BOWLING GREEN, KY –
Isaac Kiprop punched his ticket to the NAIA National Championship in two weeks while leading the Tigers to a runner-up finish at the Mid-South Conference Championships.
*DISCLAIMER*: The Mid-South Conference announced that the men's course was around 200 meters short of a true 8,000-meter race. Campbellsville has averaged out the team's times to accurately depict what their finish times would be. 52.0 seconds have been added to each of the individuals for Campbellsville for record bookkeeping.
Kiprop was with the lead group for the first four kilometers before separation began. He was able to make up ground in the second half of the race and finish in a time of 24:36.5, earning First-Team All-Conference placing 5th.
Dakota Brady joined Kiprop in having a big performance. Brady moved his way up the Campbellsville top ten list with his new lifetime best PR of 25:13.1, moving up to fourth all-time. Brady earned Second Team All-Conference for his finish in 13th place.
The Smithson brothers kept it close once again, coming in as the 3-4 men on the team.
Lukas Smithson was 19th in the race with a new PR of 25:43.1 while little brother
Myles Smithson was 25:49.4. Lukas moves up to 7th on the all-time list while Myles moves to 8th on the all-time list for Campbellsville.
Coming in as the 6-7 men for the Tigers were
Alex Steen and
Luke Burton. Steen has seen progression throughout the entire 2023 season and has been a consistent fifth man for Campbellsville. Steen finished 32nd overall with his new PR of 26:20.9. Burton had the biggest jump of the day for the team with a 56-second lifetime best of 26:46.7, placing 35th.
Overall, Campbellsville was the runner-up with 78 team points and a 1-5 spread of 1:44.4. The Tigers set a new school record average time of 25:34.00, besting the previous record by 20 seconds.
The team will conclude their final race as a whole team next Friday, November 10th, at the NCCAA Championships. Kiprop will have another week as he will travel to the NAIA National Championship on Friday, November 17th.
