Sept. 22, 2015
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - San Diego State junior Elaine Ribeiro (La Mesa, Calif.) has been named the Mountain West Women's Cross Country Athlete of the Week, the league announced today. It is the first career weekly award for Ribeiro and the first by an Aztec since Marianne Hogan received the award on Oct. 10, 2012.
Ribeiro won the individual title at the Aztec Invitational on Friday, beating out 125 other entrants with a time of 18 minutes, 9.74 seconds (18:09.74) over the 5,000-meter course. It was her first win of the season and first by a SDSU runner since Hogan won the Titan Invitational on Oct. 20, 2012.
Ribeiro's individual victory helped San Diego State claim the team title with 52 points, defeating runner-up San Diego (62), UNLV (75), Cal State San Bernardino (80), USC (119) and eight other teams. It was the Aztecs' second team win this season in just three meets.
Ribeiro has been SDSU's No. 1 runner in all three races this year (second, 12th and first overall) and in eight out of the last nine races she's completed, dating back to 2014.
Following a grueling start to the season where San Diego State raced three times in 14 days, the Aztecs will be off from competition this week and will travel to the UNLV Invitational on Oct. 3.