ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – Last spring, Fiona Smith wrapped up her first outdoor season with the College of Saint Benedict track and field team with All-American honors and a school-record 5K time.
Saturday afternoon in St. Paul, she picked up right where she left off in May.
Smith started her sophomore outdoor season with a win and a new CSB 5K record Saturday afternoon at Hamline. For her impressive performance, she is this week’s CSB Athlete of the Week.
Smith recently wrapped up the 2022 outdoor season with All-American honors in both the 3K and 5K at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Winston-Salem, N.C. She broke her own school records in both events this season, and finished the year in the top five in the nation in both.
Last spring, Smith became the first CSB track athlete to break 17 minutes – first at the Hamline Showcase, and then again at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Saturday afternoon, she broke the school record at Hamline for the second time in her career.
In the team’s first outdoor meet of the 2022 season, Smith came away with a win, another school record and the second-best 5K time in Division III so far this season. She finished the twelve-and-a-half lap race in 16:40.59 – five seconds faster than her previous record, and more than a full minute faster than the second-place finisher. She is one of eight Division III athletes to break 17 minutes in the 5K so far this season.
Smith and her teammates are back in action this Saturday, April 9, when they host the CSB/SJU Invite at Clemens Stadium on the SJU campus in Collegeville. Smith will make her 10,000-meter run debut at 10 a.m., and the rest of the track and field events start at 11 a.m.
