COLUMBIA, Mo . - Trinity Smith followed a similar script to her first appearance at the NAIA National Championships, and came away with a program record to conclude her stellar cross country career at Midway Friday.

Smith broke her own 6K program record with a time of 22:59, which earned her a 126th-place finish in a national field of well over 300 runners. She cut 13 seconds off the previous record, which she herself set two weeks earlier at the River States Conference Championships. 

As she did in 2023, Smith started near the back of the field before making considerable improvements at each split. In 261st one kilometer in, she moved up to 210th at the second then 150th at the third, where she recorded her best split of the race at 3:45.

From there, she moved to 138th, then 129th, then finally into the 126th position, running a 3:48 in the final kilometer.

Though Smith had a higher overall finish of 110th at last season's national race, she did so in a time that was more than 40 seconds slower than the one she ran Friday.

Before turning her attention to track and field season, Smith and teammate Riley Gillis will compete at the NAIA Marathon Classic in Sacramento, Calif. on Dec. 8. Smith placed sixth at the race in 2023, earning herself All-American honors. 

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