Colorado University Athletics
Grady and Barringer Named CU Athletes of the Week
May 06, 2009 | General, Men's Golf, Track and Field
BOULDER - University of Colorado athletes Pat Grady (senior) and Jenny Barringer (senior) were named the Athletes of the Week for the week of April 27-May 3. For Grady, this marks his sixth career honor and he is now the all-time men's golf career athlete of the week leader, he has four on the season. As for Barringer, this is now her sixth honor of the season, adding to her school record which now stands at twenty career honors.
Grady, a Broomfield, Colo. (Broomfield) native, finished sixth, his best effort in the Big 12's, and he was contending for medalist honors well into the final round out of a pack of about eight golfers before the front end of the group started to slowly pull away. He earned All-Tournament Team honors, presented to the top 10 finishers. Grady turned in a 71-71-70-75--287 scorecard for the week (7-over par) on the 6,701-yard, par-70 Prairie Dunes Country Club layout. It was the fifth best total for a 72-hole tournament in school history. His short game salvaged the week, as he admittedly wasn't playing his best but still managed to enter the final round at just 2-over. He had one of CU's two eagles here, and had just two holes worse than a bogey, and both only doubles at that. He had 10 birdies and 44 pars, the latter the most by a CU golfer.
Barringer, an Oviedo, Fla. (Oviedo) native, crossed the finish in 15 minutes, 7.64 seconds to win the 5,000-meter run and set her fifth NCAA record in less than a year on Saturday night at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational. The time is the fastest recorded in the world this outdoor season. The fastest time prior to this was 15:12.95 by Shannon Rowbury (USA) on April 24 in Berkley, Calif. Barringer's time is 29.75 seconds faster than the previous best in the NCAA (15:37.39). The former NCAA record was 15:09.72 and was held by Kim Smith (Providence). It dated back to April 16, 2004 at the Mt. SAC Relays. The CU record of 15:24.97 had been held by Sara Slattery. She ran that time on April 15, 2003 , also at the Mt. SAC Relays. This is the third CU record Barringer has broken that was held by Slattery this season. The time was also a US 'A' standard and an IAAF 'A' standard which would allow Barringer to compete at the IAAF World Championships this August in Germany if she qualified at the USATF Championships in June. Barringer took the lead from the beginning of the race and ran it like a time trial. After the first two laps she was 20 meters ahead of the field and she just continued to pull away as she was about 100 meters ahead after the first mile. With four laps remaining, she was a full 200 meters in front of her closest competitor. Barringer started to lap the field as she entered her final 1200-meters. With the final 500 meters to go, Barringer seemed to pick up the pace. As she entered the bell lap, Barringer continued to lap the field. Barringer finished 44 second ahead of the runner-up, Deirdre Byrne, who clocked in at 15:51.28. Barringer also owns the NCAA records in the 3,000-meter steeplechase record (9:29.20), indoor mile (4:25.91), indoor 3k (8:42.03) and the indoor 5k (15:01.70). She set the CU record in the 1,500 (4:08.38) last weekend in Eugene, Ore. With her accomplishments from this past week, she was also named Big 12 Athlete of the Week, for the second week in a row.
The only other nominee for this week's award was: Christian Thompson (men's track).
Men's Track: Christian Thompson, Sophomore, Candor, N.Y.
Thompson improved on his PR in the steeplechase as well. He ran 8:49.38 which was third in the second section at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational on Saturday night. Thompson was just 6.04 seconds off the winner's time and cut over 11 seconds off his former best of 9:00.57. His time currently ranks 14th in the NCAA.
