Her high school in Elmdale, Kansas had no track team, so her father and brother built some practice equipment on the farm, and Roniger trained in nearby Emporia.

[6] From 1957 to 1959, as a teenager in Elmdale, Kansas, Roniger was three-time Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) women's pentathlon national champion.

[7][8] Her 1957 win was considered especially notable, because she "had never competed previously in the shotput, hurdles, or high jump", three of the component events.

[13] She continued competing as an athlete in college at Colorado State University, where she was a member of the school's first women's track and field team, along with sprinter Lillian Greene-Chamberlain, high jumper Ann Marie Flynn, and Rose Melanchuk.

[17] In adulthood, Hussong was a health science teacher at a Kansas high school for 25 years.