Colorado University Athletics
Trio Picks Up CU Athlete of the Week Honors
October 21, 2014 | Cross Country, General, Tennis
BOULDER-- University of Colorado senior Julyette Steur (tennis), freshman Kyra Wojcik (tennis), and senior Blake Theroux (cross country) earned CU Athlete of the Week honors Tuesday for their play during the week of October 13-19.
Steur and Wojcik won Colorado's first-ever USTA/ITA Mountain Region Doubles title winning five consecutive matches at the University of New Mexico. The pair, seeded No. 11 in the Round of 64 field, upset top seeded Mayci Jones and Toby Miclat of BYU in a walk-over. BYU withdrew from the final because of the school's No Sunday Play Rule.
With the win, they earn the Mountain Region Champion automatic berth to the National Indoor Championships, Nov. 8-10 in Flushing, N.Y. It will be their first trip to the Big Apple and CU's first-ever trip to the national indoors. Playing as teammates for the first time this past week, they defeated two schools seeded higher over the five-day tournament. In addition to defeating the top seeded pair, the Buffaloes also edged the ninth seed from Utah, Sarah Richter and Luisa Gerstner Da Rosa in Saturday's semifinal 3-6, 6-3, 13-11.
Both CU women also excelled on the singles court as Wojcik reached Round of 32 with a 3-1 record (she won a consolation singles match), and Steur reached the Round of 16 for the second consecutive fall season (Las Vegas last year).
Theroux was the runner-up at the NCAA Pre-National meet on Saturday, finishing the 8k race in 24 minutes, 6.1 seconds, less than two seconds behind Oregon sophomore Edward Cheserek, the defending NCAA and Pac-12 Champion, who won in 24:04.5. He was the top CU finisher and helped lead the top-ranked Buffs to a dominating win at the meet with a team score of 35 points.
The Buffs demolished the field, defeating the runner-up and No. 2 ranked Oregon Ducks by 56 points (UO recorded 91 points). He steadily moved up during the race. He ran the first 2k in 6:01.8 (56th) and moved up to 33rd after the 3k mark (9:05.7). By 5k, he was up to 12th (15:26.8) and continued to move up to second over the course of the final 3k.
This was the first award of the season for Wojcik, the second for Theroux, and the third for Steur.
Also nominated for this week's honor: Allie Zech (golf), Alexis Austin (volleyball), Erin Clark (cross country), Yannik Paul (men's golf) and Nelson Spruce (football).
Zech, a junior, finished tied for 39th place at the Ron Moore Tournament hosted by the University of Denver. She had the top score among the three Buffs who played as individuals in the event held at Highlands Ranch Golf Club in Denver. The Indian Wells, Calif. native posted an 80-76-78:234 or 18-over par. She recorded six birdies in the tournament and her 39th place finish was her best of the year, 17 spots better than her previous tournament when she finished tied for 56th in the Golfweek Conference Challenge earlier this month.
Austin, a junior, helped the Buffs to a 1-1 weekend which included a narrow 3-2 loss to top-ranked Stanford and a four-set win against Cal. She averaged 4.00 kills per set and hit .244 while adding 1.00 blocks per set and 0.22 digs per set. She led CU against Cal with 20 kills, two shy of her career-high (22) and posted a career-best seven blocks for 24.5 points. In the loss to Stanford, she recorded 16 kills and two blocks.
Clark, a sophomore, led the No. 7 CU womenGÇÖs team to a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Pre-National meet on Saturday. She was seventh overall, finishing the 6k race in 20:54.1. The women recorded a score of 186 points, just 43 points behind top-ranked Michigan, which took third at the meet. Halfway through the race she was 10th overall (10:17.6) and she moved up to ninth after 4k (13:46.5) before finishing seventh. This was the second time this season that she has led the Buffs.
Paul, a sophomore, finished sixth at the Alister Mackenzie Invitational. He was the individual leader through two rounds but carded a 6-over par 77 to finish with a 210 total, or 3-under par, on the 6,734-yard, par-71 Meadow Club course layout. He tied for the lead in eagles here with two, each coming on Monday. He was also second in par-5 scoring, playing them at 7-under par for the tourney.
Spruce, a junior, caught nine passes for 67 yards and a touchdown at USC on Saturday in a 56-28 loss for the Buffaloes. Spruce now has 71 catches this seaosn for 807 yards and 11 touchdowns. His 11 touchdowns is tied for the school record (Derek McCoy, 2003) while his 71 receptions ranks fifth all-time in a season and is 12 away from the school record of 83 (Paul Richardson, 2013) and his 801 yards ranks 10th best for a season in CU history, all even more impressive given there are five games remaining.
