Trouard and Malaspina Sweep #BigSkyXC Athlete of the Week Honors for NAU
After facing top competition at the Nuttycombe Invitational and at Pre-Nationals, Northern Arizona once again swept the #BigSkyXC Athlete of the Week honors with Mikayla Malaspina and Andy Trouard earning the award.
Mikayla Malaspina ran a 20:23.7 on the 6k course at Pre-Nationals in Louisville, Ky., to finish in 27
th place. Malaspina was the first NAU to finish and crushed her personal best time by 40 seconds. The Lumberjacks placed top-10 as a team and were the top Big Sky team in the meet.
This is the first Athlete of the Week for Malaspina and the second NAU runner to receive recognition with Paige Gilchrist earning the honor two weeks ago.
Andy Trouard led Northern Arizona in the prestigious Nuttycombe Invitational at the University of Wisconsin with a time of 23:40.9 in the 8k race. Trouard’s impressive race earned a podium spot finishing third overall among 200 plus runners. As a team, Northern Arizona won the event scoring 50 points while placing three runners in the top-five. This is the second year in a row that Northern Arizona has won the Nuttycombe Invitational.
This is the first Athlete of the Week award in Trouard's career and becomes the third Lumberjack to win the weekly honor on the season.
Northern Arizona returns to competition on Friday, Oct. 20 in the Arizona State Invitational before the Big Sky Championships the following week on Oct. 28.
Other Nominees:
Eastern Washington – Colton Johnsen, Kari Hamilton
Montana State – Brandon Hough, Kelsi Lasota
Portland State – Alex Cisneros, Kaila Gibson
Sacramento State – Elijah Changco, Amy Quinones
Southern Utah – Mike Tate, Madison Fruchey