CORVALLIS, Ore.—Lewis & Clark College women's track & field senior Riley Buese ran a season-best time in the 5,000M on Friday night at the Oregon State University High Performance Meet. Her time moved her from 25^th to eighth in NCAA DIII this season. 
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
 
For the third-straight week, Buese was forced to run 12.5 laps around the track with no one else to help pace her for a large portion of the race. 
 
She ran in the 5,000M Invite race and finished second out of 17 runners – with the vast majority of the field made up of NCAA DI and DII competition. 
 
Buese ran in the top-four of the field through the opening 600M and moved up to third at the 1,000M mark. She would take over second place at the 2,200M mark and pulled away from Josephine Welin from the University of Washington (NCAA DI) at the 3K mark. 
 
She would continue to pull away from the rest of the field and eventually crossed the line in 16:36.64. 
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• Buese's time is the second-fastest of her career and in program history. She ran a 16:34.68 at last year's Portland Twilight Meet. 
• Buese would churn out splits of 81 seconds or less in all but one of her laps. 
• The senior sits eighth in NCAA DIII this season and is within 8.2 seconds of the fourth-fastest time this year. 
• Buese finished 19+ seconds ahead of Welin, the University of Washington runner, who placed third overall. Diana Cherotich of the University of Oregon (NCAA DI) placed first with a time of 15:23.42. 

WHAT'S NEXT 
 
Track & Field will compete in a pair of meets the following weekend. Lewis & Clark is scheduled to send a group of throwers to Oregon State for the Pac-12 Open on Saturday, May 10. The Pioneers will also have a contingent of athletes compete at their home facility on Saturday, May 10th at the Portland Twilight Meet.