RESULTS
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (January 31, 2020) – The first day of the Mountain T's Invitational began and ended with a bang as the Northern Arizona track & field program saw a long-standing school record go down and a couple of Lumberjacks insert their name into the NCAA Indoor Championship conversation.
Freshman
Madeline Wilson's record-breaking performance in the Women's Pentathlon and sophomore
Ryan Raff and freshman
Abdihamid Nur's electric run in the Men's 5K highlighted a number of stellar performances by the 'Jacks on Friday.
"Meets up until this point have been one-day meets, so it's really important that when we get to a two-day meet – a championship meet – we bring energy early on," said Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Mike Smith. "Maddie set the tone for us and I'm really happy for her because she's been working hard in the multis. We saw a bunch of PRs in the mile and we were winning heats in the 200. To cap it off, the energy was special in the 5K."
Wilson opened NAU's first two-day meet of the season by breaking the women's indoor Pentathlon record with 3,487 points. Wilson's total across the five events broke Monique Donithan's previous record of 3,366 points set in 1982. The record was the longest-standing Lumberjack indoor standard by either a male or female.
"To (break the record) this early wasn't a surprise, but it was a surprise," said assistant coach
Matthew Harmeyer. "She works hard and she's coachable. She really had a good day in the high jump, a good day in the shot put and a good day in the long jump. Pieces came together and I can only imagine that record will be broken more times."
Wilson, a local product out of Flagstaff High School in just her third collegiate meet, made her biggest statement in the high jump where she recorded a new collegiate best at 1.64m. She placed third in the high jump and was fourth overall in the Pentathlon.
Wilson also set new collegiate PRs in the shot put (9.59m) and long jump (5.33m).
"I was nervous leading up to the long jump and 800 because I knew that had a lot to do with the points that I could get," Wilson said. "I knew I could do it because my coach kept reiterating it to me. I didn't really believe it and I crossed the finish line (after the 800m) and it's crazy that I'm compared to people who are legendary."
To end the evening, Raff and Nur clocked 5K times that currently rank in the top 10 nationally. Nur crossed the line first with a time of 14:18.07 and Raff was right behind at 14:19.31, which altitude-convert to 13:39.81 and 13:40.99 respectively.
Combined with senior
Tyler Day and sophomore
Luis Grijalva's times from the BU John Thomas Terrier Classic last week, NAU has four of the top 10 times in the country in the Men's 5K. The top 16 times at season's end will qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships.
"We wanted to give it a go and do it at altitude; the national championships are in Albuquerque at 5,000 feet," Smith said. "Their future is bright and they were committed to it. Our team is looking fantastic for where we are in the schedule, and we have young athletes who have big careers ahead of them at NAU."
Once the meet got going, the Lumberjacks got rolling as they posted four first-place finishes in the Men's Weight Throw, Women's Mile, Men's Mile and Women's 800m.
The Lumberjack men swept the top four places in the weight throw with senior
Kevin Cooney leading the group with a top throw of 19.23m. Sophomore
William Beaudry (19.14m), junior
Jacob Kaufman (18.22m) and redshirt sophomore
Jake Arnold (16.66m) rounded out NAU's top four sweep in succession.
NAU dominated both mile events with redshirt freshman
Bryn Morley (4:59.22) and senior
Cade Burks (4:15.64) claiming first-place finishes in their respective races. On the women's side, the Lumberjacks recorded the top eight times while the men posted four of the top five times including unattached runners.
Sophomore
Melanie Loff was the only Lumberjack in the Women's 800m, and she shined the brightest in the event turning in a time of 2:14.64, which was nearly 11 seconds faster than her nearest competitor.
Two other freshmen posted the best results of their young careers in a pair of runner-up finishes.
Kimberly Buchanan tossed a best throw of 16.08m in the Women's Weight Throw and Cameron Peters leapt 6.74m in the Men's Long Jump among other results.
The Mountain T's Invitational concludes on Saturday in the Walkup Skydome. Action will begin at 8 a.m. with the final three events of the Men's Heptathlon. Field events will begin at 10 a.m. and running events will start at 11 a.m.
