Ostrander doubles up on Athlete of the Year to cap magical year
Allie Ostrander
She competed in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track and captured one NCAA championship, five First Team All-American honors and Female Athlete of the Year recognition for BSU and the Mountain West Conference.
“It’s a great honor for Allie, and we’re excited for her to be recognized as the best athlete in the Mountain West,” Boise State track and field head coach Corey Ihmels said in a press release.
“Her success this year shows her effort to stay healthy and compete at a really high level for all three seasons. It’s not something that is easily done, and she works really hard to get to the highest level in all three disciplines. She continues to raise the bar for the cross country and track and field programs.”
Ostrander, of Kenai High fame, was one of just six athletes in the entire country to earn five first-team All-America honors.
In the fall, Ostrander led Boise State to its highest finish at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, with the Broncos finishing sixth as a team. Ostrander finished fourth individually and was named the NCAA Elite 90 Award winner – given to the athlete with the highest GPA at all 90 NCAA Championship sites.
She followed that performance with an exceptional indoor season, despite racing in only three meets. In her first season of indoor track and field since 2015-16, Ostrander would earn two All-America honors – in the distance medley relay and 3,000 meters.
Entering the outdoor season with the pressure of being a defending national champion in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Ostrander met those lofty expectations, becoming just the second woman in NCAA history to win back-to-back steeplechase titles.
Her time of 9:39.28 was more than six seconds ahead of second place, as she became the first underclassman to win back-to-back steeplechase titles, An hour and a half later, she was back on the track in the final of the 5,000 meters, where she took eighth in 15:46.5.
Ostrander’s efforts during the outdoor season earned her Mountain West Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Student-Athlete of the Year honors, as voted on by the league’s coaches – making her the first women’s athlete in conference history to win the award in back-to-back years.
She also continued her academic success, becoming the first Bronco to make the Google Cloud Academic All-America First Team in the sport of cross country and track and field.