Colorado State University Athletics
Colorado State
NCAA Championships
Rams' Rastall competes at NCAA cross country championships
11/24/2008 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Nov. 24, 2008
By Josh Kruger
Athletic Media Relations
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Redshirt freshman Ellie Rastall was the lone Colorado State representative at the 2008 NCAA Division I cross country championships on Monday, finishing in 146th place out of 252 runners.
Rastall's time of 21 minutes, 33.3 seconds, was 2:05 behind Sally Kipyego from Texas Tech, who won her third consecutive NCAA championship. The 6,000-meter race was held in cold, windy and rainy conditions at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course on the campus of Indiana State University. Among the nine runners from the Mountain West, Rastall finished as the fifth fastest.
"It was an alright race," Head Coach Bryan Berryhill said. "It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. She ran 45 seconds faster than she did on the same course during the pre-nationals back in October. She got off to a difficult start, but she competed very well after that."
Rastall was CSU's top female runner this season, finishing as the top Ram in each of the team's six races. She received an at-large bid to the NCAAs by virtue of her 12th-place finish in the Mountain Regional on Nov. 15 at Collindale Golf Course in Fort Collins, Colo.
"Overall it was a great year for her," Berryhill said. "Just to make it to the NCAAs as a freshman is a great honor. It was good for her to get the experience out of the way this year. Overall, it was a very solid experience to learn from and will benefit her a lot in the future."
While Kipyego won the individual title, Washington was the overall women's team winner. On the men's side, Oregon won its second straight team title with Galen Rupp winning the individual title.
Full race results are available at http://www.gosycamores.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=15200&ATCLID=3622343
