Lemmon-Lew Receives Second MWC Award of 2009

PROVO -- The Mountain West Conference came out with its Male and Female Cross Country Athlete of the Week and added BYU junior Cecily Lemmon-Lew to the list following her impressive performance at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational over the weekend.

The award is her second of the 2009 campaign.

A native of Vacaville, Calif., Lemmon-Lew came in first place out of 123 runners at the meet, her second individual victory of the season in as many races. She finished the 5K course in 17 minutes flat, beating No. 10 Illinois' Angela Bazzarri by three seconds and breaking a Thomas Zimmer Championship Course record in the process.

“It was a fun race,” Lemmon-Lew said. “I felt really good afterward and am happy with the result. I felt that I was in control against some really good competition and I’m also glad that the team did so well and ran together.”

The time is the second-best in the MWC, 28 seconds behind her own league-leading 16:32 mark set two weeks ago at the UC Riverside Invitational. It is also the third-best 5K time of her career as her position helped the No. 23 Cougars to a fourth-place finish out of 12 teams, seven of which were nationally ranked including No. 17 Michigan, No. 28 Arkansas, and No. 26 Wisconsin.

“Cecily gave a great effort and had a solid performance,” said BYU women’s cross country head coach Patrick Shane. “It was the all-time best mid-season invitational performance in school history. I’m happy that she was recognized for the honor.”

BYU fell only to No. 29 Duke, No. 21 Syracuse and No. 10 Illinois as three Cougars finished in the top 20 of the race.

New Mexico’s Jacob Kirwa was named the Male Athlete of the Week for his first-place finish at the Notre Dame Invitational.

The Cougars have earned five of eight MWC cross country honors so far in the 2009 season.

2009 Mountain West Conference Cross Country Athletes of the Week
Date           Men                              Women    
Sept. 8   Miles Batty, So., BYU             Ellie  Rastall, So., Colorado State
Sept. 15     No Selection                        No Selection
Sept. 22  Miles Batty, So., BYU             Cecily Lemmon Lew, Jr., BYU              
Sept. 29  Justin Tyner, Jr., Air Force      Katy Andrews, So., BYU
 Oct. 6   Jacob Kirwa, Sr., New Mexico      Cecily Lemmon Lew, Jr., BYU