University of Illinois Springfield track and field runner Blake Jones finished third on Saturday in the 5,000m race at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field National Championships in Allendale, Mich. He is the first Prairie Star men's runner to earn All-American honors, and the first in program history to score points at a national track meet.
 
Jones finished the competition with a time of 14:15.12. He was ahead of 13 competitors who started the race, and was less than two seconds behind the national champion.
 
Jones started the race on the outside but quickly worked himself up to second among the lead pack of runners. That pack, which contained most of the runners, started with a slow pace for the first half of the race. That pace picked up with seven laps to go and Jones remained in the second position.
 
With three laps left, Jones took over the lead in the race. On the final lap, he started the final sprint halfway through. He pulled away from most of the pack except for two runners, which were able to catch him in the final straightaway. Jones' final time on that lap was 57.57, the third-best in the field.
 
With his third-place finish, Jones earned six points for UIS. The Prairie Stars finished 36th overall out of the 71 teams that had athletes at the meet.
 
Earlier at the national championships, Jones finished 13th in the men's 10,000m race, and Taryn Christy was 11th in the women's 10,000m. (story here)