SACRAMENTO, CA – The Tigers participated in the inaugural NAIA Marathon Championships Sunday morning and walked away with a team runner-up finish.

The NAIA Marathon was paired with the California International Marathon. NAIA runners started in the sub-elite group for both the men's and the women's categories. Teams scored the top three runners and were allowed four total in the race.

For Campbellsville, Lukas Smithson, Chase Bulten, and Samuel Bennett were the trio to earn the runner-up finish as a team.

Smithson finished 11th overall with a school record time of 2:36.48. Smithson kept a nine-second 5K split average mile time throughout the entire race. He came through halfway at 1:17.58 and nearly kept an even split in the second half, running 1:18.50.

Bullten was the second man in for Campbellsville, finishing 16th overall, and ran a time of 2:38.32. Bulten had a strong first half of the race and was able to rally in a tough second half and catch two runners near the tail end of the race.

Bennett was the final athlete for Campbellsville. Bennett was 28th overall and ran a time of 2:46.50. Bennett was similar to Smithson in the near-even split from the first half to the second half of the race. 

Overall, the Tigers finished in a tie for first place with 23 points but were beaten out by Point Park with the tiebreaker. It is scored cross country style scoring, the higher the athlete is in the race, the lower the point score. Runners were only eligible for team points if the team had a full three runners. 

Bennett and Smithson will now look ahead towards indoor track season as the team travels to Marshall University on Friday, December 8th.