SEATTLE, Wash. - Jan. 27 - Southern Utah University Cameron Levins blazed to an NCAA National qualifying time of 13:42.90 in the men's 5,000-meters, placing him No. 2 in the nation and earning the top spot on the podium at the UW Invitational on Friday night. The time also broke the meet record and was close to 30 seconds faster than the next collegiate runner to finish.

Levins broke the previous meet record held by Stanford's Chris Derrick (13:44.02) set in 2009. His time was also better than the previous SUU school record - a mark of 14:07.20 set by Curtis Moore in 2001.

Levins' teammate and fellow Thunderbird, Nate Jewkes, was the next collegiate runner across the line with a 14:21.42 and he was followed by Austin West as the freshman finished in 14:32.18. In all, Southern Utah runners accounted for three of the top four collegiate runners in the race, besting athletes from California, Portland and UC Riverside.

In the women's race, Diana Medina-Mitchell raced to a 16:30.07 finish in the 5,000-meters, breaking the previous SUU school record by almost one minute.

The men's and women's 5k was the highlight for the Thunderbirds on Friday as the track and field teams compete in Flagstaff, Arizona and Seattle, Washington this weekend. Look for the complete wrap up of both meets on suutbirds.com on Saturday night.

Watch Levins' post meet interview on flotrack here.