What's new
AllBuffs | Unofficial fan site for the University of Colorado at Boulder Athletics programs

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • Prime Time. Prime Time. Its a new era for Colorado football. Consider signing up for a club membership! For $20/year, you can get access to all the special features at Allbuffs, including club member only forums, dark mode, avatars and best of all no ads ! But seriously, please sign up so that we can pay the bills. No one earns money here, and we can use your $20 to keep this hellhole running. You can sign up for a club membership by navigating to your account in the upper right and clicking on "Account Upgrades". Make it happen!

Ind'l. sports (Golf,skiing,tennis, track & field) 2019 off-season news (Benner Pac 12 Woman of Year)

AztecBuff

Club Member
Club Member
Moderator
Been meaning to start this thread for awhile to collect any news (as I do for other sports) of any notable news and results from Buff athletes in the "individual" sports during their off-seasons.

A few things I've seen so far over the week or so. (Any references to a person's class year is for next season.) -

Sophomore Buff tennis player Sara Nayer is getting to represent her country in what I believe is the main national team women's tennis competition (equivalent to the men's Davis Cup) -


______________________________________________________________________________

Looks like she missed the cut today, but sophomore women's golfer Malak Bouraeda got to represent Morocco in a tournament held in Switzerland -


______________________________________________________________________________

Assume it must be cool for any golfer to win any tournament at St. Andrews, as sophomore (and St. Andrews resident) John Paterson did a few days ago -


______________________________________________________________________________

Although 2 of the 4 still have the NCAA Championships upcoming, so aren't technically off-season yet, thought this was a good place to say congrats to the 4 VERY HIGH accomplishment (3.95+ GPA'S) track and field Buffs for winning All-District Academic honors, all in various (I assume challenging) engineering disciplines -

 
Although 2 of the 4 still have the NCAA Championships upcoming, so aren't technically off-season yet, thought this was a good place to say congrats to the 4 VERY HIGH accomplishment (3.95+ GPA'S) track and field Buffs for winning All-District Academic honors, all in various (I assume challenging) engineering disciplines -

Penner - Engineering Physics & Applied Math
Hurta - Chem E
Benner - Chemical & Bioengineering
Wenning Chemical & Bioengineering & Biochemistry

If possible, you may have underassumed?
 
Nice 7th place (and low amateur) finish for Buff senior golfer Kirsty Hodgkins in the Colorado Women's Open.

 
Junior distance runner Sage Hurta, who's redshirting this track season, with a HUGE performance in the 800M at a pro race in Nashville this evening. Big congrats to her!


 
With skiing usually often being the lowest profile Buff sport, great to get this summary from Coach Rokos looking back and forward!

 
And, nice progress shown by the tennis team in the new head coach's 1st year, especially impressive to me given that 2/3rds (4) of the roster were freshmen, 2 of whom only arrived in CU in January. (Not too knowledgeable about tennis recruiting, but also looks like to my VERY amateur eye there could be a solid recruiting class of 4 more incoming frosh joining the team this coming academic year.)



Direct link -

"
By: Shaun Wicen, Assistant SID
Release: June 03, 2019

BOULDER – For the first time in nine years, Colorado women's tennis program finishes the 2019 season ranked in the top-75 in the nation by ITA Collegiate rankings.

"I think overall this was a great first year and a great foundation for what we want to achieve," said head coach Danielle Steinberg. "We set out to change the culture and become more competitive in everything we do, and we succeeded with the team accomplishing a lot of "firsts" this year. I think finishing ranked in team, singles, and doubles is a great testament for how hard the team worked and the fact that it was a complete team effort, from 1 to 6. Our goal now is to become better and better with each year, until we get to where we want to be, which is a consistency top national program. Overall, I can say that we are proud, but not satisfied. "

The Buffaloes finished the first season under Steinberg ranked 74th in the nation, the first time CU has finished the season ranked since the 2010 season. Colorado concluded the season with a 10-14 dual record and a 3-7 conference record, the most wins in Pac-12 history for CU.
...

A large part of the upset win for CU was freshman star Sara Nayar earning her first ranked win in the No.1 singles position. Nayar finished the season ranked 101st in the nation after earning three top-40 wins. Her highest ranking of the season was 89th in the nation as she finished the season with a 13-9 individual record.

Also earning a ranking at the end of the season was the duo of Annabelle Andrinopoulos and Monica Malinen. The two upset the No.2-ranked doubles team in the nation to spark their ranking run and pushed it higher with an upset of the No.15 tandem from Stanford. The two finished on the bubble of qualifying for nationals and earns a No.43 ranking in the doubles to conclude the season.

This is the third time in school history that the team has had an individual, doubles and team ranked in the final season rankings, joining the 2010 squad with a pair of singles and doubles and the 2006 team that had one of each. This is also the first time since 2015 that CU has had a ranked tennis team.

"
 
Best wishes to (next season) sophomore track and field high jumper Jeremy Cody, who is competing in Miramar Florida this Sunday at USA Track and Field's (USATF's) Under 20 National Championships.




Live results - https://results.adkinstrak.com/meets/3757/events
(From this page, looks like the men's high jump is scheduled to start around 11:00 AM MT. Live video webcast only available for those who have a premium USATF+ subscription.)
 
Don't know how much coverage they'll be for her individually as they honor all 12 of the great NCAA women athlete honorees in 12 different sports the Honda Awards cover, but wanted to mention tomorrow (Monday) at 7:00 PM MT, The Collegiate Women Sports Awards Show (presented by Honda) is being televised on the CBS Sports Network. One of the 12 individual sport honorees is Buff Dani Jones, who won the award for top female cross country athlete for this past year.

Out of the 12 individual sport winners, 3 will be named finalists for overall Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year, with the winner also, I assume, announced tomorrow evening.
(Since they have listed the final 3 (from 2010) or 5 (from 2005-2009) athletes as finalists, Jenny (Barringer) Simpson (in 2009) is the only Buff who has been named a finalist for the overall athlete of the year honor.
Note- kind of a bummer that in their listing of past finalists (https://www.collegiatewomensportsawards.com/archives/top_three/index), they have Ms. (Barringer) Simpson as having gone to Cal, although they do list her as a Buff other places on their website.)

A tweet and a few links -


A list and short "resume" of the 12 individual sport winners for this season - https://www.collegiatewomensportsawards.com/releases/2018-19/20190617top12

From the list of past winners of the individual sport awards (https://www.collegiatewomensportsawards.com/archives/index), looks like Ms. Jones will be the 3rd Buff honored with a Honda female athlete award, joining fellow cross country honoree Kara (Grgas-Wheeler) Goucher, who was honored after the 2000-01 academic year, and Jenny (Barringer) Simpson, who was the track and field honoree for the 2008-09 season.

Assume and hope Ms. Jones is just having a great time at the festivities in Los Angeles, but wanted to mention that, from the list of overall winners (https://www.collegiatewomensportsawards.com/archives/cupwinner_bios/index), a cross country athlete has never won the overall award, which was 1st given out back in 1976.

Edit - I think I probably already linked to this in another thread back last December, but here was the official article announcing Dani Jones as the winner for cross country - https://www.collegiatewomensportsawards.com/releases/2018-19/20181204jones
 
Last edited:
cubuffs.com article on the Honda Sports Award show being held this evening I noted in my last post.



Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2019/6/24/...-woman-athlete-of-the-year-and-honda-cup.aspx

"
By: Linda Sprouse, Associate SID
Release: June 24, 2019


BOULDER — University of Colorado standout Dani Jones is one of 12 student-athletes who were named Honda Sport Award recipients for their respective sports this season, making them all finalists for the prestigious Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year and Honda Cup.

The winner will be announced live during the Collegiate Women Sports Awards Show on CBS Sports Network Monday, June 24, at 7 p.m. MT. The ceremony is taking place at USC's Galen Center Founders Room in Los Angeles.

The other 11 honorees are:
  • Yanis David, Florida Track and Field
  • Maria Fassi, Arkansas, Golf
  • Rachel Garcia, UCLA, Softball
  • Megan Gustafsom, Iowa, Basketball
  • Ashley Hoffman, North Carolina, Field Hockey
  • Lilly King, Indiana, Swimming & Diving
  • Natalia Kuikka, Florida State, Soccer
  • Maggie Nichols, Oklahoma, Gymnastics
  • Estela Perez-Somarriba, Miami (Fla.), Tennis
  • Kathryn Plummer, Stanford, Volleyball
  • Megan Taylor, Maryland, Lacrosse

Jones was named the Honda Sport Award winner for Cross Country this past December after winning the 2018 NCAA Individual Cross Country Championship. She was chosen by a vote of administrators from over 1,000 NCAA member schools. A senior from Phoenix, Ariz., she led her team to the national title for the first time in 14 years. In addition to her individual national title, she is also the back-to-back Pac-12 Individual Champion.

Named the 2018 United States Track & Field/Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Female Athlete of the Year (cross country), she is also a three-time USTFCCCA All-American and the two-time Pac-12 Cross Country Athlete of the Year. Her conference honors also include three All-Pac-12 first-team honors and three Pac-12 All-Academic honorable mention awards. (This article only contains her cross country accolades.)

The Honda Sport Award has been presented annually by the CWSA for the past 43 years to the top women athletes in 12 NCAA- sanctioned sports and signifies "the best of the best in collegiate athletics". Since commencing its sponsorship in 1986, Honda has provided more than $3.1 million in institutional grants to the universities of the award winners and nominees to support women's athletics programs at the institutions.

Jones will be honored during an on-campus presentation in the fall.
...
"
 
Last edited:
BIG Congrats to junior Sage Hurta and senior Kaitlyn Benner , both from the cross country and track and field teams, for each earning yet another well-earned academic honor! (Both have also been top stars both on the trails and tracks while at Boulder.)



Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2019/6/27/...d-google-cloud-second-team-all-americans.aspx

"
By: Shaun Wicen, Assistant SID
Release: June 27, 2019


BOULDER – The University of Colorado track and field and cross country programs had a pair of student-athletes, senior Kaitlyn Benner and junior Sage Hurta, named to the 2019 Google Cloud Academic All-America Second Team, CoSIDA announced Thursday.

Benner earns her second Academic All-America honor after being named a Third Team Academic All-American last year. She is one of 13 individuals this season to repeat as two-time honorees, finishing her career with a 3.95 GPA in Chemical and Bio engineering. Benner moves up to Second Team Academic All-America honor in the same week that she was named the Pac-12 Tom Hansen Conference Medal Winner as CU's outstanding senior female student-athlete.

The Colorado-native concludes her career as one of the most decorated student-athlete in and out of the classroom for the Buffs track team. Benner was named the 2017 Pac-12 Cross Country Scholar Athlete of the Year and the 2019 Pac-12 Track and Field Scholar Athlete of the Year. She was also a six-time All-American as a Buff and finishes with four top-10 marks in school history.

Hurta was named to her first Academic All-America honor, earning second team honors with a 3.97 GPA in Chemical and Bio engineering. Hurta was a pivotal part of the 2018 NCAA Cross Country National Championships this fall, placing 22ndoverall for her fourth All-American honor.

Despite redshirting this indoor and outdoor season, Hurta ran a school record with a win at the Music City Distance Festival in the women's 800 in a time of 2:00.99, taking down the first of Jenny Simpson's seven school records. She also ran the fourth-fastest 1,500 in school history in 4:09.33 this spring when she placed second at Bryan Clay with the second-fastest time in the world at the moment.

Hurta becomes the 61st Academic All-American in Colorado history and the eighth woman for CU track and cross country. Benner becomes just the third CU track woman to repeat, joining three-time honorees Kelly Smith and Jenny (Barringer) Simpson. She also becomes the 14th CU student-athlete to earn more than one honor.

Arkansas' Lexi Jacobus and Wisconsin's Morgan McDonald were named the Google Cloud Academic All-America Team Members of the Year. Jacobus was a 2016 Olympian and a four-time NCAA champion in the pole vault with a 4.00 GPA in biochemistry. McDonald won four NCAA titles this year, the cross country individual title, indoor 3,000 and 5,000 and outdoor 5,000. He has a 3.76 GPA in finance and investment and banking major.

Among the 90 student-athletes selected to the Google Cloud Academic All-America Division I Cross Country/Track & Field teams, 20 men and 33 women carry a 4.0 grade-point average or higher, including all 15 women on the first team. The 15 members of the men's cross country/track & field team carry an average GPA of 3.98, while the women's team carry a 4.04 GPA.
"
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________


 
And, GREAT to see the "bad old days" when the Pac 12 had "highlights" shows many days after the conference cross country championships, rather than showing them live, looks to be done with!

 
but will they not show the start of the race or a special on some athlete like they did this year. I am starting to dislike the pac 12 network
 
but will they not show the start of the race or a special on some athlete like they did this year. I am starting to dislike the pac 12 network

Now that you mention it, that part isn't great. (I now remember them interviewing some sustainability person from one of the Universities at a crucial point of one of last year's races. I'm all for sustainability, but you think they could have timed the interview differently.)

I guess I have developed a relatively low bar for these cross country telecasts, as
  • they still GREATLY beat those very delayed highlight shows that use to be the standard and
  • At least it's not like the NCAA Championships and pretty much every other major race during the XC season that's buried behind the Flotrack paywall.
 
yah. I wish Flo track would take it out from behind the paywall and charge for the other stuff or let you pay for he race you want. I guess I should not complain, it was not that long ago that it was not broadcast ever.
 
Nice 7th place (and low amateur) finish for Buff senior golfer Kirsty Hodgkins in the Colorado Women's Open.



Is it possible that the smartest students on any college campus are the scholarship members of the golf teams.

Get college paid for, no loans, full student-athlete support, but other than some lifting and conditioning work you take care of your classes and play a lot of golf. Very low injury risk, nobody hitting you, travel to tournaments in nice places.

Yes these are highly skilled individuals but trying hard to think of a better way to get an education and can't do it.
 
GREAT to see now graduated Buff hurdler great Gabby Scott still proudly flying the CU flag. (With the traditional strength in distances, I'd say if the Buffs could find a way to get some significant points from another 2 areas (right now I'd say the most likely category or categories right now would be the 400M hurdles and, within a couple years, maybe multi-events/ heptathlon), the women could possibly get to be contenders for a T&F national championship***.)



***If the Buffs were to ever win, or even contend, for a National Championship, it would be very impressive. Looking at the list of past overall NCAA outdoor champions since the women's championship came under the NCAA (1982) (women- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Division_I_Women's_Outdoor_Track_and_Field_Championships, men - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Division_I_Men's_Outdoor_Track_and_Field_Championships ), outside of Oregon (with of course LOTS of Nike funding), the only non- "sunbelt" school I can see that has ever won a national championship in either gender was the Kansas women's team in 2013. Hopefully, with the Buff's (newer) great indoor training and sports medicine facilities along with, usually, VERY nice weather the bulk of the outdoor season (mid-March to mid-June), top recruits will see the potential in coming to Boulder!)
 
Last edited:
Yet another well-deserved honor (she's the 1st Buff ever to be honored with this one) for top student (chemical and biological engineering) - athlete (distance runner) Kaitlyn Benner.

BIG Congrats to her!




Article - https://cubuffs.com/news/2019/7/11/cross-country-benner-named-pac-12-woman-of-the-year.aspx

"
By: Linda Sprouse, Associate SID
Release: July 11, 2019


SAN FRANCISCO — Colorado's Kaitlyn Benner was selected Pac-12 Woman of the Year for the 2018-19 academic year, the conference office announced on Thursday.

Benner becomes the Pac-12's candidates for the NCAA Woman of the Year, presented annually to a graduating student-athlete who has distinguished herself throughout her collegiate careers in the areas of academic achievement, athletic excellence, community service and leadership. Benner is CU's first Pac-12 Woman of the Year since joining the conference in 2011.

Benner was a member of the cross country and track and field teams at Colorado. She earned degrees in chemical and biological engineering with a 3.94 GPA. The Superior, Colo., native was named the Pac-12 Cross Country Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2017 in her final season of cross country and went on to earn the 2019 Pac-12 Track and Field Scholar-Athlete of the Year honor. She is a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-American and was named to the Pac-12 All-Academic First Team six times (three for cross country and three for track and field).

Athletically, Benner recorded six All-America honors. She was a three-time All-American in cross country and helped the Buffs win three straight Pac-12 Conference team titles (2015-17) and four consecutive NCAA Mountain Region Championships. Benner was the Pac-12 individual runner-up at the 2015 championship and recorded three straight All-Pac-12 First Team honors. On the track, she also recorded three All-America honors and was a two-time conference champion. She won the 2015 MPSF 5,000-meter race and the 2018 Pac-12 10,000-meter run.

This past June, Benner was named the recipient of the Pac-12 Tom Hansen Conference Medal for CU. A three-year member of the student-athlete advisory committee, she helped organize several community service projects for the Buffs. She served as a student-athlete representative on the CU Athletic Department Safety and Security Committee. Additionally, Benner has served as an engineering peer mentor, co-taught a freshman seminar engineering class and spent three years as a high school cross country counselor. She was also an undergraduate researcher where she worked to engineer an antibody that could be easily controlled to be safely used in aggressive cancer therapies. She hopes to one day make medical treatments that are more affordable and accessible for people with low-income.

Benner is the 15th student-athlete to be named Pac-12 Woman of the Year. Previous winners were: Valarie Allman, Stanford (2018); Peng-Peng Lee, UCLA (2018); Anika Apostalon, USC (2017); Rachael Acker, CAL (2016); Margo Geer, ARIZ (2015); Chiney Ogwumike, STAN (2014); Brigetta Barrett, ARIZ (2013); Hilary Bach, ASU (2012); Annie Chandler, ARIZ (2011); Justine Schluntz, ARIZ (2010); Lacey Nymeyer, ARIZ (2009); Arianna Lambie, STAN (2008); Whitney Myers, ARIZ (2007); and Kate Richardson, UCLA (2006).

Four student-athletes from the Pac-12 have won the prestigious NCAA Woman of the Year award: Schluntz (2010), Nymeyer (2009), Myers (2007), and Tanya Jones in 1994. All four were student-athletes at the University of Arizona.

Eligible female student-athletes are nominated by their schools, then each conference office reviews the nominations from its members and submits a conference nominee to the NCAA. From that pool, the NCAA Woman of the Year selection committee selects the Top 30 – 10 from each division. From the top 30, the selection committee determines the top three nominees from each division and announces those nine finalists in September. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics then chooses the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year from those nine.

The top 30 honorees will be recognized, and the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year winner will be named, at the annual award ceremony on Oct. 20 in Indianapolis.
"
 
(I assume) redshirt-sophomore Golfer Alisha Lau with a nice result in a tournament that ended yesterday. After having to redshirt last season, she should be a big contributor this coming season. (She was #4 in the team in stroke average as a freshman (behind only 2 now pro Buffs and (now) senior leader Kirsty Hodgkins) during the 2017/18 season.)

 
Would definitely put this in the category of off-season dead period “for entertainment value only” "news", but wanted to mention that thestridereport.com over the last 2 weeks or so listed their pre-season Top 50 individual D1 cross country male and female runners going into this season, and the Buffs were well represented with 8 athletes (5 women and 3 men) ranked.
(Looks like all the articles with their rankings should be accessible through https://www.thestridereport.com/articles .)

The ranked Buffs and their rankings (from #50 to #1 in the country):

Women –
  • #45 - Incoming freshman Emily Covert

  • #40 Junior Rachel McArthur (Transfer in this season from Villanova)

  • #13 Junior Emily Venters (Transfer in this season from Boise State)

  • #12 Senior Tabor Scholl

  • #10 Senior Sage Hurta

Men

  • #40 Junior Eduardo Herrera

  • #13 Senior John Dressel

  • #4 Senior Joe Klecker
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(I won’t copy what thestridereport wrote for all the other Buff runners, but just to get an idea of the level of detail they went into if fans want to get more detail by going to their website, here’s what they wrote about the 1st student- athlete noted above, Emily Covert-

“The first true freshman to make our Top 50 rankings is the NXN 4th finisher out of Washburn High School in Minneapolis, MN. Covert was the first high school girl in Minnesota to break the 17:00 barrier in a 5000 meter cross country race and is coming off of a state championship title during the fall. Along with her 4th place finish at NXN, Covert also finished 5th at the Foot Locker National Championships this season. She owns personal bests of 4:47 for 1600 and 10:05 for two miles.

Coming into Colorado as a true freshman, there are a number of questions that surround Covert. She is coming off an injury during this winter/spring which kept her out for much of the track season, although she managed to finish 2nd in the 3200 meters at the Minnesota state meet behind Furman commit Lauren Peterson. While she has shown tremendous ability in cross country, there is some concern that her jump to the collegiate system could be more challenging as she comes back from her injury.

Another point of intrigue is how she will handle the Colorado system. The Buffaloes are known for high volumes and intensity of training, a system that has broken some athletes, but has seen many flourish. Covert will also have to adapt to training full-time at 5000 feet, a stark difference from the 900 feet of Minneapolis.

All concerns aside, Covert will be joining a Colorado system that has developed some of the best runners in the country. Just recently, Dani Jones was able to come back from injury and win a national title and Covert will be looking to find similar success in the program. If she can follow a similar trend to fellow Minnesotan Joe Klecker, Covert could become one of the best in the NCAA in the coming years. Don’t count her out of the All-American conversation this fall.
“)
 
Here is today's press conference with Coach Wetmore for the upcoming cross country season held as part of the fall sport Buff media day.

 
Back
Top