Colorado women's cross country runner Jennifer Barringer achieved a personal victory Friday at the Big 12 Conference Cross Country Championships at the Rawls Course in Lubbock.
"This is the first time I've ever been in a race with her that I could see her finish," Barringer said of Texas Tech's Sally Kipyego. "So that's a little victory for me even though I didn't beat her."
Barringer finished a distant second to Kipyego on three separate occasions in 2006.
In those races, which were conference, regional and national championship competitions, Kipyego finished 45, 44 and 26 seconds ahead of Barringer, respectively.
This season, Barringer led her team with a time of 19 minutes, 29.30 seconds, seven seconds behind Kipyego.
Kipyego said she and Tech coach Jon Murray decided on a strategy in which Kipyego would start the course a little slower than usual, but Barringer quickly altered those plans.
"When we started, I didn't expect Jennifer to start off the way she did," Kipyego said. "She started fast, and she was right there with me. I was kind of shocked, and I got excited. I started running really fast, but I didn't want to run that fast. That affected the last part of my race."
In the last kilometer, Barringer chipped away at what was once a 20-second lead for Kipyego.
Murray said if Kipyego never opened up her commanding lead, Barringer could have finished much closer to Kipyego.
"I'm surprised (Barringer) let Sally get that far ahead of her," he said. "It paid off for Sally; she was hurting that last bit too. She did a good job of keeping her composure and kept that tempo going."
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