment in 2001. (File Photo/The Daily Eastern News)

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