ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — University of New Mexico cross country student-athlete Ednah Kurgat has been named as one of the four nominees for the Class of 2018 Honda Sport Award for cross country, the Collegiate Women Sports Awards (CWSA) announced Monday.
Kurgat, hailing from Eldoret, Kenya, finished her debut season at New Mexico with the program’s first-ever NCAA individual title in cross country, capping an undefeated season where she won all five meets she competed at.
Kurgat won the individual titles at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational, the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational, the Mountain West Championships and the Mountain Region Championships before emerging with an NCAA Championships record time for the six-kilometer race.
She is the first female cross country runner to win an NCAA team and individual title in same year since 2010.
Last week, she was named the USTFCCCA Women’s National Athlete of the Year, the first New Mexico athlete and the first from the Mountain West to earn the honor.
She was also named All-American, USTFCCCA Division I Mountain Region Women’s Athlete of the Year and Mountain West Cross Country Female Athlete of the Year.
The nominees for the Honda Sport Award for cross country were chosen from the top four finishers at the 2017 NCAA Cross Country Championship.
Along with Kurgat, Washington’s Amy-Eloise Neale, Boise State’s Allie Ostrander and San Francisco’s Charlotte Taylor were nominated for the award.
Kurgat is just the third nominee in New Mexico history for the Honda Sports Award in any sport, and the second in cross country. In 2015, Courtney Frerichs was nominated, while women’s golf’s Caroline Keggi was nominated and won the Honda Sport Award for golf for 1986-87 season.
The Honda Sport Award has been presented annually by the CWSA for the past 42 years to the top women athletes in 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports and signifies “the best of the best in collegiate athletics.” The winner of the sport award becomes a finalist for the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year and the prestigious 2018 Honda Cup.
The Honda Sport award winner for cross country will be announced next week after voting by administrators from over 1,000 NCAA member schools. Each NCAA member institution has a vote.
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