EUGENE, Ore. – The Northern Arizona track and field program will have two representatives at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, after junior Diego Estrada ran to a fifth-place overall finish in the men's 5,000-meter run Saturday. Estrada's time of 13:35.03 from Historic Hayward Field is the third-fastest time of the Salinas, Calif., native's career.

Estrada and Arizona's Lawi Lalang burst out of the gates in the second heat of the event, keeping an honest pace throughout the 12.5 lap event. After maintaining second place throughout the entirety of the race, Estrada ended up with a fifth-place finish, but secured an automatic bid with the top-five finish in his heat.

"The last 200 (meters) I felt like both of my legs were going to break," an exhausted Estrada said after the race. "I just kept looking around and said to myself 'I'm not going to stay home three years in a row because it will break my heart. Come on you can do this.'"

This year's 5K at the west preliminary round was significantly faster than 2010's as Estrada's heat was won in a time of 13:30.64 by Lalang. The time was nearly 30 seconds better than former Lumberjack David McNeill's region-winning time of 13:59.30 a year ago.

"We agreed to go out in 66s through the 3K, but as soon as I saw the other heat's time, coach told me to just go for the top five," Estrada said of the game plan he and Lalang set before the race. "I took the first kilometer out hard, and he backed me up. I couldn't really help him at the end, but I made it through."

"This attempt at making it to the finals was by far the hardest, and I think if I hadn't of run that 5K in the dome this year, I probably wouldn't of made it through," Estrada said about the difficulty of the race. "I kept telling myself, 'nothing hurts more than the 5K in the dome. Keep going. Keep going.'"

Estrada's qualifier makes it the fourth-straight year Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Eric Heins has had an athlete in the men's 5K at the outdoor national championships. McNeill advanced in the event from 2008-10.

Fellow Lumberjack Andres Rossini was the only other NAU athlete in action Saturday. The Cordoba, Argentina, native failed to make it to his second-straight NCAA Outdoor Championships after finishing 18th overall in the discus with a mark of 174-3 (53.11m).

"It's disappointing to finish my NAU career with the meet I had today," Rossini said. "I know this isn't my last track meet, but it was unfortunate to do this in my last collegiate event."

"I know my throwing career isn't over, and I expect to throw a lot further in the next four or five years as a post-collegiate athlete," Rossini said.

Rossini wraps up his NAU career winning back-to-back Big Sky discus titles in 2010 and 2011 and owns the league's seventh-best mark of all-time (189-7).

The NCAA Outdoor Championships begin Thursday June 9 on the campus of Drake with junior Pascal Tang in the hammer throw. Estrada will close out the meet for the Lumberjacks that Saturday afternoon.