FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – The Northern Arizona University track and field team opened its 2016 indoor season earlier today hosting the Lumberjack Team Challenge. In what was the first team meet of the year, the Lumberjacks—filled with a number of new, fresh faces at each unit—performed well against some sturdy competition.

"This is a really hard way to start out a season," said Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Eric Heins. "Going up against three Pac-12 schools, UTEP is a really good track and field program, Southern Utah and Grand Canyon are also good...it was just a high level of competition we faced in our first meet out."

"It was great for the athletes to see those kind of teams because one, if you had a bad day, you saw where you needed to get to and improve. Two, if you had a good day, it gave you confidence moving forward."

The highlight of the day for NAU came in the very last event, the men's 4x400m relay, which saw a team composed of senior DeShon Norris, redshirt-sophomore James Fisher, sophomore  Kossi Tchenawou and junior anchor Isiah Kennedy outlasting Grand Canyon's group and taking first-place by a mere tenth of a second.

"Definitely being able to finish the meet off with a win in the men's 4x400m relay was the highlight for me," said Heins. "To see Norris, after a year off, coming out and leading the guys in the first leg, handing off in the lead and never letting it up...that was great for those guys and it was great for the team."

The meet began with a flurry of field events, including the women's shot put, where redshirt-sophomore Tiana Hatler-Stefick set a new career-best (14.39m) and notched a qualifying mark for conference with a sixth-place finish. Redshirt-senior Jessica Weise also logged a shot put mark today that qualified for conference: an eighth-place, 14.04m throw.

The only NAU jumper on either side was newcomer Obang Odol, who had a good showing in his first collegiate indoor field event, clearing the 1.95m mark in the men's high jump.

On the track, Fisher looked impressive as any Lumberjack competing on Saturday, logging a second-place finish in the 200m with a time of 21.38. That mark was good enough to qualify for conference and topped his 2015 Big Sky indoor 200m championship time by seven hundredths of second.

Fisher's teammate Tchenawou also had a good showing in his first time out as a Lumberjack. Competing in the third of four heats in the 60m dash, Tchenawou hit a conference-qualifying 6.85 time, good enough for fourth-place in the event.

Freshman Jasmine Malone made a positive impression in her collegiate debut as well, nearly missing qualifying marks in both the 200m and 400m dash. Regardless, the Chandler, Ariz., native still finished first for NAU in both events, recording an eighth-place, 25.60 time in the 200m and a 12th-place, 57.24 mark in the 400m.

While today's action produced some stellar individual performances, Heins says there is still improvement to be made before the Lumberjacks compete next Friday and throughout the rest of the season.

"We're just going to continue to build throughout the year," said Heins. "Ideally, we have our best meet and showing at conference, so the strength [of this team] is going to be pushing forward and getting better each week." 

As mentioned above, the Lumberjacks compete and host next week's Friday Night Duals. That meet is slated for a 3 p.m. start time in the Walkup Skydome.

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