Monday, January 16, 2012

After running to a pair of second-place finishes at last weekend’s Bob Eubanks Open, Valparaiso sophomore sprinter Julian Smith (Chicago, Ill./Brother Rice) was named the Horizon League Male Track Athlete of the Week, his second career weekly honor from the league office.

Smith actually qualified for the event finals in the 60m dash with the fastest time in the preliminaries out of a field of 53, qualifying with a time of 6.96 seconds.  The sophomore then shaved one-hundredth of a second off his time in the finals, crossing the line in 6.95 seconds for the runner-up finish.  Smith was just four one-hundredths of a second off his own school record in the event.

Smith also placed second in the 200m dash out of 56 runners on Friday, posting a time of 22.11 seconds.  In addition, the sophomore ran the leadoff leg of the Crusaders’ 4x400m relay ‘A’ squad, helping the team complete the race in 3:31.54.  Smith and the rest of the Crusaders return to action this weekend at the two-day Wisconsin Elite Invitational in Madison, Wis., beginning Friday afternoon, January 20 at 1 p.m. CST.