BOULDER - Cross
Country's Shalaya Kipp and men's
basketball's Askia Booker were
awarded CU Athlete of the Week honors on Tuesday for their performances during
the week of Nov. 12-18. CU's
Athlete of the Week is sponsored by Silk®, Horizon® and International Delight®.
Kipp became the fourth female Buff in CU history to earn All-American
status three times in cross country as she placed 18th overall on
Saturday at the NCAA Championships in Louisville, Ky. The junior joins current associate head coach
Heather Burroughs, Sara (Gorton) Slattery and Liza Pascuito as the only runners
to record the honor, and she has one more season of eligibility.
As a freshman, the Salt Lake City native finished 40th at
nationals, but improved to 19th during her sophomore season. She finished this year's 6-kilometer course at
E.P. 'Tom' Sawyer State Park in 20 minutes, 2.4 seconds. The women's team placed 24th
overall at the championship.
Booker averaged 19.3 points with 3.0 assists, 2.7 steals and 2.3
rebounds during the men's basketball team's three-game run to the Charleston
Classic Championship last weekend. The
Los Angeles native was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player and had a
career-high 23 points on 10-of-18 shooting from the field (also career highs)
in CU's 81-74 win over Murray State in the championship game. The sophomore guard also tied a career-best with
four steals with two assists against the Racers.
In the previous two games of the tournament, Booker scored a game-high
16 points with four assists in the Buffaloes' 67-57 win over Dayton in the
quarterfinal round, and then helped CU upset No. 16/17 Baylor 60-58 with a
game-high 19 points, while also adding three assists and three steals in the
semifinals. Booker shot 51.1 percent
from the field (24-of-47) and made seven 3-pointers in the three games.
This was Colorado's first in-season tournament victory since the
2002-03 season when the Buffs won the Pepsi Classic in Charlotte, N.C.
For Kipp, this is her second award of the season - and second in as
many weeks - while this is Booker's first of the year.
Also nominated for this week's honors were Alexis
Austin (volleyball), Arielle Roberson (women's basketball), and Jake Hurysz (men's cross country).
Austin recorded 26 kills this weekend
as the volleyball team dropped a pair of matches to Arizona and Arizona State,
both in four sets. The freshman tied her
career-high with 18 kills against Arizona and also hit a career-best .325 with
just five errors on 40 attacks. In the
ASU match, she had eight kills and hit .045. Austin averaged 3.25 kills per set and hit
.179 while adding 0.25 blocks and 1.50 digs per set.
Roberson scored a game high 23 points to help lead the women's
basketball team to victory over UMKC. Roberson,
a freshman, dominated in her 19 minutes of playing time, shooting 9-of-12 from
the field and shooting a perfect 5-of-5 from the free throw line. She also added six rebounds, two assists and a
block in the game.
The junior Hurysz led the No. 7 ranked CU men's cross country team to
a third-place finish at the NCAA Championships on Saturday in Louisville. Hurysz earned his first All-American honor as
a cross country runner by finishing 32nd overall. He finished the 10-kilometer course in 29:55.3
and helped the team record 158 points, just 23 points behind second place
Wisconsin. The Buffs beat their region's
champion, Northern Arizona, who finished fourth at the national meet.
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