Northern Arizona University's dominance of the Big Sky Conference continued this past weekend as both the men and women's track and field teams completed a calendar sweep of the six conference championships.
Adding to the sweeps in cross country and indoor track and field, both the men and women captured the outdoor track and field titles by more than 60 points in Sacramento. The Lumberjacks wrapped up the meet with 16 individual Big Sky Conference champions, as well as golds in two relay events, between the two teams.
Men
The men earned gold in eight different events with eight different athletes.
In the 200-meter dash, senior Kyle Smith defended a top finish in the preliminaries with a 21.15 run in the finals to take gold. In the 400-meter hurdles, freshman Josiah Johnson landed second in the preliminary round before running a 51.68 in the event's finals. Junior Colin Sahlman achieved a similar result, shaving half a second off his 800m qualifying time that ranked second to earn gold.
In the meet's longest distances, Northern Arizona's specialty, junior Justin Keyes led a group of four scorers in the 5000m to take gold in 13:55.52, and senior David Mullarkey came out on top of a podium sweep with a 29:23.03 in the 10,000m.
On the field, seniors Desmond Lott, Trevor Hook and Sirr Butler finished with gold medal performances for the Lumberjacks. Lott's hammer throw of 63.48 meters put him on top of the podium, while Hook set a new personal best of 68.98 meters in javelin and Butler's 15.51-meter mark in triple jump in addition to their medals.
Northern Arizona earned another 13 medals, with four silvers and nine bronzes.
Senior Khamis Hassan's 10.51 in the 100m dash edged out Smith for silver, with his teammate earning bronze in 10.55. Nicolas Martinez joined Johnson on the 400m hurdles podium with his 52.46 earning him a silver medal.
Sahlman and senior Corey Gorgas finished second and third in the 1500m at 3:40.14 and 3:42.12, respectively. Gorgas added a bronze in the 5000m, trailing Keyes' winning run by a little more than two seconds at 13:57.61. Behind Mullarkey in the 10,000m, senior Santiago Prosser took silver with a 29:23.03 and Keyes finished with a bronze in 29:39.53.
Lott added a bronze in discus, hitting a mark of 54.37 meters, and a bronze in shot put with a throw of 17.30 meters, while freshman Carter Anderson came away with a bronze in high jump after clearing 6 feet, 5.5 inches. Senior Ian Lipsey also came away with a bronze medal in long jump with a mark of 7.13 meters, and he was one of four Lumberjacks to earn a bronze in the 4x100-meter relay. Joining Lipsey were Kyle Smith, junior Lamar Smith and Hassan for a run of 40.63.
Lott's trio of podium finishes earned him Co-Most Valuable Athlete for the meet, as the Lumberjack's 227.5 points easily defeated second-place Montana State's 154.
Women
A total of eight gold medals from seven athletes led the way for the Lumberjacks on the women's side at the outdoor championships.
Northern Arizona dominated the 400m distance, with senior Kyairra Reigh's 52.89 and LiNay Perry's 57.68 topping the podium in the sprint and hurdles races, respectively. Northern Arizona swept the seven longest distances on the track, winning gold in the 800m, 1500m, 3000m steeplechase, 5000m and 10,000m in addition to the two 400m races.
Senior Maggie Congdon went from the seventh-best time in the 800m prelims before running a 2:04.57 in the event's finals. Senior Elise Stearns won a pair of golds with a 4:20.94 in the 1500m and a 16:03.08 in the 5000m. Sophomore Karrie Baloga won the 3000m steeplechase, running a championship record 9:47.92, and sophomore Ava Mitchell added another 10 points in the 10000m with a 34:32.78.
Northern Arizona's women swept the two relay events, scoring gold in the 4x100m relay with a 45:07 and in the 4x400m relay with a 3:34.23. Freshman Shayne Harris, Perry, Reigh and freshman Ariel Haygood made up the 4x100m team, while Congdon, Alaynah Reed, Perry and Reigh set a meet record with a 3:34.23 on the 4x400m team.
Junior Sariyah Horne-Kemp added another gold on the field, throwing 57.31 meters in hammer throw as the Lumberjacks swept the event between the two teams.
The women's team added six more medals, with three silvers and three bronzes as the team easily held off second-place Montana State, hitting 222 points to the Bobcats' 158.5.
Harris added a bronze in the 100m, running an 11.79, while Alex Carlson joined Congdon on the 800m podium with a 2:06.03, the second of four scorers in the event for the Lumberjacks.
Northern Arizona swept the top five spots in the 1500m, as Congdon's 4:21.09 and junior Agnes McTighe's 4:21.39 earned silver and bronze behind Stearns' gold. The Lumberjacks were even more impressive in the 5000m, taking the top six spots with Baloga running a 16:10.62 for silver and Mitchell finishing in 16:19.23 for bronze.
The Lumberjacks swept the individual awards to conclude the meet, with Congdon named the women's Most Valuable Athlete, Baloga taking home the women's Most Outstanding Performer and Harris named Freshman of the Year.
For those who qualified during the season, the Northern Arizona track and field teams will now turn their attention to the NCAA West Regional scheduled for May 28-31 in College Station, Texas.