ARLINGTON, Texas – Seattle U’s Yonas Sauers and UT Arlington’s Matro Jepkemboi have been named the TicketSmarter Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Cross Country Athletes of the Week, for the week ending on Saturday, Oct. 14.
 
Sauers (Jr.) brought home the gold for Seattle U this past weekend and finished first overall in the George Oja Invitational hosted by Linfield University. Twenty-four schools took place in the meet with Portland being the most notable competitor. Sauers was able to take the top spot in the podium with an 8K time of 24:03.7, beating all other 263 runners in the meet. This first-place finish follows up his last meet’s performance where he placed second overall, breaking the all-time record at Seattle U for the men’s 8K with a time 23:52.6.
 
Jepkemboi (Fr.) continues to impress in her first collegiate season and picks up her second weekly award of the year following an outstanding performance in the Arturo Barrios Invitational hosted by Texas A&M University. Jepkemboi recorded a fifth-place overall finish with a 6K time of 19:49.2. She has now finished in the top-ten in each of the four meets to start her college career. The meet consisted of nearly 400 competitors, many from the top regionally ranked schools in the nation such as #2 SMU, #3 Texas A&M, #4 LSU, #4 Ohio State, #5 Tulane, #5 Boston College, #6 TCU, #6 Connecticut, #6 Utah Valley, #7 Eastern Michigan and many more.
 
2023 TicketSmarter WAC Cross Country Weekly Awards
 
MEN’S ATHLETES OF THE WEEK
Yonas Sauers, Jr., Seattle U (Oct. 18)
Arturs Medveds, Gr., California Baptist (Oct. 4)
Kevin Baez, Sr., Tarleton State (Sept. 20)
Rikus Van Niekerk, Jr., California Baptist (Sept. 6)
 
WOMEN’S ATHLETES OF THE WEEK
Matro Jepkemboi, Fr., UT Arlington (Oct. 18)
Greta Karinauskaite, Sr., California Baptist (Oct. 4)
Matro Jepkemboi, Fr., UT Arlington (Sept. 20)
Morgan Nokes, Jr., Utah Valley (Sept. 6)