NAU TUNE UP RESULTS
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (February 21, 2020) – The final home meet of the indoor track & field season may have been light on competitors, but the NAU Tune Up was just what the Northern Arizona track & field team was searching for before the Big Sky Indoor Championships.
"I'm excited to go and compete as a team for these championships," said Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Mike Smith. "It's a centerpiece of who we want to be as a team at NAU and hold up our tradition here and in the Big Sky. They know a lot is about to asked of them, but that's what they came to NAU for."
Junior
Carter Bracken was the star on Friday, twice setting a new personal-best in the men's 60m hurdles. Bracken dropped his fastest time to 8.02 in the preliminaries before following up with his first sub-eight second time in the finals, crossing the line first at 7.99. Bracken moved up from sixth to fourth in the Big Sky with his finals time, a week before NAU travels to the indoor conference championships.
While Bracken placed first overall in the 60m hurdles, his freshman teammates also shined brightly with freshman
Karsen Burke placing third with a time of 8.19, shaving off more than two-tenths of a second from his best time. Freshman
Wil Peralta was just a bit better in the preliminaries, qualifying for the finals with his own personal-best of 8.16.
Peralta and Burke made huge leaps up the conference performance list with their efforts, with Peralta jumping from 13th to ninth and Burke rising from 17th to 10th.
Burke and Peralta's performances were just the beginnings of a solid night for NAU's youngsters. In the women's 60m hurdles, freshmen
Madeline Wilson and
Marissa Milos set new personal-bests of 8.93 and 8.98 respectively. For Milos, it was her first time under nine seconds.
"We don't do a lot of big training in the weeks leading up to the conference meet, so you expect the psychological peak to be a major reason why these types of performances manifest," said assistant coach
Alan Dunson. "There's high confidence in a number of minds and next week will be fun."
Rounding out the sprints crew, who were the only runners to compete in the NAU Tune Up, was freshman
Joseph Hylton who finished third in the men's 60m dash with a personal-best tying time of 6.85. Hylton also ran the lead leg of NAU's 4x400m relay team that consisted of junior
Erick Thompson, Bracken and senior
Tyren Wolfe. The relay team clocked a season-best time of 3:19.15.
Several first-year Lumberjacks also posted their best marks in the field events starting with freshman Cameron Peters recording his top mark in the men's triple jump at 13.12m. Freshman
Lily Margolis posted her first career mark in the women's triple jump at 10.92 m.
Freshman
Carly Watts placed third overall in the women's weight throw with a personal-best of 14.83m, pacing three Lumberjacks in the third, fourth and fifth spots. In the women's shot put, sophomore
Matilde Roe's mark of 14.34m led the 'Jacks with Watts and freshman
Kimberly Buchanan placing third and fifth respectively. For Buchanan, her mark of 13.31m was the first of her career in the event.
On the men's side, senior
Kevin Cooney was the team's top finisher with a throw of 19.08m, which landed him in second overall in the weight throw. Sophomore
John Murphy (17.70m) and freshman
CJ McMullen (15.73m) recorded personal-bests in the event.
"The momentum from the sprints group is really important for us because when we do our projections, the potential points on the men's and women's side is huge," Smith said. "We saw some young people step up, and sometimes it takes a few meets in the season to get there, so we're excited."
The Lumberjacks will travel to Pocatello, Idaho next week for the Big Sky Indoor Track & Field Championships running Thursday through Saturday. The NAU men will look to defend their indoor title for the ninth straight year, while the NAU women will aim to improve on their third-place finish a season ago.
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