Excelling on course, track and in class: NDSU's Payton Smith 'running' towards degrees

Carrington High School graduate Payton Smith has a clear vision in front of him, and he knows very well how to pursue it.

The son of Kyle and Layne Smith is currently pursuing a double major in Psychology and Exercise Science at NDSU, all the while excelling on the Bison cross country and track teams.

Smith was named as the NDSU Male Athlete of the Week for the week of October 16-23, after leading the Bison to a 7th place finish out of 30 teams at the Bradley Pink Classic in Peoria, Ill.

As one of the cross country team's top five runners, he entered into the team scoring in every meet this past season, and earned 2nd Team All-Summit League honors by finishing in 12th place overall at the conference meet this past November.

He was named as a Bison Most Valuable Scholar this past fall, achieving a perfect 4.0 grade point average (GPA). He was also one of only five runners in the Summit League to be named to the Academic All-League Team.

During the outdoor track season, Smith ran the 3,000-meter steeplechase and 5,000 meters, and is the Summit League runner-up two years running in the steeplechase event. In his freshman season, he placed 7th in the conference meet.

His personal best time of 8:58.26 in the 3,000 steeplechase is good enough for fifth-best in Bison track history.

His career-best in the open 3,000 is 8:28.92, and 14:49.00 for the 5,000.

Eligibility-wise, Smith is currently in his junior year for the indoor track season, and will be a senior this spring for outdoor.

This is just one of many articles featuring area college students, which can be read in this week's Collegiate Congratulations special section.

Download the full Collegiate Congratulations section in PDF here: https://www.fosterconews.com/home/cms_data/dfault/pdfs/misc/2024-02-05.pdf