RESULTS
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (February 1, 2020) – The final day of the Mountain T's Invitational brought a number of first-place finishes and new personal records for the Northern Arizona track & field program on Saturday in the Walkup Skydome.
"It was a fantastic second day of the meet for us; we took the momentum of day one, and translated it into competing strongly," said Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Mike Smith. "All the pieces are in place for a strong Big Sky Championship run for both men's and women's teams."
NAU posted five event wins with the Lumberjack women compiling three of them. In the women's shot put, sophomore
Matilde Roe set a new collegiate best with a first-place throw of 14.74m. Freshman
Carly Watts was right behind in second with her own best throw of her young career at 14.17m.
The Lumberjack women also posted a number of outstanding performances on the track starting with the 3000m run where they swept the top four spots. Senior
Mikayla Malaspina led the pack with a collegiate personal best time of 10:02.04 and she was followed by junior
Pipi Eitel (10:12.00), redshirt freshman
Jesselyn Bries (10:13.64) and junior
Delaney Rasmussen (10:18.44). In addition to Malaspina, Bries also set a new collegiate PR.
The afternoon ended with NAU's women's 4x400m relay team crushing the field with a time of 3:50.66, which was more than seven seconds better than Southern Utah's runner-up team. Freshman
Madeline Wilson – the new Pentathlon record holder – ran the lead leg and was followed by junior
Jada Jackson, sophomore
Melanie Loff and junior
Miracle Onyemaobi.
The NAU men also claimed a pair of event victories starting with senior
Cameron Rayford's win in the men's triple jump. Rayford was the lone competitor to leap more than 14 meters as he recorded a best jump of 14.63m.
The Lumberjack men's distance runners also shined again in the 3000m run, taking first, third and fourth. Junior
Blaise Ferro was the first runner across the line with a time of 8:26.71 with redshirt freshman
Mitchell Small (8:34.08) and sophomore
Theo Quax (8:34.58) close behind.
Among other notable results were freshman
Jack Normand in the men's high jump and junior
Parker Joens and redshirt sophomore
Jake Arnold in the men's shot put. Normand continued to improve on his best clearance in the high jump, placing second overall and first among collegiate athletes with a mark of 1.92m. Meanwhile, Joens (18.25m) and Arnold (16.91m) bested all of their collegiate counterparts in the shot put in third and fourth-place finishes respectively.
The Lumberjacks will take next week off from competition before returning to action at a pair of meets on the road at New Mexico and Washington during the weekend of Feb. 13-15.
