LARAMIE, Wyo. – Wyoming freshman cross country runner Katelyn Mitchem has been named the Mountain West Women's Cross Country Athlete of the Week, it was announced Tuesday by the conference office.

Overall, it is the first conference honor for Mitchem. She is the first Cowgirl harrier to earn a weekly conference honor since Holly Page in 2014, and the first freshman Cowgirl since Christine Nelson in 2010.

Last week, Mitchem placed 19^th overall in a field of 142 runners and scored 16 points for the Cowgirls at the Woody Greeno/Jay Dirksen Invitational. The Broomfield, Colo., native led UW to a fifth-place finish with 138 points, finishing in the top half of the field of 12 Division I teams. It is the second-consecutive race Mitchem has led the Cowgirls, and she even improved her per-kilometer average to 3:41.2 from her season-opening pace of 3:41.6 over a longer distance.

Mitchem and the Cowgirls are back in action Saturday, Oct. 6, when they compete at the Roadrunner Invite in Denver, Colo.