FIELD RESULTS

RUNNING RESULTS

AUSTIN, Texas – The Northern Arizona track & field team got the Texas Relays under way on Thursday with sophomore Brooke Andersen highlighting a pair of first-time NAU participants at the meet. Andersen, the current Big Sky Women's Field Athlete of the Week, placed second in the hammer throw among a highly competitive field as she continued her strong start to the outdoor season.

"Brooke was sick last night but she gutted it up and did what it took today," said throws coach Nathan Ott. "It was a pretty tough field and it should be fairly close to what Nationals will look like. I was excited to see her have a solid performance especially when others were struggling. She holds herself to a high standard so even though she wasn't completely happy (with her performance), we can look for more in the future."

Taking part in the second of two flights, Andersen earned her best mark on her second throw at 58.05m (190-5). The throw landed her at the top of her flight and was second overall after the preliminaries. Unable to improve on her top mark, Andersen would wind up in second place only trailing Marquette's Kathryn Koeck on the leaderboard in an impressive Texas Relays debut.

Andersen's performance came one week after setting a personal record of 61.63m (202-02) at the UC Irvine Spring Break Invitational which earned her the conference's top weekly honor.

"My performance was a little rough today, but coming off of last week it was really exciting because there was great competition," Andersen said. "It's also nice because this is Regionals is going to be here so it was great to get a feel of the ring too. It was really fun to compete against some of the schools here and overall, I just need to work on a few things."

Junior Chris Oestmann was the second Lumberjack who competed on Thursday, as he took part in the 400m hurdles. Racing in the second of 11 heats, Oestmann clocked a time of 54.58, which ranked fifth in his heat.

"Chris definitely went out and executed the race the way I wanted him to run it," said sprints coach Kenny McDaniel. "This was his first time in a race of this caliber and I was excited that he went out there and competed. The things we need to fix are nothing major and he handled the environment the way I thought he could. At these types of meets, this is the way I want to see people compete and I'm proud of his overall performance."

Oestmann, like Andersen, was making his first appearance at one of the premier track & field meets in the nation and learned a lot from his efforts that will help him moving forward.

"I did what my race plan was but I didn't finish as strong as I would've liked to," Oestmann said. "I'll definitely get it as the season goes on. This will help me tremendously because seeing this type of competition will prepare me for future meets especially conference and potentially Regionals."

The Lumberjacks will continue the Texas Relays on Friday with a host of sprint events in the morning. Among those competing will be senior Vernon Jamison, the reigning Big Sky Men's Track Athlete of the Week, in the 110 hurdles prelims and seniors Darriel Banks and Shamelle Pless in the 100m dash. NAU will also field teams in the 4x100 and 4x400 relays.

Among those competing in field events will be junior Kylene Knutsen in the javelin and senior Gus Margiotta and sophomore Shawn Collins in the shot put.

Live results for the Texas Relays can be found here.