NGWSD-MN Livestream Link
ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – Wednesday afternoon, two members of the College of Saint Benedict athletic community are set to be recognized for their work and dedication to creating more opportunities for girls and women to compete in athletics at Saint Benedict and around the state.
Robin Balder-Lanoue and Margy Retica Hughes are two of the 15 women being honored Wednesday, Feb. 2, at the National Girls and Women in Sport Day – Minnesota celebration at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul. Balder-Lanoue is receiving a Breaking Barriers Award, and Hughes is the 2022 recipient of the Marie Berg Education Award.
Due to COVID restrictions at the Minnesota History Center, the event – scheduled for noon on Wednesday – is closed to the public. A livestream, as well as event replay, is available at no cost on the National Girls and Women in Sport Day - Minnesota website's
event page. The livestream will start right at noon on Feb. 2.
Balder-Lanoue is being honored for more than 25 years of building confidence in CSB's cross country and track and field athletes as well as her work with Baba Yaga – the all-women's relay team she co-founded in 1995. Her Bennie cross country teams have finished in the top 10 regionally 17 of the last 25 seasons, and track and field has finished in the top five 10 of the last 13 indoor conference meets and eight of the last 11. She is a five-time MIAC Coach of the Year.
On the relay course, Balder-Lanoue and her Baba Yaga teammates have set course records everywhere from the west coast to Niagara Falls and right here in Minnesota. In Summer 2021, Baba Yaga was the first all-women's team to cross the finish line – by more than four hours.
While Balder-Lanoue continues to help grow CSB's athletic programs, Hughes helped build them. She came to CSB in 1966 to work in the physical education department, and used her position to build full-time positions for CSB coaches. Thanks to her work in building budgets and pushing administration, coaches were hired solely for the job of coaching a team – not coaching and teaching. She was instrumental in building the CSB pool and Claire Lynch, and played a key role in advancing Saint Benedict's application for acceptance into the MIAC starting in 1985-86.
In 1982 Hughes became the chair of CSB's physical education department, and when the CSB and SJU departments combined, she became the joint chair until she retired in 2003. She is a Professor Emerita at CSB/SJU and was a charter member of the CSB Athletics Hall of Fame.
