Big Sky Conference

Idaho’s Gomez earns All-America honors in 10K

on

By Brad Wall

Big Sky Conference Communications

 EUGENE, Oregon — Kinsey Gomez’s time with the Big Sky Conference was a bit short-lived, but her presence in the league was instantly and constantly felt. The Idaho senior capped her collegiate career with a 10th-place finish in the 10,000 meter finals at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships Thursday to earn second-team All-America honors.

The Oregon State transfer went out with a bang in her final meet with the Vandals, running a personal best of 33:18.00. One of just three conference schools (Northern Arizona, Southern Utah) at the national meet, Idaho was two for two picking up All-America honors as Arphaxad Carroll was also a second-teamer in the long jump on Wednesday.

Gomez’s time bested her own school record at Idaho by over five seconds and moved her up a spot to fourth all-time in Big Sky history. She is one of only eight athletes in league history to crack 34 minutes and just the fifth to break 33:30. The conference’s lone female competitor at the meet had the best placing by a Big Sky athlete in the 10K since Weber State’s Morgan Haws took seventh back in 2008.

In her one year at Idaho, Gomez quickly established herself as one of the top distance runners in the conference, picking up a Big Sky title and four all-conference finishes. She was third at the Big Sky Cross Country Championships back in October, then earned a gold medal in the 5,000 indoors and added a pair of runner-up finishes in the mile indoors and 1,500 outdoors. Gomez also owned four of the top times amongst the league in 2016, while running the No. 5 (indoors) and No. 9 (outdoors) times in the 5K on the Big Sky all-time top 10 list.

Not to be outdone by her excellence on the track, Gomez also took home multiple academic honors for the Vandals over the past year. Minutes before finishing Thursday’s 10K, she was announced as a NCAA Track & Field Elite 90 winner on the women’s side for reaching the highest competition level in her sport while also sporting a 4.0 grade point average in General Studies. Gomez made it a Big Sky Elite 90 sweep in women’s track and field, as Weber State’s Jamie Stokes took home the award indoors in 2016. In cross-country, Gomez was one of six Big Sky individuals to claim USTFCCCA All-Academic honors.

Through two days at the NCAA Championships, Big Sky athletes have put together four All-America performances, including a pair of first-team finishes from Northern Arizona’s Futsum Zienasellassie (10K) and Adam Keenan (Hammer). The league will be represented by two more athletes on Friday, NAU’s Caleb Hoover and Southern Utah’s Jayson Kovar. Hoover is eying a second career All-America finish entering the 3,000-meter steeplechase finals ranked third. Kovar enters the discus competition ranked 18th overall.

About Press Release

Recommended for you