The Daily Toreador - Student Newspaper of Texas Tech

Issue date: 10/9/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: file photo

Some people don't like taking time off. Sally Kipyego is one of them.

After a summer of Olympic trials, track national championships and tending to nursing school, Kipyego is eager to compete again. As a senior, she will start her final stretch as a cross country runner striving to make history in the women's Division I collegiate record books by winning three national titles in the sport. Kipyego's first race of the year will be in the Chile Pepper Festival on Oct. 18 in Fayetteville, Ark., ending a stretch where she missed the first three races of the season.

With her busy summer schedule, Kipyego said she had little time to recoup from the Olympic trials.

"I just wanted time off a little," she said. "I just competed until everyone else was already rested, so I needed to get the rest and come back more slowly. And the fact that the season goes all the way to July, I didn't want to start racing in the beginning, because the season is pretty long."

The track and field NCAA championships ended June 14 in Des Moines, Iowa and the Kenyan track Olympic trials were held July 4 in Nairobi, Kenya.

Since the start of the season, the women's cross country team has already competed in the Cloudcroft Tri-meet, the Red Raider Invitational and the Notre Dame Invitational.

"I really wanted to go to Notre Dame because really good girls were running and a lot of good teams were running," Kipyego said. "I wanted to help the team run better and probably place a little higher, but at the same you have to make choice."

Part of that choice includes nursing school, she said. Intense clinicals starting 6 a.m. Thursday's and Fridays prevent her from training with the rest of the team on those days.

"Thursdays are a recovery run for me that I can do later," Kipyego said. "But on Fridays it's kind of hard because it is always a hard workout; I always try to get somebody to run with because it just harder to do a hard workout by yourself."

Tech coach Jon Murray and teammate Michelle Guzman both said they believe the team could have placed about sixth had Kipyego competed in the Notre Dame Invitational instead of 12th.

Guzman said the team has a chance to win its next meet with Kipyego back on the team.

"Without any one of the girls on the team we are not complete, because we are a team," Guzman said. "But I mean it's good that we are going to have Sally. At Notre Dame we competed as a team, but we still missed Sally. Of course we're always going to miss one person on our team, because we are a team. It will be good to have her."

The Chile Pepper Festival in Fayetteville, Ark., will be the last meet for the team before competing in the Big 12 Conference Championships Nov. 1.

"It's exciting," Murray said. "I think the whole team is excited to have her back and are looking forward to have her back out there with us."

Kipyego said she is looking forward to the team bonding that comes with traveling with and competing as a team, something she'll do for the final time as a senior.

"This is my last year basically, this is my last cross country (year)," Kipyego said. "I still have indoor (track). But it's very special for me, just competing with the team for the last time in cross country. Just having the team with me and hopefully going to nationals with team is pretty exciting and I'm look forward to that."

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