McKillop Named West Region Athlete of the Year

NEW ORLEANS, La. - On Tuesday, U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCA) named Bryn McKillop the NCAA Division III West Regional Athlete of the year, an award given based off of a vote by member coaches in the region. McKillop took home the award after winning the West Regional Championships over the weekend with a time of 21:07.6, an 18-second improvement for her on the course.

Overall, McKillop's time is the third-fastest time ever run on the Pomona-Pitzer course. Her individual effort helped lead the Athenas to regional title, a 51-point victory over second-place Whitworth. McKillop is the first Regional Champion for CMS since Angie Jacquez in 2002.

The regional title continued the trend of 1st-place finishes for the Scripps senior from Portland, Ore. McKillop finished first in all but one of her races this year, winning the Biola Invitational 5K (17:48.7), CSU-SB Coyote Challenge 5K (17:19.6), SCIAC Multi-Duals 6K (21:27.0), and the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational 6K (21:25.0) The one race she didn't win was perhaps her best, setting a CMS-record 6K time in 20:34.4 at the UC-Riverside Invitational. Bryn finished a full minute ahead of the next Division III runner, and was the second non-DI finisher in a loaded field. McKillop's time crushed the previous record of 20:51.8, ran by Jen Tave in 2011 on the same course.

"Bryn's shown a veteran's ability to dictate the race no matter the situation," said assistant coach Collin Christensen. "She's taken out some races hard from the gun, like UC-Riverside's 1st mile in 5:13, and she has had others like Biola where she went out controlled and reeled in the competition by closing in 5:30. It's evidence of her willingness to work on her weaknesses without compromising her strengths that got her there. She's a mental monster right now."

McKillop will lead the fifth-ranked Athenas at the NCAA DIII Cross Country Championships this weekend in Elsah, Illinois. She looks to improve on her ninth-place finish as a junior and become just the seventh Athena in CMS history to become a multiple-time cross country All-American.