She finished fourth overall and second among collegiate runners at Williamette with a time of 17:02.12, and 24th at the Roy Griak Invitational last week with a time of 21:31. Jakubek finished first among the Golden Eagles at both meets.

Now that she has won the award, Jakubek is not sure how she feels about the honor.

“Last year I was like, ‘Oh it would be cool to get Athlete of the Week, because it shows that you ran good times, so I always thought it would be neat to get the award,” she said. “But now that I got it, it’s like, I don’t know. Other people ran well, too.”

She gave credit to her teammates for running as well as they did, and said that any one of them deserved the award as much as she did.

“I just feel that there were so many people that run well that it’s hard to choose one person for the week,” Jakubek said. “I feel like even a lot of people on my team ran well, and they should get the award, too.”

Jakubek started the season a week after the rest of her teammates, sitting out at Bradley because of illness.

“It feels like my training has paid off,” she said. “It feels good being able to come back to the team and to do all right.”

Head coach Dave Uhrich has been impressed with Jakubek’s work ethic this season.

“She’s just worked real hard over the summer, and been doing the right things to keep herself healthy, and that’s important that she stays healthy,” he said. “She’s been working really hard, and doing the things she needs to get to a higher level.”

This is the first time a Marquette women’s cross country runner has received the award since Susan Barth won on Sept. 17, 2002, a fact that was not lost on Jakubek.

“Marquette people don’t always get (the award),” she said. “It’s nice to be able to represent the school.”

Thanks to the success of Jakubek and others on the team the women’s team has broken into the national rankings.

The team moved up to 25th in the NCAA Division I National Poll released Monday, receiving 61 votes from coaches in the NCAA.