Oct. 18, 2006
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - San Diego State senior Celeste Tyson (Austin, Texas/McNeil HS) has been named Mountain West Conference cross country athlete of the week for her career performance at the Santa Clara Invitational on Oct. 14. The award is the first of her career and is the second Aztec to be honored this season.
Tyson finished eighth of 136 runners with a lifetime-best clocking of 17 minutes, 52 seconds. Her time was also the fastest by an Aztec in 2006 and the second-fastest time in the MWC. She was also one of five SDSU runners to set a career-low mark in the Aztecs' seventh-place showing.
The senior captain's eighth-place finish is her best of the season and her fourth top-10 finish of her career. Tyson's effort in Sunnyvale was nearly 38 seconds faster than her 2005 time of 18:28.33 at the same meet.
For the fourth consecutive meet in which she has participated in, Tyson was the Aztecs' top performer and has finished first or second among SDSU runners in every race that she has entered.
The meet was Tyson's second straight in which she has set a personal best. On Sept. 30, she established a then career-best and school season-best time of 17:54.95 at the Willamette Invitational in Salem, Ore.
Earlier this year, junior Meryl Follosco won the weekly conference award for her effort at the Fullerton Season Opener on Sept. 2.
San Diego State will take this weekend off in preparation for the MWC Championships being held in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Saturday, Oct. 28. The meet is scheduled for a 10:45 a.m. MT start.