DON KIRBY INVITATIONAL FRIDAY RESULTS
HUSKY CLASSIC FRIDAY RESULTS
SEATTLE, Wash. and ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (February 14, 2020) – Northern Arizona's distance unit excelled in Friday's final events of the Husky Classic capped a long Friday for the Lumberjack track & field team across the Husky Classic and the Don Kirby Invitational in Albuquerque.
Junior
Blaise Ferro was nothing short of exceptional in the men's 5000m in Seattle, as he inserted himself into the conversation for the NCAA Indoor Championships with his performance on Friday. Ferro placed fifth in the field with a new personal-best time of 13:39.58, resetting his PR by nearly 11 seconds.
Ferro now ranks ninth in the country this season and gives the Lumberjacks four of the top 10 times nationally currently along with senior
Tyler Day, junior
Luis Grijalva and freshman
Abdihamid Nur.
Speaking of Nur, he rose to the occasion in the 3000m run with a time of 7:57.40, which was more than 15 seconds faster than his previous best altitude-converted time. At the moment, Nur ranks first in the Big Sky although Day, Grijalva and senior
Geordie Beamish is slated for the men's 3K in Boston on Saturday.
Sophomore
Ryan Raff and freshman
Mitchell Small also set new collegiate-best times in the 3K in Seattle with Raff posting a time of 8:00.75 and Small at 8:09.14.
Senior
Mikayla Malaspina made a statement herself in the women's 5000m as she set a new collegiate-best time at 16:11.00. Malaspina shattered her previous fastest 5K time of 16:26.74 set during the 2017 outdoor season and her previous best indoor time by more than a minute.
Out in Albuquerque on the final day of the Don Kirby Invitational, junior
Miracle Onyemaobi sprinted her way to the top of the Big Sky in the women's 400m. Recording a ninth-place overall finish, Onyemaobi posted a new collegiate personal-best time of 54.75, which now ranks her first in the conference. Onyemaobi finished directly ahead of Sacramento State's Mikayla Revera and two spots in front of another Hornet sprinter.
The Lumberjack men's sprinters were led by junior
Carter Bracken, who just missed the cutoff for the finals as the last athlete out in the 60m hurdles. Bracken turned in a time of 8.18, which was just off his season-best. Also of note, freshman
Wil Peralta advanced out of the qualifying round and posted a time of 8.29 in his first collegiate meet.
Senior
Parker Joens put on a strong showing in the men's shot put with his best mark of 18.11m placing fifth overall behind four throwers from Power Five conferences. While Joens was just shy of his season-best mark, redshirt sophomore
Jake Arnold registered his best throw of the season of 16.92m, which moved him up to sixth in the conference.
In the women's triple jump, freshman
Kenashalee Kerr posted the best mark of 11.38m to lead NAU's four athletes in the event. The young Lumberjack unit saw two athletes – freshmen
Kenya Coburn and
Courtney Weisenberger – record their best jumps of their debut seasons. Coburn was not far behind Kerr with a mark of 11.36m, while Weisenberger improved for the third consecutive meet with a jump of 11.13m.
The 'Jacks will wrap up the weekend on Saturday with a host of runners competing in the men's and women's indoor mile at the Husky Classic, in addition to sophomore
Melanie Loff in the women's 800m.
Across the country, Day, Beamish and Grijalva will run in the men's 3K at the BU David Hemery Valentine Invitational at approximately 5:10 p.m. MST.
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