IUPUI’s Zielinski, Fort Wayne’s Beard Collect Weekly #SummitXC Honors

9/23/2014 12:00:00 AM

ELMHURST, Ill. – IUPUI's Joey Zielinski and Fort Wayne's Brittany Beard were named The Summit League's Cross Country Athletes of the Week for their performances Sept. 16-22.

MEN'S ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
Joey Zielinski, IUPUI
Jr. // South Bend, Ind.
Zielinski garners his second career Athlete of the Week honor and first of the season after recording a top-10 finish at the Indiana Intercollegiates. The junior finished eighth out of 150 runners with a league-best 8k time of 25:23.9. He led the Jaguars, ranked No. 11 in the Great Lakes Region entering the week, to a program-best second-place team finish at the Indiana Intercollegiates ahead of Purdue and Indiana State, ranked No. 8 and No. 13 in the same region.

Also nominated: Gabe O'Keefe, Fort Wayne.

Previous honorees: Sept. 2 – Brant Haase, South Dakota; Sept. 9 – Jonathan Harper, Oral Roberts/Brendan Sage, South Dakota State; Sept. 16 – Mark Holt, Western Illinois.

WOMEN'S ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
Brittany Beard, Fort Wayne
So. // Angola, Ind.
Beard earns the Athlete of the Week award for the second time of her career and of the season after a top-20 finish at the 20^th Annual Brother John "Paddy" Doyle/Iona College Meet of Champions. She clocked the league's second-fastest 6k time (22:57.84) for a 17^th-place finish among a field of 163 runners, which included five regionally-ranked teams.

Also nominated: Leah Brooks, IUPUI; Ashley Kildow, Omaha.

Previous honoree: Sept. 2 – Erin Teschuk, North Dakota State; Sept. 9 – Brittany Beard, Fort Wayne/Amber Eichkorn, South Dakota; Sept. 16 – Lydia Smith, Western Illinois.

ABOUT THE SUMMIT LEAGUE
In its fourth decade of Division I athletics, The Summit League offers 19 championship sports and has a combined enrollment of over 120,000 at nine institutions, including four located in top 60 U.S. metro populations and two land-grant universities. Member institutions include: Denver (University of Denver), Fort Wayne (Indiana University-Purdue University-Fort Wayne), IUPUI (Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis), North Dakota State University, Omaha (University of Nebraska Omaha), Oral Roberts University, the University of South Dakota, South Dakota State University and Western Illinois University. Previously known as the Mid-Continent Conference, The Summit League rebranded in 2007 and has since produced eight NCAA Champions along with over 65 All-Americans, 60 Academic All-America selections and numerous former student-athletes competing at the highest professional level. For more information about the league and to "See The Summit", visit www.thesummitleague.org, follow on Twitter @thesummitleague, download The Summit League's Front Row app, and watch the weekly "Inside The Summit League" show at www.thesummitleague.org/itsl.

#SummitXC