FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – Senior distance standout Diego Estrada, running in the final home meet of his storied career, wowed the Valentine's Day crowd at the J.L. Walkup Skydome Thursday night with the second-best 5,000-meter time in the country in 2013 as the Northern Arizona University track and field teams hosted the NAU Tune-Up, its fourth and final event of the indoor season.
The 2012 Olympian had a lot of help from his current and former Lumberjack teammates in running an altitude-adjusted time of 13:37.01@. Brian Shrader, NAU's leader in the middle distances this season, returned to the track after winning the men's mile earlier in the meet to help pace Estrada, as did sophomore Alejandro Montano and volunteer distance coach John Yatsko, a 2012 graduate of NAU. But through the race's final 2,000 meters, the senior was on his own.
"Anytime you run 5,000 meters to get a Top 10 time up here you're going to be running by yourself for the most part," said Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Eric Heins. "I really appreciated Brian coming back after his mile, and having John, who's paced Diego to a national qualifier before, and Alejandro getting in there as well, so hats off to those guys for getting Diego into his rhythm."
Estrada, who now owns a pair of top-five times nationally including his 3,000-meter mark from last weekend, beat NAU alum and fellow Olympian David McNeill's third-best all-time indoor 5K mark Thursday night, and is just eight seconds away from his own school record, set two years ago at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
"Diego just did everything in his power to get himself to where he was at least top 10, and though he was hoping for top five, it turns out it's the second-best time in the country," Heins said. "It was awesome to watch, because instead of being almost passed out on the ground after the 5K last year, he was bouncing around afterwards and was feeling great, so I think it's a good sign for him."
Aside from Estrada's second standout performance in as many weeks, the Lumberjacks were able to fill up a couple more key spots for the trip to Bozeman, Mont. next weekend for the Big Sky Conference Indoor Championships.
Leading off with the women's mile, true freshman Rolonda Jumbo notched a Big Sky qualifier in her second event with a winning finish and a collegiate-best time of 4:57.28@. Jumbo already owned a conference auto-bid in the 3,000 meters with a time of 9:54.30@.
Shrader followed up with a victorious effort of his own, running a sub-four minute mile for the second time this season. The Flagstaff native clocked 3:59.52@ in his fastest hometown race, and currently is ranked 17th in the country in the event.
The Lumberjacks' good fortune only continued as the night wore on. In the women's 60-meter dash, sophomore Shamelle Pless knocked a tenth of a second off her personal best in the prelims with a mark of 7.57@, then moved on to win the final with a time of 7.62.
The Canada native ran the two fastest times of her career Thursday night, just a year removed from struggling in her first indoor season with the Lumberjacks. Both times run by Pless were close to a quarter second better than her best indoor effort of 2012.
"It's nice to see Shamelle not only running this well, but running this well at the end of the year," Heins said. "We've all believed that she could do it, and now that she is I think she'll be able to believe in herself even more, which is fantastic."
Likewise on the men's side, NAU added the first two quarter-milers to its 2013 Big Sky repertoire, as senior Arnaud Froidmont and freshman Cameron Coleman notched qualifiers in the 400 meters. Froidmont took third overall in a time of 48.13@, followed by Coleman in sixth with a mark of 48.69@
"Cam is just a great story, and he's come out this year and done everything that Coach [Kenny] McDaniel has asked him and then some," Heins said. "For a kid that was on campus last year and was just a little late in wanting to come out for the track team, he came out after we asked him to this year, and he's become the type of walk-on that year in and year out comes out and surprises everyone and really motivates the team to do better. A guy like Cam Coleman can inspire a guy like Diego Estrada, so it's just fantastic to see him running so well."
The Lumberjack women had three other individual winners accompanying Pless on Thursday night. Kenzie Estes, in her first race back in 2013, won the women's 3,000 meters in a raw time of 11:00.12, while sophomore Kelly Fruth captured the women's 5,000-meter crown with a mark of 19:04.06. Lauren Laszczak, rounding out the trio, won the women's high jump with a best height of 5 feet, 7.25 inches.
Other notable finishes for the men came from Cody Reed, who took medalist honors in the men's 3,000 meters with a lifetime best of 8:31.49@, Brian Thompson, who won the men's weight throw with a best toss of 57-7.5, and Vernon Jamison, who set a monster PR in the men's 60-meter hurdle final with a runner-up time of 8.05@, good enough for second in the Big Sky Conference.
With the regular season over and their home schedule in the books, the Lumberjacks look ahead to the Big Sky Conference Indoor Championships, slated to begin Feb. 22 in Bozeman, Mont. at Montana State's Brick Breeden Fieldhouse.
