GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Bruin freshman
Grace Steinmetz continued her record-setting year with her second All-American honor at the recently concluded NAIA Indoor Track and Field National Championship.
Steinmetz, who ran to a fifth-place finish at last fall's cross country championship in Tallahassee, has now added a third-place finish in the indoor 5,000-meter race held at Gainesville's Alachua County Sports and Event Center over the past three days. The top eight finishers in each race receive the honor.
At the start of Saturday's 5K race and its 25 laps of the 200-meter oval, the field of 20 entrants was hesitant to follow national cross country champion Jaynie Halterman of Taylor University. Only Montreat's Heather Murphy and Steinmetz bravely followed the leader, and a gap opened quickly on the rest of the field as the trio pulled away. Steinmetz would fall off Halterman's record-setting pace but held on to her third-place position all the way to the finish, running a personal best time of 17:08.38.
With her third-place finish, Steinmetz becomes the Bruin's first indoor All-American in the eight-year history of the track program.
With the conclusion of the indoor season, the Bruins will take a short break before beginning the outdoor campaign at the end of March with a meet at Saint Mary University in Kansas. The outdoor season concludes in May with the outdoor championship in Asheville, North Carolina, where Steinmetz has an opportunity to claim her third All-American award of the year.