National Athlete Of The Week Follows Title For Herberg
SEATTLE - Friday's wire-to-wire win from Haley Herberg at the Pac-12 Championships was the sundae. Today the USTFCCCA put the cherry on top by naming Herberg its Female National Athlete of the Week.
Yesterday at Chamers Creek Park in University Place, Wash., Herberg surprised the field by racing out to a big lead in the women's 6k championship race. She maintained that large cushion until finally being caught with about 200 meters to go by Stanford All-American Ella Donaghu. But just when it seemed the momentum would change, Herberg stayed steady and kept pushing towards the finish and Donaghu then faded, and Herberg pulled back ahead and won the individual title in 19:02 with Donaghu over six seconds behind in the end.
Herberg became the first Husky to win the Pac-12 title since Amy-Eloise Neale in 2016. That is also the last time a Husky won USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Week honors for cross country.
The Mission Viejo, Calif. native went from 25th at the 2019 Pac-12 cross country meet to the champion this year. She also has an MPSF 3,000-meter title on her resume, from the 2020 championships. Herberg showed what she was capable of back in December, when she ran a big 5k PR of 15:40.86 at an outdoor meet in California.
Washington, which finished third in the team race, will now wait to see if it has made the cut for the NCAA Cross Country Championships on Mar. 15 in Oklahoma. The selection show is set for this Sunday.