Thanks to a generous gift in memory of a couple’s daughter, the University of Idaho resurfaced the indoor track at the Kibbie Dome, its iconic athletics facility. The university chose the Super X track by Mondo for the new Lauren McCluskey Track.
The University of Idaho’s Kibbie-ASUI Activity Center is one of the most unusual college athletic facilities in the United States. Popularly known as the Kibbie Dome, the building opened in 1975 with a signature architectural element: a tremendous wooden arch roof — 14 stories high at its peak — spanning the 400-foot-wide arena. A year after its opening, the Kibbie Dome earned a national award for outstanding structural engineering achievement.
Today, the Kibbie Dome serves as a training and competition facility for many of the university’s 16 varsity athletic teams, including football, basketball, track and field, and tennis. Flooring for track and field and indoor tennis lies beneath the venue’s football field, which is rolled up and stored at the end of each season. With a seating capacity of more than 16,000, the venue can be a loud and intimidating atmosphere for visiting teams.
The arena also hosts various non-sports events, including concerts, student activities, graduation ceremonies, and the renowned Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival.
For a 2022 renovation, the university chose to install Super X surface. The installation included a 300-meter track and, on the track’s infield area, four competition tennis courts that serve as the home of the university’s tennis team.
Our Super X track surface is made from two rubber layers vulcanized together. The top layer provides elasticity and resistance with good grip, traction, and drainage, while the deformable bottom layer provides shock absorption and energy return. Super X is regarded as one of the top-performing sports flooring products available.
With 8,000 seats on the arena’s south side, the Kibbie Dome now has one of the largest seating capacities of any NCAA tennis facility.
The track was installed by Wall 2 Wall Commercial Flooring, which offers a complete range of floor products through five locations in Idaho and Utah and a W2W Sport Flooring location in California.
In 2022, Matt and Jill McCluskey from nearby Pullman, Washington, donated $1 million to the university, designating the funds to be used to upgrade the dome’s indoor track. The generous gift was made in memory of the couple’s daughter, Lauren, who grew up just eight miles from the campus and had often trained at the facility.
As a scholastic athlete, Lauren was a state champion in the high jump, and she set her high school’s record in the 100-meter hurdles. But in 2018, when she was attending the University of Utah, Lauren was murdered by a man she had briefly dated. Her family received funds from a financial settlement related to her death, and her parents’ gift to the University of Idaho is in line with their goal to support initiatives related to amateur athletics, safety on college campuses, and animal welfare.
In recognition of the gift, the University of Idaho track has been named the Lauren McCluskey Track.
“We hope Lauren’s light will shine through the current and future athletes who train and compete on her home track,” the McCluskey family said. “With this resurfaced track, Lauren will always have a presence in the Kibbie Dome.”
The new surface bears the university’s insignia and Lauren’s name, forming the largest logo integrated into a track and field system. We offer our rubber sports flooring in a range of colors so we can install flooring with the colors and logo of the school or institution. We can also include a memorial message as we did with Lauren’s name in this case.
“Lauren’s legacy of kindness, hard work, and competitive spirit will now be permanently etched in the floor of the Kibbie Dome and will impact student-athletes for generations,” said Terry Gawlik, the university’s athletic director.