NEW ORLEANS—After a big win in her season debut, Villanova senior
Sadie Sigfstead (Edmonton, Alta.) was named the Division I Women's Athlete of the Week by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) on Monday afternoon. Sigfstead was the individual champion of the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational last Friday with a dominant performance that made waves nationally.
Last week's performance had significant implications for Sigfstead individually and for the Wildcats as a team. Running on the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course which will host the NCAA Championships later this year, Sigfstead ran the 6,000 meter race in 19:55.7 while building a margin of victory of more than seven seconds. She surged into the lead with two kilometers to go and steadily pulled away from there.
The Nuttycombe meet is one of the bigger national events on the cross country schedule and it occurred three weeks earlier than usual this year as a result of Wisconsin hosting a pre-NCAA meet next month. Sigfstead was making her season debut in last Friday's race and turned heads in her first race since she ran in the 10,000 meter national championship race to close the outdoor track & field season in June. As a cross country runner, Sigfstead is the reigning Mid-Atlantic Region individual champion and a two-time all-region performer.
Villanova earned valuable team points by finishing ahead of four nationally-ranked teams at Nuttycombe, including Lipscomb (No. 13), Boston College (No. 22), Northwestern (No. 24) and Iowa State (No. 30). In this week's USTFCCCA regional rankings released on Monday afternoon, the Wildcats moved up three spots from sixth to third. New national rankings come out on Tuesday afternoon.
National athlete of the week awards have been presented by the USTFCCCA since 2013 for cross country and since 2015 for indoor and outdoor track & field. Sigfstead is the first women's athlete from Villanova to earn the honor in any of the three seasons.
The Wildcats return to action for the Princeton Fall Classic on October 18.
