Tuesday, September 18, 2001

Eight athletes killed in weekend car crash
By ROBERT W. BLACK
Associated Press

LARAMIE, Wyo. — After spending part of their weekend in Colorado, eight Wyoming cross country runners crammed into a sport-utility vehicle to return to campus for a fraternity outing.

On the way, their Jeep Wagoneer collided head-on with a pickup truck of a fellow Wyoming student who had apparently swerved into their lane, killing the eight runners. The driver of the truck was seriously injured in what was the latest in a series of tragedies to strike Wyoming athletics in recent years.

“They were focused on going somewhere. That’s why this is so devastating,”

Wyoming sophomore Ann Hedderman said. “It’s such an unnecessary loss.”

The victims spent Saturday in Fort Collins, Colo., where they planned on shopping for running shoes and visiting nightclubs, said a friend, Curt Mayer. Victim Shane Shatto called fellow fraternity member Sean Cosgrove to see what was happening back on campus, and he said their Sigma Phi Epsilon house was holding an event. Shatto said he would try to attend.

Wyoming Highway Patrol Sgt. Stephen Townsend said the SUV carrying the athletes collided with the one-ton pickup truck at 1:30 a.m. Sunday, about 17 miles south of Laramie on U.S. 287.

All of the runners except the driver were ejected. Townsend said only the driver of the pickup, Clinton Haskins, was wearing a seat belt.

Authorities would not say whether alcohol was involved, but they are investigating.

Haskins, a senior steer wrestler on the Wyoming rodeo team, was in serious condition at Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie.

Sports information director Kevin McKinney spoke with Oklahoma State officials about how to handle the tragedy. A plane crash in January killed two Oklahoma State basketball players and eight others after a game at Colorado.

Students and officials said losing eight classmates is compounded by the fact that they’ve been following the horror of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon last week.

“It’s like blackness on blackness,” Hedderman said.

The victims of the Sunday crash include Shatto, 19; the driver, Nicholas J. Schabron, 20; Justin Lambert-Belanger, 20; Kyle N. Johnson, 20; Kevin L. Salverson, 19; Joshua D. Jones, 22; Morgan McLeland, 21; and Cody B. Brown, 21.

“It’s been a very rough week for a lot of people in this country and tragically, it’s been all the more rough for our student-athletes and our coaches and all their friends at Wyoming,” school President Philip L. Dubois said. “This is a horrible thing.”