ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Two University of New Mexico track & field athletes earned NCAA Division I Mountain Region Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year honors on Friday, as the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association selected Josh Kerr and Ednah Kurgat for their respective genders.
Kerr, the defending NCAA champion and NCAA record holder in the 1500-meter run, was named the Mountain Region Men’s Track Athlete of the Year, while Kurgat, who’s ranked top-five in the NCAA in two events, was selected as Mountain Region Women’s Track Athlete of the Year.
Both duplicated their selections as Mountain Region Athletes of the Year after earning the same honors for indoor track back in March.
For Kerr, his outdoor campaign has cemented him as one of the elite middle-distance runners in the NCAA.
In April, the Edinburgh, Scotland, native set the NCAA record in the 1500-meter run 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.
His time also 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.
At the MW Outdoor Championships in Clovis, California, he became the first athlete in league history to win back-to-back-to-back 1500-meter titles when he clocked a time of 3:44.69.
For Kurgat, she’s raced just three times this season, but all three have been remarkable performances.
She opened her season with a UNM- and Mountain West-record performance in the 5000 at the Payton Jordan Invitational, running 15:20.06. That time is the second-fastest this season and finished the regular season as the top time in the NCAA this year.
She also won the Mountain West title in the 10,000 with a time of 32:31.55. That mark, a personal record by over two minutes, ranks No. 2 in program history and No. 4 in the NCAA in 2018.
Kurgat also advanced to her second NCAA Outdoor Championship in the 5000 after running a time of 15:25.25 at the NCAA West Preliminary Round last week in Sacramento, California.
She is just one of two athletes in NCAA to rank top five in both the 5000 and 10,000 in 2018.
The duo’s honors are the second and third for New Mexico outdoor track & field after Courtney Frerichs’ selection as Female Track Athlete of the Year during the 2016 outdoor track & field season.
Overall, UNM has earned nine Mountain Region Athlete of the Year nods from the USTFCCCA. Along with Kurgat’s and Kerr’s honors for indoor track, Kurgat (2017), Alice Wright (2014, 2016) and Sammy Silva (2013) claimed the corresponding honor in cross country.
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