BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – After recording the top time in NCAA DIII in the 5,000-meter run, junior
Fiona Smith of the College of Saint Benedict Indoor Track and Field Team has been named the CSB Athletics Athlete of the Week.
Smith, a seven-time All-American (cross country/track and field), clocked the fastest time in DIII and her fastest ever on a 200-meter track of 16:36.54, which was converted to 16:28.97, in finishing second in the 5K at the Mark Schuck Open and Multi at Minnesota State Mankato on Saturday, Jan. 28.
Already in the indoor season, Smith has recorded the fastest 5K time in DIII and the second-best 3K, which she recorded at the Mondo College Invite in Winston-Salem, N.C. As a result of that 3K run, she was named the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Indoor Athlete of the Week on Jan. 17. It was her 13
th career MIAC Athlete of the Week honor and fourth this year (three times, cross country).
At the
Mondo Invite, Smith clocked 9:40.53 for the title and the second-best time in NCAA
DIII. She only trails
Anastasic Tucker of Hope, who had a 9:36.11 on Dec. 2 at the
SVSU Holiday Open and Multi. Smith, a mathematics major from Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, was recently named a finalist for the Wooden Citizenship Cup Award – the only
MIAC student-athlete to make the finalist stage of the award. Smith, who is the most decorated student-athlete in school history with seven All-American honors and a CSC Academic All-American honor, recently finished as national runner-up at the NCAA
DIII Cross Country Championship. It is the highest finish ever by a Saint Ben's student-athlete.
During her career in cross country and track and field, she has 36 event wins, including 11 indoor. This fall, she became the sixth female student-athlete in
MIAC history to win back-to-back league individual titles, which had not been achieved since Bethel's Marie
Borner won three in a row from 2007-09. She was also named the North Region MVP cross country for the second straight year. On Sept. 26, she became the first-ever CSB student-athlete to be named
USTFCCCA DIII Athlete of the Week.
