There are those who believe a cross country team is only as strong as its seventh runner.

Not Peter Graham and Robbie Hipwood

Their faith runs deeper.

When Graham and Hipwood take the stage for their latest induction into the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Hall of Fame in June, they will stand with five Adams State College teammates from the 1983 NAIA national championship cross country team that is being honored.

To them, the recognition still won't be total-team.

"We went through a lot together, and not just those seven," says Graham, the proprietor of the Santa Fe High School cross country and track programs. "It was everybody else that was part of the program at that time. They're part of this. I think we had 25 or 30 guys. Everybody back in Alamosa shared in that victory."

And those at nationals carried their teammates with them.

"It was a sense of responsibility to the guys that were still at home," says Hipwood, who shares the cross country coaching duties at Los Alamos High School with his wife, Kathy. "It wasn't a burden, but we felt a huge responsibility to not disappoint the people back home."

They didn't.

The '83 championship was the first of seven straight titles by Adams State.

That season was Hipwood's national debut, and Graham's swan song. Only two individuals finished ahead of Graham.

"I could see first place," Graham recalls. "I thought about it, was in a position, and might have been able to do it. But it didn't happen that day."

No matter.

Individual glory wasn't the goal.

"We wanted to win it as a team," Graham says.

They did.

The individual accolades came after the finish line.

Six of seven Adams State runners earned All-America that day — Graham, Hipwood, Jerry Arguijo, Dave Cuadrado, Robert Ferguson and Dan Hugill. Tom Gilfillan was the exception.

"We all felt for him," Graham says. "It was important for him to try and make that goal. He didn't, but he was still part of what we did."

Graham entered the RMAC Hall of Fame in 2008, with the induction of the national championship teams from 1980 and 1981.

Hipwood arrived in 2009, when the 1985 national cross country champion was picked as one of the top-12 runners in the history of the RMAC.

Both were added to the Adams State Hall of Fame in 2007.

"It's nice to get in with Robbie," Graham says. "He's someone I have a lot of respect for. He was a great teammate, and he's a great friend."

Seven Adams State championship teams will be part of the June induction ceremony in Colorado Springs. Hipwood contributed to three straight.

"It's more a reflection of the program than any individual," Hipwood says. "It was a special time and I was very fortunate to be part of it."

Hipwood will take three strolls down memory lane in June. Is there a favorite path?

"If I were to be perfectly honest, the first and last would weigh a little more than the one in between," Hipwood says. "Your senior year is going to be a significant event. We had three or four seniors on that team and there was a sense that we're not going to not win this year.

"But to experience it the first time was unbelievable. Peter was our team captain and our leader. He's someone I always looked up to, and I still do. We were visiting last weekend at the Harper Invitational and it brought back wonderful memories. We're fortunate to see each other through coaching."

Hipwood remembers 2007, when he and Graham entered the Hall of Fame door at Adams State.

"It absolutely meant the world to me to get selected at the same time as Peter," Hipwood says.

In June, they will walk together into another hall.

And carrying all of their teammates every step of the way.