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Sally Kipyego runs to victory at the 2006 NCAA Cross Country Championships.
Sally Kipyego of Texas Tech demolished the women's field at the 2006 NCAA Cross Country Championships, hosted by Indiana State University in Terre Haute on November 20. Kipyego, a sophomore transfer from South Plains Junior College, opened a gap in the first kilometer of the 6k race and was in sight but out of reach of the rest of the field for the duration of the race. Her 26-second lead at halfway held steady to the finish, and she became the first Kenyan woman to win the NCAA Division I Cross Country title. "I feel so awesome right now," said Kipyego with a big smile after the race. "I wanted so much to be a champion today. I knew it would be tough, but everyone's going through that mud. I had an advantage in the front; I didn't need to push people around, I could see the course clearly and decide where to run. I didn't think I would win, but I knew I had the ability."
Kipyego started running as a 15-year-old in 2000, and in 2001 represented Kenya as a junior at the World Cross Country Championships where she finished eighth, but in 2002 she didn't make the team. A stress fracture in 2003 kept her out that year and off the 2004 team as well. 2005 was "my first year running better again. I'm just coming into my own," she said. "I'd love to see more Kenyan women coming to study and run in the U.S. Hopefully this will help them see the advantages."
Kipyego's pursuers were many, as the soft and muddy course slowed the chase pack and kept them from stringing out until late in the race. Stanford's Arianna Lambie bid to overtake Kipyego in the last two kilometers, but chasing the former Kenyan junior internationalist alone was too much for Lambie. As the runners entered the final 500m closing straight, she found herself in the cross hairs of Colorado's NCAA steeplechase champion Jenny Barringer, whose barrier strength gave her the staying power to run Lambie down.
"I like to think I didn't make one big move," said Barringer. "At 4k, I thought to myself, 'You've only got 2,000m left, you'd better get going.' I put my mind in high gear. I don't remember passing most of them. I think I dug as deep today as I ever have in my life." Barringer noted that Kipyego "beat me by 45 seconds both times I raced her," but added, "It's tough coming in knowing that, [but] I was hoping I would be underestimated because of that. I was definitely out here with aspirations to do my best...but there's a slab of reality that comes with [the two losses]."
Yale junior Lindsay Donaldson also caught Lambie in the closing meters, but fourth place was enough for Stanford. Dominant all season, Stanford was the overwhelming favorite to retain their team title, but their performance in Terre Haute was not what it might have been. With 195 points, Stanford became the highest-scoring womens' team to win the NCAA title, with a 28 point lead over Barringer's Colorado squad. The previous highest winning score was 146 points for Stanford in 2005.
Still, two titles in two years at Stanford is an enviable record for Tegen. "I didn't get to tell my ladies until last kilometer that it's a low-scoring game, not a high-scoring game," said coach Peter Tegen afterward. "We wanted to be sure nobody did anything heroic, that everyone just ran to their ability, because that would do the job. They had to do what they do well, what they'd done all season long. I'm not so sure we can continue that game, of seeing how high we can score and still win."
Posted by Parker Morse at 11:58 a.m. | Tags: Race Reports, 2006 NCAA Cross Country