Simon Bedard clocked a new personal best in the 10,000-meter at the French National Track Championships, taking seventh-place overall with a time of 28:58:34.
Bedard's 10,000-meter time would rank fourth all-time in Butler program history and betters his previous mark of 29:07 set at the famous French road race, Corrida de Houilles, in December 2019. The Malestroit, France native finished 26
th in that field. The mark is three seconds faster than teammate
Barry Keane's ninth-place time of 29:01.57 at the European U23 Championships in July 2019.
Bedard's top finish comes just two weeks after setting a new personal record in the 5,000-meters with a second-place time of 13:59.32 at a French Regional meet. He became the third current Bulldog to clock a time under 14 minutes at that distance.
In his first season as a Bulldog, Bedard qualified for the 2019 NCAA Cross Country Championships. The All-BIG EAST First Team and All-Region member crossed the finish at 32:04.8, good for 112th in the field. Bedard was the third BIG EAST individual, behind Butler teammate
Euan Makepeace and Villanova's Andrew Marston.
Prior to arriving at Butler, at California Baptist, Bedard won the 10,000-meter at the 2019 WAC Track and Field Championships to become CBU's first-ever WAC track champion. He clocked 29:57:86 to take the title.
Bedard was recently named Butler's September Bulldog of the Month, along with teammate
Angelina Ellis.