Spillar and Mock sweep Mountain West Cross Country Athlete of the Week honors

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Oct 3

Women 7:50am / Men 9:30am

Cross Country

at Joe Piane Notre Dame Invite

Oct 10

Men 9:00 a.m. / Women 9:45 a.m.

Cross Country

at UCCS XC Open

Oct 18

TBA

Cross Country

at Pre-National Invite

Oct 31

TBA

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at Mountain West Championships

Nov 14

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vs NCAA Mountain Region Championships

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Colorado State cross country has swept weekly conference honors for the second time this season, as McKenna Spillar and Jerrell Mock were named the respective women's and men's Mountain West Cross Country Athletes of the Week. The league announced its selections for weekly accolades on Tuesday.

The last time any Mountain West school has swept weekly athletes of the week twice in a single season was in 2012, when New Mexico had swept conference honors twice. However, in each of those weeks, UNM's men's selection was a co-athlete of the week. The most recent school to sweep MW honors outright was BYU in 2010; no other current conference member has ever swept league honors outright twice in a single cross country season.

This marks the first weekly accolade for Spillar, and fourth for Mock (third in cross country; one in track & field). Colorado State also swept the Mountain West's weekly honors after the opening week of the season, when Darby Gilfillan and Trent Powell were recognized for standout performances at the CSU Duals.

Mock's accolade is his second honor in as many days, as the senior was named USTFCCCA NCAA Division I Men Athlete of the Week on Monday. The Logan, Utah native defended his 2016 Roy Griak Invitational championships with another individual title this past Saturday, becoming the third-ever individual to repeat as men's champion and the first since 2002-03 (BYU's Kip Kangogo). With his victory, Colorado State also became the first program to have the individual men's Griak champion in three consecutive seasons. Former CSU All-American Jefferson Abbey started that streak with his Griak crown in 2015.

With his individual victory, Mock led the then-No. 18 Rams' men to their first-ever team championship at the Griak. The Rams toppled a field that included then-No. 20 UCLA and then-No. 25 Michigan State. No other current Mountain West member has ever won the men's team title at the Roy Griak Invitational.

Spillar was the top finisher on the women's side for CSU, leading the Rams' women to a sixth-place team finish. Despite high heat and humid conditions, the senior from Littleton, Colo., improved upon her previous best Griak time by nearly 16 seconds (22:35.3 in 2017; 22:51.0 in 2016) to pace the Rams with a 30th-place finish of 188 runners. Spillar, whose 6k time was the best of any Mountain West athlete this past week, helped the Rams improve from their 13th-place finish at the 2016 Griak.

The Colorado State cross country team has almost three weeks away from competition before returning to action at one of the most competitive meets of the year, the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational. The prestigious meet is held from the Zimmer Championship Course in Madison, Wis.

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