Kiptoo Named Big 12 Men's Outdoor Performer of the Year

AMES, Iowa – Wesley Kiptoo continues to make history as Thursday saw him become for first male Cyclone to be named Big 12 Men's Outdoor Track and Field Performer of the Year. Kiptoo was a unanimous selection for the award by the league's coaches.

Kiptoo ran only five outdoor races on the season, but each one seemed to see him make another piece of history. His first run of the outdoor season came on Apr. 2 at the Hayward Premiere in Eugene, Oregon, where Kiptoo ran to what was then the fastest time in the nation at 10,000m to win the event in 27:58.10.

Three weeks later he was back in Eugene for the Oregon Relays as part of a star-studded race. Though he finished fourth in the 5,000m that night, Kiptoo did clock a personal best 13:21.02, the No. 3 time in ISU history and at the time the No. 4 mark in the country with all three finishing ahead of him being previous NCAA Champions in Oregon's Cole Hocker and Cooper Teare and his ISU teammate Edwin Kurgat.

At last weekend's Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Kiptoo became the first male student-athlete in Big 12 history to win three individual conference titles in the same weekend, earning the Championships High Point Award in the process. What made Kiptoo's triple impressive was that it took place in the three longest races: the 3,000m steeplechase, the 5,000m run and 10,000m run and all in record breaking fashion. Kiptoo is believed to be the first men's student-athlete to win those three conference championships at the same conference meet since Ole Miss' Barnabas Kirui did so at the 2007 SEC Outdoor Championships.

All three of Kiptoo's wins came in meet-record times, with two of Kansas State's R.V. Christian Track Records going down and one of the oldest ISU school records being taken down. He started his run on Friday night with a dominant wire-to-wire win in the 10,000m, claiming the title in 28:22.98 and leading an ISU 1-2-3-4 in the event.

Saturday saw Kiptoo make his ISU debut in the steeplechase, and once again he went wire-to-wire in a Championships, Facility and School Record time of 8:31.82 and 14 seconds ahead of his closest competitor. Kiptoo's mark took down Iowa State's 25-year old school record of 8:32.01 run by Dmitry Drozdov at the 1996 NCAA Track & Field Championships, and is also the No. 2 time in the event this year in NCAA Division I.

In the rain on Sunday in the 5,000m, Kiptoo had his first non-wire-to-wire win of the weekend, but he was able to shake off his closest competitor in the first mile and pulled away to another Championships and Facility record of 13:29.92 to complete his triple.

Kiptoo's efforts helped lead the Iowa State men to a second-place finish at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships, tying the program's highest team finish outdoors in the Big 12 Era. ISU's 144 team points is the most scored by a non-winning men's team at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships.

Kiptoo will be running the 5,000 and 10,000 meters at the NCAA West Preliminaries next weekend, May 26-29, at Texas A&M.