ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – The College of Saint Benedict Track and Field Team will send partial squads to compete at two outdoor meets on Saturday, April 13 as the 2024 outdoor season moves forward.
 
Saint Benedict will take a partial squad to the Minnesota State Open in Mankato, Minn., with that meet scheduled for an 11 a.m. start. And, the Bennies will also take a partial squad to the Bethel Invite, which is scheduled to start at 9 a.m., at Royal Stadium in Arden Hills, Minn.

Up Next:
After this weekend, the Bennies will return home to compete in the CSB/SJU Invite and Multi meet at Clemens Stadium in Collegeville, Minn., on April 19-20. They will then travel to the University of St. Thomas to take part in the Tommie Twilight on Wednesday, May 1 before beginning the MIAC Outdoor Championships which begin on Thursday, May 2 and run until Saturday, May 11. Competition will be hosted at both Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., and Hamline University in St Paul, Minn.

Highlights – 2024 – Smith records 2^nd fastest 10K in DIII history
Already this outdoor season, senior 14-time All-American Fiona Smith has recorded the second best 10,000-meters outdoor in NCAA DIII history. Smith, who ran 32:57.28 at the Stanford Invitational March 29, was named the USTFCCCA Outdoor Track Athlete of the Week – earning her fifth national weekly honor from the USTFCCCA during her career. She was also named the MIAC Outdoor Athlete of the Week for the 27^th time in her career. Smith has won five national titles, including both the 3,000-meter and 5,000-meters at the NCAA Division III Indoor Championships. With the performance, Smith continued to build on an impressive 2023-24 season. After winning the NCAA DIII Cross Country Championship in November, she concluded her NCAA Division III indoor career by capturing her fifth national title by winning the 3,000-meter title in 9:25.97 at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championship on Saturday (March 9) at the Virginia Beach (Va.) Sports Center. The win in the 3K followed a dramatic finish as she also won the 5,000-meter race on Friday (March 10) by clocking 16:26.40. And, now as the 2024 outdoor season opened, Smith continued to snap school and MIAC records. With a time of 32:57.28, she had the top 10K time in NCAA DIII this year. Smith, who set 3K and 5K records indoors in 2024 and owns the mile record indoors, now owns the 10K outdoor mark, surpassing her own mark of 33:05.17 in 2023. This performance bettered that mark by over eight seconds. She now owns four outdoor marks including the 1,500 meters (4:25.51, 2023), 3,000-meters (9:58.64, 2021), 5,000-meters (16:05.43, 2023) and now the 10K (32:57.28). Coming into this race at the Stanford (Calif.) Invitational (March 29), Smith had been the first runner at the NCAA DIII level to repeat in both the 3K & 5K in doors. In the 3,000 meters, she finished just .35 off her own NCAA DIII championship record of 9:25.62 which she ran in winning the 3K a year ago in Birmingham, Ala., at the DIII Championship. Smith, who has 14 All-American honors and four indoor titles (plus cross-country title in fall 2023), finished almost six seconds ahead of the second-place finisher senior Natalie Bitetti of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, who clocked 9:31.74. In her last eight races at the NCAA DIII championship level in cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field, she has finished first on five occasions and second in the other three races. At the 2023 NCAA DIII Outdoor Championships, Smith was second in both the 5,000 and 10,000-meters runs and helped CSB record 16 team points and finish 15^th overall. Fiona Smith finished second in both the 5k and 10k events. As a team, the Bennies placed in 15^th place and claimed 16 points during the 5k throughout the second day of competition.
 
Bennies have strong effort in season-opening performance at Hamline
Led by titles by Fiona Smith, Jaylyn Ahlberg, Ellie Selisker and Sabriya Farquharson, the College of Saint Benedict Track and Field Team opened the outdoor season with a successful performance at the Hamline Invitational on April 6. In total, CSB had the three titles, two top-10 program marks, and 21 top-eight finishes.  CSB had a strong outing at Hamline, led by senior 14-time All-American Fiona Smith, who continued her strong start to the outdoor season by clocking a winning time of 4:32.83. She finished nearly nine seconds better than the second-place finisher Annessa Ihde with the sixth fastest time outdoors in 2024. Smith's time ranks as the second-best time in school history, just off her school record of 4:25.51 in 2023. Winning a second title for CSB was sophomore Jaylyn Ahlberg, who won the pole vault at 3.45 meters – 11-03.75 while first-year Lili Raidt was fourth in 3.15 meters – 10-04.00. Ahlberg's vault ranks fifth all-time outdoors at CSB and is 23^rd in NCAA DIII. In addition, CSB had a third student-athlete in top eight with junior Sabrina Buffetta at 2.70 meters – 8-10.25. CSB also had a title in the long jump as Sabriya Farquharson had a jump of 5.16 meters -16-11.25 with senior Ellie Selisker, third in 4.98 meters – 16-04.25. Then Selisker captured CSB's fourth title by going 10.63 meters – 34-10.50 in the triple jump. In the sprints, senior Kate Gallagher placed second in the 100-meter dash in 12.57 while senior Tiana Johnson was third in 12.67. Gallagher and Johnson, along with sophomore Myah Nelson and first-year Grace Buntrock finished second the 4x100-meters in 49.49, just .16 behind DII Concordia St. Paul.