The Northern Arizona University men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 track and field teams had numerous athletes qualify for the NCAA Division I Outdoor National Track and Field Championships with stellar showings at the NCAA West Regionals in College Station, Texas, over the last few days.
Northern Arizona will send four men and five women to the national championships in Eugene, Ore.
Drew Bosley and David Mullarkey advanced in the 10,000-meters on Wednesday, while Trevor Hook became the first Lumberjacks athlete on the men's side to make the national championships in javelin with a near personal best of 68.62 meters. Bosley聽and Mullarkey also qualified for the championships in Eugene in the 5000m on Friday by beating the facility record.
Colin Sahlman advanced to his third career national championship meet in the 1500m after securing a spot in the quarterfinal on Wednesday and making the field for Eugene on Friday. He finished fourth in both his heats to earn the automatic qualification, but improved his time by nearly 16 seconds from one race to the next.
In the 10,000m, Santiago Prosser improved on his 31st-place ranking and finished 27th overall with a time of 29:12.96. Justin Keyes finished 44th with a time of 30:33.10.
Rounding things out in the 5000m, Keyes placed 18th with a time of 13:44.62, followed by Prosser (13:49.83, 23rd), Corey Gorgas (14:15.59, 41st) and Ford Washburn (14:16.57, 42nd).
The quartet of Ian Lipsey, Kyle Smith, Lamar Smith and Khamis Hassan placed 19th in the 4x100-meter relay with a time of 40.10.
Jeret Gillingham finished 30th in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:01.39.
In the field events, Desmond Lott placed 42nd in the discus with a throw of 52.03 meters and Sirr Butler placed 39th in the triple jump with a leap of 14.81 meters. Lott placed 29th in the hammer throw with a mark of 62.08 meters. Clay Carbajal placed 44th in javelin with a toss of 57.24 meters, improving from his 48th-place ranking in his first event since April.
As for the women, Maggi Congdon left no doubt in the 1500m, easily winning the event with a season-best time of 4:05.73, which is also a facility record and ranks eighth all-time in NCAA history. She punched her ticket to Eugene for the second straight year in the event.
Karrie Baloga placed second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a blazing time of 9:40.13 to punch her ticket to Eugene for the second-straight year. The sophomore broke her own school record, setting a new personal best after winning her heat.
After qualifying for the quarterfinals of the 400-meter hurdles, LiNay Perry broke her own school record for the second time on Saturday. She clocked 56.70 to auto qualify and finish second in her heat and fifth overall.
She is the first Lumberjack on the men's or women's side in Northern Arizona history to qualify for the NCAA championship meet in the 400-meter hurdles.
In the 5000m, Ava Mitchell finished fifth in her heat to auto qualify for Eugene. She ran 16:00.58 to place 10th overall. Agnes McTighe qualified by time, finishing 12th in 16:01.83.
In the 400m, Kyairra Reigh placed 28th with a time of 53.35. Odessa Zentz placed 32nd in the 800m with a time of 2:07.93, followed by Kiki Vaughn in 38th with a time of 2:10.09.
Sariyah Horne-Kemp placed 31st in the hammer throw with a toss of 57.02 meters. Alexis Kebbe placed 35th in the 10,000m with a time of 35:49.09. Maisie Grice placed 15th in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 10:08.72, followed by Hayley Burns in 10:16.86 to place 20th.
Also, in the 1500m quarterfinal, Alex Carlson finished 16th with a time of 4:15.13 and Keira Moore placed 19th in 4:16.95.
Elise Stearns placed 19th in the 5000m in 16:19.13, followed by Emma Stutzman (22nd, 16:24.43) and Moore (26th, 16:25.99).
The nine Lumberjacks will begin the national meet on June 11, with the meet running through June 14 at Hayward Field in Eugene.