TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Southern Utah senior Alison Pray became the first female cross country runner in the history of SUU cross country to earn All-America honors Saturday morning as she finished 20th place individually at the NCAA National Championship in Tallahassee, Florida.
Pray finished the women's 6K race with a time of 19:47.1, her fastest 6K time of the season. She was the first athlete from the Big Sky to cross the finish line and the only from the conference to earn All-America status.
"Alison is a tremendous athlete. No one performs their best at nationals, but that's exactly what she did coming in here and taking 20th place," head coach Eric Houle said. "She beat everyone in the Big Sky today and I am extremely proud of the season she put together."
BYU's Whittni Orton won the individual championship while NC State won the team championship.
The Thunderbird men finished in 24th place, putting together 573 points, just six points behind Princeton who finished in 23rd.
"Finishing in 24th is great when you think about how many cross country programs there are in the country," Houle said. "Not as high of a finish as we were hoping for, but still a good race from our guys. We were ranked 24th and took 24th."
Christian Ricketts was the top finisher for Southern Utah, coming 71st place with a time of 29:56.6. Kevin Ramos came in 103rd place with a time of 30:10.2 and Nate Osterstock came in 106th place with a time of 30:13.1.
Isaiah Labra finished in 189th place with a time of 31:03.5 and Jacob Francis finished in 204th place with a time of 31:12.9.
Travis Feeny finished in 215th place with a time of 31:32.0 and Max Spence finished in 220th place with a time of 31:34.9.
BYU's Conner Mantz won the individual championship and Northern Arizona won their fifth team national championship.
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