DENVER - Grand Canyon's Samuel Proctor and Seattle U's Lila Rice have been named Western Athletic Conference Runners of the Week, respectively, for the week of Sept. 14-20.
Proctor placed fourth in the Mustang Challenge with a time of 25:22.93-besting his personal record in the 8k event by nearly three minutes. He led the Lopes to their fifth place finish and the team averaged a 45 second better pace time than last season at the same meet.
Rice led Seattle U with a time of 22:00.88 in the 6k at the Sundodger Invitational. This is the second week in a row that the junior was the first Redhawk to cross the finish line. The women finished the 6K in 6th place with an average time of 22:26.89. It was another strong showing from the women in what was really the first full-length meet of the season.
Other men's nominees: Chay Weaver of Seattle U led the Redhawks to a 3rd place team finish in the 8K. The sophomore placed 20th with a time of 25:12.88 and beat his time from last year in the same meet by almost 40 seconds.
Other women's nominees: Bakersfield's Angel Valdez broke into CSUB Division I Top 10 after leading the ‘Runners for the third consecutive race. Her time of 19:10.5 in the 5k race was good enough to tie for ninth best and demolished her previous personal best by 46 seconds. Kelsi Klotter finished seventh in the 5k event, leading Grand Canyon to their fifth place finish. Her time of 18:00.74 was over a minute faster than her time on the course last season.