San Francisco— Brie Oakley was named the 2017 Pac-12 Conference Freshman of the Year, the conference office announced on Tuesday. Oakley is the first California woman to win this award in team history, and only the second Golden Bear in program history to receive this honor.
 
The Centennial, Colorado native was consistently one of the Bears top finishers all season, and helped lead the Bears to the highest conference championship finish (5^th) since 2010. The freshman finished every meet within the top-30 runners, placing 12^th at the Joe Piane Invitational, 26^th at the Nuttycombe Invitational presented by Under Armour, and placed 12^th at this past weekend's Pac-12 Championship, the top first-year finisher.  Along with her top-30 finishes, Oakley has dominated the national stage as one of the fastest freshman runners, finishing no worse than the third-fastest freshman in any race.
 
The conference also announced its' 2017 Pac-12 Cross Country Honors Tuesday, in which Garrett Corcoran and Bethan Knights were awarded All-Pac-12 second-team honors.  Oakley was also selected to the All-Pac-12 second team, in which the finishes at the Pac-12 championships determined the selections to the all-conference team.
 
Colorado swept all other honors this year, with the female athlete of the year award given to Colorado's Dani Jones, the individual winner of last weekend's Pac-12 Championship and the women's coach of the year award was given to Colorado's head coach Mark Wetmore. The Men's side of the awards was given to Stanford's Grant Fisher, the individual winner from the championship meet and his head coach, Chris Miltenberg. The Male Freshman of the Year was awarded to Oregon's Cooper Teare, the highest freshman finisher at the Pac-12 Championships.
 
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