Gayle Roth '86
Gayle Roth '86
Title: Athlete
Year: 1986
Team: Cross Country, Swimming, Track & Field
Induction: 2013

Gayle (Roth) Cutaia attended Willamette from 1982-84 and qualified for NAIA nationals in three different sports in the same year. Her three sports were swimming, cross country, and track.
In 1984, she set Willamette swimming records in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.18 seconds and the 100-yard freestyle in 53.21 seconds. She set an NAIA record with her time in the 100 freestyle during preliminary heats at the National Championships.

She also swam on Willamette’s 200-yard medley relay team which won the national championship in 1983 with Cutaia swimming the butterfly leg.

In cross country, she placed ninth at the NAIA District Championships and 62nd at the NAIA National Championships in 1982.

Cutaia won the NAIA District track and field title in the 800-meter run in 1983. She helped WU win the District team title in 1984, while taking first place in the 400-meter hurdles and contributing to victories in the 4 x 400-meter relay and the medley relay.

She set a school record at the time with 4,408 points in the heptathlon in 1984, a record which lasted for 24 years and currently ranks second on WU’s top 10 list. She helped Willamette place second in the Women’s Conference of Independent Colleges (WCIC) in track and field both years and was part of WU’s 4 x 400-meter relay team that placed first in the WCIC in 1984.

Cutaia later competed at Texas Christian University of NCAA Division I in swimming and track. She set several school records in swimming at TCU, and qualified for the NCAA Swimming Championships and the Senior Nationals.