Sadie Gastelum was sick for two weeks heading into Saturday's NCAA Championships. Then she went out and ran a sick race. The sophomore handled the soggy, muddy conditions better than most, crossing the line 70th out of 249 finishers to earn Wildcat of the Week honors.
Gastelum fell ill in the hours leading up to the West Region Championships on Nov. 22 but still battled to a 24th-place finish to add All-West Region honors to the All-Conference accolades collected two weeks prior.
There was some question whether she would be able to make the trip to nationals. Her final workout, in which she was completely spent after only completing half of it on the Tuesday prior, did not portend great things for Saturday.
But Gastelum overcame it all and actually finished strongly, going around 17 runners over the final 2,000 meters.
A walk-on for the Wildcats in 2012, Gastelum has now represented the Wildcats at the NCAA Championships twice and been part of a pair of CCAA Championship teams.
With two seasons of competition lying ahead, it's a safe bet that the best is yet to come.
