Tuesday, January 15, 2019

NEW ORLEANS – It’s hard to argue with an all-time record and Caroline Kurgat’s record performance at the UW Indoor Preview could not be ignored.

The Alaska Anchorage senior followed up her selection as the GNAC Women’s Track Athlete of the Week on Monday with selection as the U.S. Track and Field & Cross Country Coaches Association’s (USTFCCCA) Division II Women’s National Athlete of the Week.

Coming off a seven-month layoff from competition, Kurgat opened her senior track season with a third-place finish in the 3,000 meters on the Dempsey Indoor oval. Her time of 9:07.05 set a Division II all-time, all-conditions best. The time surpassed the previous Division II all-time best of 9:09.5 set by Amy Harper of Cal Poly in 1983.

Kurgat placed third to Eleanor Fulton, who won in 9:02.84, and Olympian and Nike Oregon Project star Shannon Rowbury, who was second in 9:03.00.

Run on Dempsey’s oversized track (307 meters), Kurgat’s performance tops a list of times run on oversized tracks whose previous best was a 9:17.90 run by Western State’s Alicja Konieczek last year, also at Dempsey.

The mark by Kurgat is the best by a collegiate athlete this season and is fourth in the world (as of Jan. 14) according to lists maintained by the IAAF.

The super start by Kurgat could signal another outstanding season is in store for the Eldoret, Kenya native. The winner of the Division II Honda Award last year at the Collegiate Women’s Sports Awards, Kurgat won the NCAA Division II cross country title in 2017 and raced to both the 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter national titles at last May’s Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships.