[ CROSS COUNTRY ]
BYUH’s Smith wins
D-II national title
After conquering the NCAA in cross country, Brigham Young-Hawaii sophomore Chelsea Smith is returning to Hawaii for a more meaningful challenge.
"I've got the Dole Pineapple race in March and the Turkey Trot at Thanksgiving," Smith said. "If you win this you get a trophy, but if you win the Turkey Trot you get a turkey, so I am obviously excited about that."
Smith finished first at the NCAA Division II national championship meet at Raleigh, N.C., yesterday, beating the next fastest runner by a full 25 seconds.
Smith ran the hilly 6-kilometer course in 20 minutes, 33 seconds, passing Mindy Sawtelle of Indiana-Pennsylvania a mile into the race. Smith says she caught up to Sawtelle a half mile in and knew that Sawtelle would run out of steam because of her pace. Smith finished 57th last year.
"I surprised myself very much; I didn't expect to win," Smith said. "There are a lot of fast runners here."
Smith celebrated her victory by eating an entire pumpkin pie at Golden Corral, and says that is the only thing she expects to get out of the feat. She returns to BYUH's campus in Laie today, and will settle down to her normal routine of running.
"I really don't feel like I've done anything special," Smith said. "I just did what I've always done and (today) I'll be back washing dishes in the cafeteria. All I did was run."
Hawaii Pacific's Nina Christensen wrapped up her collegiate career with a seventh-place finish, a minute behind her island rival. Christensen was named an All-American for the third time in her four years of running at HPU.
In the men's race, HPU junior transfer William Ngetich finished sixth, running the 10 kilometers in 31:06.30 to trail individual champion Celedino Rodriguez by 41 seconds.
