Colorado State University Athletics
Thomas Goes the Distance to Capture Conference Title
11/6/2007 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Nov. 6, 2007
FORT COLLINS, Colo. - When Colorado State cross country runner April Thomas walked into her first class on Oct. 29, she had a smile on her face. The overhead projector in the room displayed a congratulatory note to the 2007 Mountain West Conference Women's Cross Country Champions and the individual overall title winner. While the professor did not name her without permission, her smile gave away the fact that she was that winner and proud of it.
"I think it is unbelievable," said Thomas after winning the championship. "I shouldn't say that, we knew this team could do it. I believed in myself, but never really know until you get out there and run."
Thomas ran the course in a time of 21:20 for the 5K race, earning herself MWC Athlete of the Year honors and the first individual conference title in CSU women's cross country history. She led the team to the overall title, breaking the dominance of BYU, who had held the title 19 years dating back to the days in the Western Athletic Conference.
"I am completely thrilled for the program," Thomas continued. "Hopefully it will attract some good runners for the school. From this point forward hopefully it just gets better. Having a conference championship is the highlight. I would love to be an All-American as well but being the conference champ is more sentimental."
During the regular season, the Mountain West Conference honored her with Runner of the Week honors, twice. Thomas was the top Mountain West Conference finisher at the NCAA Pre-Nationals meet and has served as an inspiration to the other team members.
With the team traveling to Ogden, Utah, for the NCAA Regionals this weekend the challenges are still out there for Thomas. The USTAFF ranks the Rams 11th nationally and first in the Mountain Region, the highest rankings ever achieved for the program.
"(Head Coach Bryan) Berryhill said it best, if we do what we know we can do, it will just give us momentum to have a great finish to the season," Thomas said. "Rankings are just rankings but every race we prove more and more that we are capable of being ranked in that position. We can't assume we are going to win it but if we keep running and the spirit of the team is there then good things should happen for us. BYU is going to bring it just as much as they can. They wanted to win at MWC but we really have the momentum and the confidence. We didn't even have our best race, so we have that much more potential. We can do even better."
Berryhill echoed Thomas' sentiment, but also believes that Thomas is the key to the Rams success this season.
"It is huge to have a leader like April," Berryhill said. "That is what won it for us, I know they were looking up and saw April battling it out with the two BYU girls which forced the rest of the team to dig deeper. In the regional you know it is going to be hard. Any time you face challengers like BYU, Colorado and Northern Arizona to name a few, you have to run your race. We are going in trying to win the race; we need to do what we need to get to nationals."
Thomas hails from Aurora, Colo., where she attended Eaglecrest High School. She completed her major in biology last spring and is currently continuing work on her business minor. She will use her eligibility to run distance in both the indoor and the outdoor seasons.
"I want to do it right and do it to the best of my ability," Thomas said. "Academically I have worked hard. I try to put everything out there and do the best that I can in a race and in the classroom. I think ultimately being on this team is so rewarding. The team championship is more important because I couldn't have done what I did without them supporting me."