Purity Sanga
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- Height:
- 5-0
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- Hometown:
- Kapsabet, Kenya
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- Year:
- So.
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- Previous School:
- St. Theresa's Tartar Girl's HS
Bio
2018: Named Ohio Valley Conference Female Athlete of the Year and Female Athlete of the Championships … crowned the OVC women’s individual champion and earned first-team all-conference honors after posting a five-kilometer time of 17:07.1 at the league championship meet on Oct. 27 … broke the Tech 5K record three different times in 2018, and set the current standard with a time of 16:41.3 at the Greater Louisville Classic on Sept. 29 … owns the top four 5K times on Tech’s all-time list … recorded her second straight all-region honor and mustered the program’s highest-ever individual regional finish, coming in seventh overall with a six-kilometer time of 20:43.0 at the NCAA South Regional on Nov. 9 … qualified for the NCAA Championships for the second consecutive year, where she ran the 6K in 21:19.3 on Nov. 17 … became the first OVC cross country athlete to win Female Runner of the Week after for each meet of the regular season … took regular-season individual victories at the Golden Eagle Invitational (Sept. 8) and the UAB Blazer Classic (Oct. 12) … was the runner-up at the Vanderbilt Commodore Classic (Sept. 15) and the Florida Mountain Dew Invitational (Sept. 22) … came in third at the Greater Louisville Classic (Sept. 29).
2017: Competed in six meets for Tech, quickly establishing herself as one of the best female runners in school history ... qualfied for the NCAA Championships after finishing eighth at the NCAA South Regional with a six-kilometer time of 20-minutes, 16.4-seconds ... clocked three 5K times in the top 10 of TTU's all-time list of results ... set the second-best 5K time in Tech history at the OVC Championships on October 28, coming in in 17:31.0 for sixth place overall and a First Team All-OVC distinction ... named OVC Female Freshman of the Year ... recorded four top-10 finishes on the season ... was the first Golden Eagle across the finish line in all six of her races ... finished the 5K in less than 18 minutes on three different occasions ... won OVC Female Runner of the Week for her third-place finish at the UF Mountain Dew Invitational on Sept. 23 with a 5K time of 17:46.8.
Personal: Native of Kapsabet, Kenya ... nursing major.
News mentions
NEW ORLEANS, La. – The Tennessee Tech men’s and women’s cross country teams have garnered All-Academic honors from the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association for the 2018 season. With this set of awards, the Tech women’s team has now been recognized three times in program history, while the men’s team has met the criteria in two different seasons. Teams must record a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better to be eligible.
MADISON, Wis. – In her second consecutive trip to the NCAA Championships, Purity Sanga handled herself very well and improved on her results from 2017, placing almost precisely in the middle of the 252-member women’s field. Sanga’s 128th-place finish was nearly 90 spots better than her first championship go-around in Louisville, Ky. (217th), and her time of 21-minutes, 19.3-seconds was almost 30 seconds faster (21:48.0).
MADISON, Wis. – For the second year in a row, Purity Sanga will compete in the final meet of the cross country season, the one reserved only for the very best collegiate runners the nation has to offer, the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships. The 2018 races will be held Saturday, November 17 at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course in Madison, Wis., with the starting gun for the women’s race going off at 10:45 a.m. CT. Sanga’s return trip comes on the back of her program-best seventh-place overall finish at the NCAA South Region Championships, where she completed the six-kilometer course at Florida State’s Apalachee Regional Park in 20-minutes, 43.0-seconds. In addition to her second consecutive all-region honor, Sanga claimed the final individual qualifier position for the NCAA Championships by recording the fourth-best result of the women not affiliated with South Region team qualifiers Florida and Florida State.
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – In what has become almost a weekly occurrence this season, the 2018 Tennessee Tech cross country teams added more record book material at Friday morning’s NCAA South Region Championships. Purity Sanga re-established the program’s best individual finish, and the men’s team – led by Brannon Cheplak’s all-region performance – took seventh out of 24 teams, the best regional result in Wayne Angel’s tenure as head coach. Sanga’s six-kilometer time of 20-minutes, 43.0-seconds awarded her seventh place overall among 208 runners in the competition, and improved on the program’s top individual finish, which she set last year with an eighth-place result. Sanga, who continues to make her case as the best runner in Tech history for either gender, recorded her second all-region honor in as many seasons, and will also be headed to the NCAA Championships for the second straight year. Her qualification for the championship meet comes by virtue of being the No. 4 individual finisher not affiliated with a team that finished in the top two.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Following record-book performances at the OVC Championships, the Tennessee Tech cross country teams have spent the past week and a half recuperating and preparing to be at their best at the biggest meet of their season to date: the NCAA South Region Championships. The South regional races will be held Friday morning at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Fla., with the women’s six-kilometer competition kicking off the action at 7:30 a.m. CT. The men’s 10-kilometer run will follow, and is schedule for an 8:30 a.m. start.
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – Purity Sanga followed through on her billing as the top female runner in the Ohio Valley Conference this season, winning the individual league title on Saturday morning at the OVC Championships. The Tech men made their own statement in the second race of the event, taking a third-place team finish, the program’s best since 1967.
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – An outstanding season for the Tennessee Tech cross country program has the potential to culminate in a storybook ending on Saturday morning when runners from all 12 Ohio Valley Conference institutions will meet in Cape Girardeau, Mo. to decide the league champions. For TTU, the OVC Championships will be the climax of meticulous preparation and five regular-season meets that have seen both the men’s and women’s teams progress tremendously.
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – In what was most likely a unanimous decision, Tennessee Tech sophomore Purity Sanga was named the Ohio Valley Conference’s Cross Country Female Athlete of the Year, as announced by the league office Friday evening. During the same ceremony, teammate Janet Kwambai was honored for her impressive first season, as she earned Co-Female Freshman of the Year.
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – In an event that has become somewhat customary, Purity Sanga claimed her fifth straight installment of the Ohio Valley Conference’s Female Runner of the Week, giving her a year-long sweep of the award during Tech cross country’s 2018 regular season. As the only female runner in the OVC to ever win Runner of the Week four times in a row, Sanga’s fifth adds an additional layer of excellence to her sensational sophomore season, arguably the best ever assembled by a female runner in league history.
MONTEVALLO, Ala. – If the prior weeks’ accomplishments weren’t enough proof, Tennessee Tech cross country left no doubt it’s ready for the OVC Championships in two weeks, as it turned in another round of spectacular performances at the UAB Blazer Classic Friday morning.
MONTEVALLO, Ala. – Tennessee Tech cross country will get its final test run prior to the Ohio Valley Conference Championships when it competes at the Blazer Classic on Friday morning, hosted by the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB). Following a stretch of four races in four weeks, the Tech cross country teams were off last weekend to rest ahead of the season’s final push toward the championship meets.
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – It has been an incredible run to start the cross country season for Tennessee Tech’s Purity Sanga, and with her latest accomplishments, she has earned Ohio Valley Conference Female Runner of the Week for the fourth week in a row, a first in the history of OVC cross country.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The accomplishments continued to rise for the Tennessee Tech cross country teams with the conclusion of the Greater Louisville Classic Saturday, as the men’s team claimed its highest finish ever at the event and Purity Sanga broke the program record for the 5K for the third straight week.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Tennessee Tech cross country road tour rolls on, as coach Wayne Angel’s teams head north for the Greater Louisville Classic on Saturday morning at E.P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park. Fresh off the Mountain Dew Invitational, another meet characterized by a historic performance from Purity Sanga and a top finish for the surging men’s team, the Golden Eagles move on to what will undoubtedly be the largest meet of their season.
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – For the second time in a cross country season that isn’t even a month old, Sammy Kipkirui and Purity Sanga have given the Tennessee Tech program a sweep of the Ohio Valley Conference Runner of the Week awards.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Tennessee Tech cross country team produced another set of headlines at the 2018 Florida Mountain Dew Invitational, as Purity Sanga clocked the first sub-17-minute 5K time in Tech history, and the men’s team replicated its runner-up finish from a season ago. One week after etching her name into the women’s record book with the best 5K time in TTU history, sophomore Purity Sanga outdid herself this time, burning up the track on UF’s Mark Bostick Golf Course with a time of 16-minutes, 41.58-seconds for her second consecutive runner-up overall finish.
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – It’s been an eventful two weeks for Tennessee Tech cross country. Opening weekend brought a pair of individual race champions and OVC Runners of the Week in Sammy Kipkirui and Purity Sanga, as well as a women’s team victory. Week two at the Commodore Classic was even bigger, highlighted by Sanga’s new-school-record 5K and second consecutive Runner of the Week award from the conference, as well as a top-five finish for the men’s team and their subsequent No. 8 South Region ranking by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches’ Association.
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – Tennessee Tech cross country has competed in two meets so far in the 2018 season, and Purity Sanga has now been tabbed as the OVC’s Female Runner of the Week after each of them. Sanga’s second consecutive honor comes on the heels of a school-record women’s five-kilometer performance at the Vanderbilt Commodore Classic, where she clocked a time of 17-minutes, 20.7-seconds. That result beat Micayla Rennick’s old program mark (17:29.8) from October 29, 2016 by more than nine ticks of the clock.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Sophomore Purity Sanga is the new owner of the fastest women’s five-kilometer time in Tennessee Tech cross country history, and she sits alone at the top of the all-time list by a wide margin. Sanga came across the finish line in 17-minutes, 20.7-seconds, eclipsing Micayla Rennick’s old mark of 17:29.8 from October 29, 2016 by more than nine ticks of the clock.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – After an impressive showing at the Golden Eagle Invitational to open the season, Tennessee Tech cross country will go on the road for the first time in 2018 for the Commodore Classic hosted by Vanderbilt University. The races will be run on the Vaughn’s Gap Cross Country Course at Percy Warner Park outside Nashville, with the men’s eight-kilometer race happening first at 9 a.m., followed by the women’s 5K at 10 a.m.
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – Tennessee Tech cross country athletes won both of the Runner of the Week awards given out by the Ohio Valley Conference on Tuesday following Tech’s season-opening Golden Eagle Invitational Saturday.
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – “Whose house is this!?” “TECH’S!” “Whose house is this!?” “TECH’S!” “Whose house is this!?” “TECH’S!” So went the chant led by coach Wayne Angel prior to the men’s four-mile cross country race on Saturday morning at the Putnam County Sports Complex. The idea, obviously, was that both the TTU men’s and women’s cross country teams were coming into the race intending to defend their home turf, and when the results came out, that’s exactly what they had done.