For the second time of the 2017 season, Colorado State cross country swept the women’s and men’s Mountain West Cross Country Athlete of the Week awards. Redshirt seniors McKenna Spillar and Jerrell Mock earned the awards, as announced by the conference on Tuesday.
The recognition follows CSU’s performance at the Roy Griak Invitational. Spillar led the women to a sixth-place team finish after placing 30th out of 188 runners in the women’s 6k. Her time of 22:35.3 was a 16-second improvement over her previous best at the event. Her time also paced all Mountain West runners throughout the week and helped the Rams improve seven positions from their finish last year.
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Meanwhile, Mock became the third individual to repeat as individual champion at the event, and the first since 2002-03. In doing, Mock and the Rams became the first program to have the individual men’s Griak champion in three consecutive seasons. Former CSU All-American Jefferson Abbey began the streak in 2015. This award comes just one day after Mock was named USTFCCCA NCAA Division I Men Athlete of the Week.
This marks the second time this season that the Rams swept the weekly conference awards. Darby Gilfillan and Trent Powell earned recognition following their performance at the CSU Duals during the first week of the season. The Rams are the only team currently in the Mountain West to sweep league honors outright twice in a single cross country season.
Mock’s award is his fourth weekly accolade at CSU while Spillar earned the first award in her collegiate career.
After the busy weekend at the Griak, CSU will next compete in the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational held at the Zimmer Championship Course in Madison, Wis. Competition begins on Friday, Oct. 13.
Collegian sports editor Colin Barnard can be reached by email at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @ColinBarnard_.
