Asheville, N.C. – The Saint Xavier University women's track & field team set a program record for highest finish and most points at the 45^th annual NAIA Women's Outdoor Track & Field National Championships this week in Asheville, N.C., as well as most NAIA All-Americans at a single championship meet. The Cougars were 13^th overall out of 74 scoring teams with 21 points. Their place and point total top the previous best of a tie for 17^th place and 18 points set by the 2017 squad. Fifth-year senior Lexi Clarke (Plainfield, Ill./Joliet JC/Plainfield South), fifth-year senior Olivia Mathis (Akron, Ohio/Lourdes/St. Vincent-St. Mary) and senior Yanira Deana Paninka (Canary Island, Spain/Central Methodist/IES Jandia) each earned NAIA All-American honors in two disciplines, as Clarke, Deana Paninka, freshman Briana Krapf (Portage, Ind./Portage) and Mathis placed second in the 4x800m Relay, Deana Paninka was fourth in the 400m Hurdles, and Mathis and Clarke placed fourth and sixth, respectively, in the 800m.

The trio joins SXU Hall of Famer Ellie Willging (2015-18) on claiming All-American recognition twice at the same national meet, as Willging was the national champion in the 10,000m and was runner-up in the 5,000m in 2017. Mathis also becomes the most decorated Saint Xavier athlete in NAIA Outdoor National Championship history, as she was also an All-American last season in the 800m. University of British Columbia won the national championship for the sixth time with a total of 101 points.

• Deana Paninka ran the second-best time of the meet in the preliminaries of the 400m Hurdles on the first day of competition on Wednesday with a personal record (PR), and school-best time, of 58.61 seconds. With her time, she became the first runner for the Cougars to run a sub-one-minute time in the event. In the finals, she posted a time of 58.83 seconds on Friday. It was her second consecutive season qualifying for the race at nationals.
• The 4x800 Relay Team bested the previous team record in the prelims, logging the first sub-nine-minute time in program history at 8:58.36 for the top qualifying time Wednesday evening. In the finals on Thursday, the group ran even faster with their time of 8:54.94 to place second behind the time of 8:48.91 set by British Columbia. It is the second time that SXU has had All-Americans in the race since 2011 when 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) placed sixth.
• Thursday afternoon, Mathis broke her own school record in the 800m preliminaries with the fastest time of the meet at 2:08.43. Clarke PR'd with the fourth-best qualifying time at 2:09.51. On the final day of the meet, Mathis narrowly topped her time from the day before with a new program record of 2:08.38 to place fourth. Clarke posted her second-fastest career time at 2:10.33 for a sixth-place draw.
• The 4x400 Relay Team of senior Emerson Colins (New Lenox, Ill./St. Francis/Lincoln-Way West), junior Amaya Rique (St. Louis, Mo./Mineral Area/Seckman), freshman Alesi Rodriguez (St. John, Ind./Andrean) and freshman Nyaa Williams (Romeoville, Ill./Romeoville) became the first group for the Cougars to compete at nationals in the event. After a long delay due to thunderstorms earlier in the day on Thursday, the squad ran the seventh-fastest time in program history in the prelims at 4:02.82 Thursday evening.