PARIS  A pair of Western Colorado cross country and track & field alumnae will participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics as Alicja and Aneta Konieczek will both race in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase while representing their home country, Poland.

Alicja is ranked 19th in the event in the world rankings, and Aneta, two years younger than Alicja, is ranked 25th.

The pair will run in the event preliminaries on Sunday, August 4 with the event final scheduled for Tuesday, August 6.

Both Alicja and Aneta earned spots in Western Colorado's record books during their time as Mountaineers.

Alicja is the school record holder in the outdoor steeplechase, with a time of 9 minutes, 47.72 seconds, and owns the indoor records in the 3,000m run (9:17.90), mile (4:37.42) and as a member of the distance medley relay (11:19.98). She ranks third on Western's all-time performance list in both the outdoor 1,500 and 3,000, and fifth in the indoor 800.

Her indoor mile ranks second all-time in NCAA Division II history and her steeplechase time is third on the D-II all-time list.

Alicja earned 15 All-American honors at national meets while representing Western: three in cross country (2015, 2016, 2018); three in the indoor mile (2015-3rd, 2017-1st, 2018-1st) and once in the DMR (2018-1st); she won the steeplechase at the outdoor D-II national championships in 2017, 2018 and 2019, finishing first in the 5,000 in 2017 and second in the event in 2018 and 2019.

Aneta was an All-America cross country runner for Western in 2017 and 2018, earned two more national honors at the 2018 indoor championships as a member of the winning DMR and as the third-place finisher in the 3,000, then earned her fifth All-American award by placing fourth in the steeplechase at the 2018 outdoor NCAA D-II championship.