STANFORD, Calif. – The Northern Arizona University track and field squad wrapped up day-one action from the highly competitive Stanford Invitational Friday night at Cobb Track and Angell Field.

Each Lumberjack track and field unit—distance, sprints and throws—all had notable performances throughout the day, some of which resulted in automatic conference qualifying bids and career-best marks.

Distance

Redshirt-senior Kayla Freeman began things on the track for the NAU distance team, running in section four of the women's 5000m event. Having yet to compete in this specific event during the 2016 outdoor track and field season, Freeman turned in a 17:04.88 time and punched an auto-bid to outdoor conference.

Later in the day, junior Melanie Townsend competed in the third section of the women's 5000m race and placed 12th-overall with her 16:17.24 time, just seven seconds off of her career-best time set during the 2014 outdoor season. Like Freeman, Townsend also nabbed an auto-bid to outdoor conference in the 5000m race today.

In the men's edition of the 5000m event, juniors Andy Trouard and Mike Baxter and freshman Geordie Beamish all qualified for outdoor conference Friday after each athlete recorded respectable times. In section four of the 5000m event, Trouard placed 17th with a 14:19.23 time, while Baxter (13th, 14:12.83) and Beamish (11th, 14:10.45) both notched PR's today in section three of the same event.

The final events of the day were the men's and women's 10,000m races, which were nothing short of impressive for the Lumberjacks. Junior Paige Gilchrist shaved nearly four full minutes off her previous career-best time in the 10,000m with a 34:52.18 PR today. For the men, redshirt-sophomore Cory Glines and freshman Tyler Day also logged PR's in the 10,000m event, with Glines running a 29:11.99 in section one and Day busting his way to a ninth-place finish in section two (29:06.85). All three NAU athletes earned auto-bids to conference as well in that event.  

Sprints

Familiar names led the way for the Lumberjack sprints crew Friday, including sophomore Kossi Tchenawou. In the preliminaries of the men's 100m, Tchenawou tied a career-best time of 10.56 and finished in sixth place, which earned him an appearance in the 100m finals later in the day. There, Tchenawou logged another sixth-place finish, ending Friday with a 10.60 time.

Juniors Isiah Kennedy and James Fisher also raced in the 100m dash for NAU Friday, with Kennedy placing 10th overall in the prelims with a personal-best 10.61 time, while Fisher qualified for outdoor conference today with his 14th-place, 10.67 time. Both athletes, however, did not make the cut for the 100m finals.

On the women's side, redshirt-sophomore Ashley Taylor competed in her specialty event—the 400m hurdles—and notched a sixth-place finish, hustling for a 1:01.06 time. While that mark surpasses the conference qualifying time for an auto-bid, Taylor already hit that plateau at the first outdoor meet of the season.

Throws

Redshirt-senior Jessica Weise—ranked No. 2 in the Big Sky in the women's shot put—muscled an outdoor season-best throw today in the same event, recording a seventh-place finish with a 47-06.25, 14.48m mark. Just like Taylor from the sprints crew, Weise qualified for outdoor conference earlier in the season at the UC Irvine Spring Break Invite.

Redshirt-sophomore Tiana Hatler-Stefick also notched a season-best mark today in the women's shot put collegiate—a separate event from Weise, who competed in the shot put invite—with a 44-09.00, 13.64m throw. That mark was good enough for a ninth-place finish, but fell 0.16m short of an auto-bid to outdoor conference.

Tomorrow's Details

Action from day two of the 2016 Stanford Invitational begins at 10 a.m. with the field events, while the track events start at 1 p.m. PT. Follow long with live stats here.