Liberty University
NCAA Division I Outdoor Track Championships
Kurgat Places 4th in NCAA Women's 5K Final
6/11/2016 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
Liberty sophomore Ednah Kurgat earned first team All-America honors, thanks to her fourth-place finish in the women's 5K at the 2016 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships on a sunny, breezy Saturday at Hayward Field.
Kurgat's official time was 16:02.91, putting the native of Eldoret, Kenya just 0.09 seconds behind third-place finisher Karissa Schweizer of Missouri. Now a three-time All-American, Kurgat becomes the first Lady Flame ever to earn NCAA Division I All-America honors in cross country, indoor track & field and outdoor track & field during the same athletic year. Kurgat previously placed 12th in cross country and ninth in the indoor 5K final.
Kurgat scored five team points for the Lady Flames, giving the Liberty women's team its first points at this meet since 2002. The Big South indoor and outdoor champion Lady Flames tied Arizona State and Nebraska for 46th place in the final women's team standings. Arkansas tallied 72 points to win the team national championship, finishing 10 points ahead of host Oregon.
"In general, the race was good," Kurgat remarked. "It was kind of windy and we started a little bit slow. I was trying to put myself in a good position to kick, but the last lap was so hard."
As Kurgat pointed out, the race went out conservatively by her standards. The first mile was covered in approximately 5:27 and her first two kilometer splits were unofficially 3:19 and 3:25.
Stanford's Aisling Cuffe then took over the lead and ran closer to 5:00/mile pace for the next seven laps. Kurgat kept herself within striking distance of the leaders throughout, running much of the race inside the top five. Her third and fourth kilometers were covered in 3:07 and 3:10.
At the bell, Arkansas senior Dominique Scott unleashed a devastating kick. She won the race by more than three seconds with a time of 15:57.07, completing a sweep of the NCAA women's 5K and 10K championships and sewing up the Razorbacks' team championship.
Behind Scott, five of the next six finishers were sophomores, including runner-up Aurora Dybedokken of Oklahoma State (16:00.81), third-place Schweizer (16:02.82) and fourth-place Kurgat (16:02.91).
Kurgat, who clocked 69.07 seconds for her final lap, 2:22.91 for her last 800, 3:01 for her final kilometer and 4:55.20 for her last 1,600, successfully held off Oregon's Alli Cash throughout the final lap. However, the hard-charging Schweizer nipped Kurgat during the final strides to claim third place.
Looking at her 2015-16 year as a whole, Kurgat stated, "This year has been awesome. I hit almost all of my targets and I'm thankful about that. It's been a good experience and it's given me confidence."
In addition to her trio of All-America honors, Kurgat captured three Big South titles (indoor mile and 3K and outdoor 10K) and set five school records (cross country 5K and 6K, indoor 3K and 5K and outdoor 5K) this year.
Next up for Liberty track & field will be the 2016 USATF Junior Outdoor Championships, slated for June 24-26 at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Clovis, Calif. Kylie Polsgrove is entered in the heptathlon, while fellow freshman Michael Todd will compete in the men's 800.
