Sept. 16, 2003
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State senior Marie Nilsson (Kil, Sweden) has been named the Mountain West Cross Country Athlete of the Week, the conference office announced Tuesday. Nilsson shared the award with the men's winner, Brigham Young's Kip Kangogo.
Nilsson kicked off her Aztec career by finishing fourth out of 125 runners at last Saturday's 59th Annual Aztec Invitational in Balboa Park. She posted a team season-best of 18:23.00 in the 5K race, turning in the best overall finish by an Aztec runner at the meet since Monica Joyce finished second in 1981. Nilsson's time was also the best by an SDSU runner at the invitational since 1998.
The award is the first of Nilsson's career and the fifth for the Aztecs since the Mountain West Conference began in 1999.
SDSU will split its squad for two meets in two different states on September 20. The SDSU `A' team heads to Kaneohe, Hawaii, for the University of Hawai'i's Big Wave Invitational, beginning at approximately 7:50 a.m., while the `B' squad travels to the UC Riverside Invitational at 9 a.m.