By Kyle Terwillegar, USTFCCCA
Text and Photos Courtesy of USTFCCCA.org
National Athlete of the Week is an award selected and presented by the USTFCCCA Communications Staff at the beginning of each week to six collegiate cross country athletes (male and female for each of the three NCAA divisions).
Nominations are open to the public. Coaches and sports information directors are encouraged to nominate their student-athletes; as are student-athletes, their families and friends, and fans of their programs.
The award seeks to highlight not only the very best times, marks and scores on a week-to-week basis, but also performances that were significant on the national landscape and/or the latest in a series of strong outings. Quality of competition, suspenseful finishes and other factors will also play a role in the decision.
NCAA DIVISION II MEN – Nathanael Williams, Colorado Mines
Junior | Carson City, Nevada
For the second weekend in a row, the men’s NCAA DII National Athlete of the Week is a Mr. Williams from an RMAC school in the state of Colorado. Nope, it’s not reigning winner Derrick Williams of CSU-Pueblo (though he does have a role to play in this story), but rather Nathanael Williams of Colorado Mines.
Williams won the 8K race at Colorado College in 24:48, topping multiple-time All-American teammate Marty Andrie by six seconds and CSU-Pueblo’s Williams by a whopping 42 seconds. Behind Williams’ effort, the Colorado Mines men took the meet with 24 points.
Colorado Mines is next in action on October 3 when it splits its squad between the Arkansas Chile Pepper Festival and the Colorado Rocky Mountain Shootout.