BY ADAM ZUVANICH l AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

Sally Kipyego, arguably the most decorated athlete in Texas Tech history, already has enough hardware.

What she really wants is a framed certificate signifying an academic achievement.

Kipyego, who last week won her third straight NCAA cross country championship and eighth national title overall, will fulfill a lifelong dream in May. She’ll receive her nursing degree from Tech.

“That’s definitely an exciting part of my life. I want to graduate and get that degree so bad,” said Kipyego, a 22-year-old native of Marakwet, Kenya. “It’s amazing to win a national title. It’s absolutely amazing, and it’s an honor. But just being able to be a nurse, and being able to get a nursing degree, is probably the most important part. That was the initial reason why I came to the United States, to study and be able to get a degree.”

Kipyego said she’s wanted to work in health care since she was a young girl living in a small, impoverished Kenyan village. Her father died when she was 4, and her mother always seemed to be stricken with one illness or another.

Also, when Kipyego was 11, she watched a family friend die in her and her brother’s arms after a bicycling accident. She had run seven miles to the nearest clinic to seek help, but the doctor sent her away.

Kipyego said she felt helpless, and she needed answers that others weren’t willing to provide.

“All that, just growing in that kind of environment, made me want to do something in health care,” she said, “just to be able to get the knowledge and be able to help somebody at some point.”

Kipyego said she’ll put a nursing career “on hold” when she finishes her Tech career in the spring. She wants to run professionally and qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games, and she also has some personal business to take care of.

She and former Tech cross country runner Kevin Chelimo, now a volunteer assistant coach for the Red Raiders, were legally married last summer. They plan to return to Kenya after Kipyego graduates for a formal wedding ceremony with their families.

Before then, Kipyego will try to add to her legacy as one of the most accomplished long-distance runners in NCAA history. The indoor track and field season starts in January, and Kipyego needs only one more national championship to match to the NCAA Division I record of nine set by Wisconsin-Madison’s Suzy Favor-Hamilton.

Kipyego, who already has indoor national titles in the 3,000 and 5,000 meters, said breaking Favor-Hamilton’s record would be “huge.”

“Just to be placed in that category is special,” said Kipyego, the only woman to win three NCAA cross country championships. “Just to be part of history-making and something so huge like that, it’s an honor for me.”

Kipyego, who was a seven-time junior-college national champion at South Plains College, said she feels blessed have accomplished what she has to this point. She’s lost only two collegiate races — twice finishing second in NCAA outdoor finals — and she has nearly as many accolades as gold medals.

Along with several Big 12 Conference and regional awards, Kipyego is a two-time winner of the prestigious Honda Award in women’s cross country. She was honored for the third straight year Monday as the female cross country athlete of the year by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, which also tabbed Kipyego as its indoor and outdoor track athlete of the year last spring.

“Seeing what I’ve gone through and seeing all the achievements I have and all the work that I’ve put in, it makes it really special,” Kipyego said. “I’m so fortunate to have been able to go through this, and I have had a wonderful career at Texas Tech, for sure. I wouldn’t change it for anything. It’s been great. I have met a lot of people that have made my life amazing. There’s just so many things I’m so grateful for right now.”

Tech has felt just as grateful to call Kipyego one of its own. She’s led both the cross country and track programs to new heights since arriving on campus in the fall of 2006.

The cross country team made its only appearances at the NCAA championships each of the last three years, winning its first Big 12 and Mountain Region titles this year. Kipyego also helped the track team to a program-best fifth-place finish at the national outdoor meet this past summer.

“It’s been outstanding to have her here. Obviously, she’s helped our program tremendously,” said Tech cross country coach Jon Murray, who added that Kipyego’s competitive drive has made her so successful. “Besides being a great athlete, she’s just a great individual, too. She’s the whole package.”

Is Kipyego the best athlete ever to wear scarlet and black? There are several worthy candidates for that distinction, including former women’s basketball player Sheryl Swoopes, who led Tech to its only team national championship in 1993.

When its comes to individual sports, though, Tech athletic director Gerald Myers said there’s no debate.

“She is by far the most decorated. It’s not even close, who’s second,” Myers said. “She’s won eight national championships, and that’s unbelievable. … She’s the best.”

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