BOSTON, Mass.—Senior Riley Buese opened her final collegiate indoor track & field season with a bang, as she ran the 14^th-fastest time in NCAA DIII history in the 5K to put herself in great position for a spot at Nationals in March. 
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
 
Buese traveled to Boston with one objective in mind: put herself in contention for a spot at Nationals in her first race of the year. She accomplished that goal and much more at Saturday's Sharon Colyear-Danville Invitational. 

The senior faced a stacked field comprised of mostly DI competition at the Boston University Indoor Track & Tennis Center. She competed in the fifth of eight heats and finished 10^th out of 19 in her heat and 90^th out of 161 runners. 

Buese ran in a heat of 19 runners with 14 NCAA DI runners, one NCAA DII, three NCAA DIII and one unattached runner. She ran with the second pack for the majority of the race and posted a 3K split of 9:52.08 that would also be a personal-best and program record. 
 
She crossed the line in 16:31.51 to shatter her own program record by 21.17 seconds. 
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• The senior's time ranks 14^th in NCAA DIII history in the Indoor 5K. Her time is the fastest by a West Region runner in the history of NCAA DIII by 1.34 seconds. 
• Buese's time is the third-fastest in NCAA DIII this season behind only DIII Cross Country National Champion Faith Duncan (16:07.53) and Emory University's Brigid Hanley (16:25.03) who finished seventh in Buese's heat. 

• Buese finished second out of 13 NCAA DIII runners in the field. She finished two spots and four seconds ahead of SUNY Geneseo's Penelope Green who finished in fifth at last year's NCAA DIII Indoor Track & Field Championship. Buese placed seventh in the race just 0.38 seconds behind Green.
• Buese has run the 5K indoors four times and has posted a sub-17 minute time three times. No one else in program history has gone sub-17:30. 
• The Sharon Colyear-Danville Invitational is named after Boston University Hall of Famer Sharon Colyear-Danville. Colyear-Danville was an Olympic sprinter for Great Britain and an All-American for the Terriers. She passed earlier this week. 

WHAT'S NEXT 
 
Lewis & Clark indoor track & field will resume competition in 2025, when they travel to the University of Portland Indoor #1 Meet on Sunday, January 26.