ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — After his record-breaking run last Friday in the 1,500-meter run at the Bryan Clay Invitational, University of New Mexico track & field junior Josh Kerr earned a pair of superlative accolades on Tuesday.
Kerr was named NCAA Division I Men’s National Athlete of the Week by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Tuesday morning and added Mountain West Men’s Track Athlete of the Week honors Tuesday afternoon.
Kerr, hailing from Edinburgh, Scotland, set the NCAA record in the 1500 at the Bryan Clay Invitational, clocking a time of 3 minutes, 35.01 seconds that broke Sydney Maree’s 36-year-old NCAA record of 3:35.30 set at the 1981 NCAA Championships.
A three-time NCAA champion over the middle-distance races, Kerr captured his first NCAA record as he out-kicked a star-studded field at the Cougar Athletic Stadium in Azusa, California.
His time, which ranks third in the world in 2018, broke his own Mountain West and New Mexico record of 3:35.99 set at the 2017 Bryan Clay Invitational.
Between those two races, Kerr owns two of the eight fastest 1500-meter times in NCAA history. He is the only athlete with two times within the all-time top-10.
Additionally, Kerr is the only athlete in NCAA history to rank top-five in both the 1500 and its indoor counterpart, the mile. Kerr ran a time of 3:54.72 in the mile at the Millrose Games in February to rank No. 5 in NCAA history.
Kerr is the only athlete in the world this year to run under 3:36 in the 1500 and 3:55 in the mile.
He also leads the NCAA in the 1500 this year by over a second, and leads the MW by nearly seven seconds.
This National Athlete of the Week selection is the third of Kerr’s career and the seventh-ever for the New Mexico cross country/track & field program.
Kerr first earned the award after the 2017 Bryan Clay Invitational and again after the 2018 Millrose Games. Ednah Kurgat also claimed two such honors during her undefeated cross country season last fall, while Courtney Frerichs was selected in May 2016, and Charlotte Arter during the 2014 cross country season.
On top of that, this is the team’s first MW honor of the outdoor season after collecting three during the indoor campaign. Kerr, who has earned four such honors while at UNM, received one selection after the Millrose Games, and earned another two during 2017.
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