Cross Country | 11/23/2021 2:00:00 PM
MINNEAPOLIS — After posting yet another stunning cross country season in her final year as a University of Minnesota Gopher, Bethany Hasz has been named the Big Ten Conference Female Athlete of the Year for the second straight season, as was announced by the Big Ten Tuesday afternoon.
Hasz remains the only the second female student-athlete in program history to secure the honor, and now becomes the first to do so twice, after receiving the same award at the conclusion of the 2020-21 season this past March. Eileen Donaghy was the first Gopher to ever claim the honor, doing so in 1987.
“It’s huge,” said Hasz on the award. “The Big Ten has so much depth. There are a lot of really talented runners in the conference, so winning it for the second time is a huge honor, to say the least.”
Hasz is coming off the best NCAA Championship meet of her career, and arguably the best for any Gopher in program history, as her time of 19:36.4 in last weekend’s 6K championship race demolished the previous program 6K record by nearly 20 seconds and earned her a tie for the highest individual NCAA finish in program history (seventh) with Minnesota legend Megan Duwell. The seventh place finish earned her the second All-American nod of her career as well, becoming only the sixth woman in program history to earn All-American honors in multiple seasons.
The performance, along with a pair of All-American finishes from Megan Hasz (23) and Abby Kohut-Jackson (39), brought the Gophers a seventh place team finish — their second-highest finish in team history behind their fifth place finish from the 2020-21 season.
The Alexandria, Minn. native has had an incredible season leading into the national championships as well. Most recently, she earned All-Region honors for her fourth place finish at the 2021 NCAA Midwest Regional Championships, leading the Gophers to a podium-topping finish at the event. Previously, she had recorded five other top-10 finishes at a number of top meets across the nation, including a bronze-medal finish at the Spiked Shoe Invitational to begin the season, a fourth-place finish at Minnesota’s own Roy Griak Invitational, a sixth-place finish at Wisconsin’s Nuttycombe Invitational and a ninth place finish at the Big Ten Conference Championships in October.
Of her many…
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