Roark and Smith Smash School Records at OWU

DELAWARE, Ohio (September 8, 2012) - Urbana University freshmen cross country runners Jade Roark (pictured) and Jackie Smith ran the two fastest 5K's in school history on Saturday at the Ohio Wesleyan University Invitational.  Roark crossed the finish line first in a time of 24:05.3, smashing teammate Sara White's school record by over 30 seconds.  Smith was right behind Roark at 24:24.3.  Her time also beat White's old school record of 24:36.15, which had stood since White's freshman year in 2009. 

As a team, the Blue Knights finished 11th out of 11 teams, but every runner made significant improvements.  Roark trimmed more than 3 minutes off her time at last week's Flyer 5K.  Smith was over a minute faster. 

Senior Jessica Thomas made the biggest improvement in time.  She trimmed a full 4 minutes off her 5K time, crossing the finish line in 30:14 to finish fourth on the squad.  Sophomore Melissa Bell was third with a time of 26:23.  Bell cut 2 and a half minutes off her time.  Blue Knight Kaylen Diemer also made a huge improvement, shaving almost 3 full minutes off her season best to round out Urbana's team score.

Roark and Smith finished 90th and 92nd in a field of almost 150.  All 5 of Urbana's runners finished in the top 114 places.

The race was a great warm-up for Urbana's first competition at a G-MAC opponent's course.  Next Saturday, the Blue Knights travel to Cedarville University for their first of 3 races on the Yellow Jackets' course this season.  The race starts at 10:15 on Saturday morning. [Results]