CHICAGO – Fifth-year Olivia Mathis (Akron, Ohio/Lourdes/St. Vincent-St. Mary) earned Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) Women's Track Athlete of the Week honors for the Saint Xavier University women's track & field team when the awards were announced by the league office Thursday morning. Mathis was a part of the 4x800 Relay Team that took first place at the Drake Relays last Thursday at the Drake University (Iowa) Relays in Des Moines, Iowa, and two days later she won the 1500m for the first time in her career at the Olivet Nazarene University (Iowa) Outdoor Open in Bourbonnais, Ill. It is the third time she has won CCAC Track Athlete of the Week, having done so on March 27, 2024 and April 23, 2025, respectively.

• Mathis, along with her teammates, senior Yanira Deana Paninka (Canary Island, Spain/Central Methodist/IES Jandia), fifth-year senior Lexi Clarke (Plainfield, Ill./Joliet JC/Plainfield South) and freshman Briana Krapf (Portage, Ind./Portage) ran the fastest time in program history, and the NAIA this season, hitting the NAIA 'A' Standard with a time of 9:00.87. They broke the previous SXU record of 9:05.90 set at the NAIA Outdoor National Championships on May 26, 2011. That NAIA All-American group featured a pair of Saint Xavier Hall-of-Famers in Lauren Dentzman (2006-11) and Rachael Dean (2010-13), along with standouts Jackie Ott (2009-13) and Kayla Gilbert (2009-11).
• Mathis won the 1500m, just the fifth Cougar runner to do so, with her second-best career time of 4:44.60. She joins a group of Dean, Dentzman, Ott and former standout Delilah Delgado (2020-23) to win the event.

Saint Xavier travels to Joliet, Ill. to take part in the two-day CCAC Championships that begin on Friday, May 2 at Joliet Memorial Field.