FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (February 26, 2020) – In search of their 23rd and 14th all-time indoor track & field championships, the Northern Arizona men's and women's track & field teams head to Pocatello, Idaho for the 2020 Big Sky Indoor Track & Field Championships.
The conference championships, to be held inside Idaho State's Holt Arena, will begin Thursday with the men's and women's multi-events and run through Saturday. Freshman
Madeline Wilson will open the meet for the 'Jacks in the women's Pentathlon at 11:15 a.m. on Thursday. The remainder of the meet will start up on Friday.
All three days of the meet will be streamed on Pluto TV Channel 531
here and on the Pluto TV mobile app in addition to
watchbigsky.com. Live results can be found at this
link.
The Lumberjack men enter the meet not only as the No. 1 team in the country, but also as the eight-time defending Big Sky indoor champions. NAU has won 22 Big Sky Men's Indoor Championships, significantly outpacing Idaho State's six team championships, which is second-most on the men's side.
As for the NAU women, they are aiming to get back to the top after a third-place finish last year. Still, the Lumberjack women have claimed a Big Sky-leading 13 indoor team championships, which are four more than Weber State's nine titles.
The NAU men will be powered by their distance runners in search of a ninth consecutive Big Sky Indoor Championship.
In the mile, senior
Geordie Beamish leads five Lumberjacks in the top five of the Big Sky's performance list with a time of 3:56.90, which ranks fourth in the country. The same can be said in the 3000m where junior
Luis Grijalva's nation-leading time of 7:43.73 leads five 'Jacks in the top five of the conference. Junior
Blaise Ferro, last season's Big Sky Indoor Men's Most Valuable Athlete, will lead four Lumberjack runners in the 5000m with a time of 13:39.58.
Along with the men's standings in the distance running events, several other Lumberjacks are positioned well to add to NAU's conference-leading list of 141 individual Big Sky indoor champions starting with senior
Cameron Rayford, who is second in the Big Sky in the long jump (7.48m) and triple jump (14.70m).
In the throws, sophomore
William Beaudry (20.17m) and senior
Kevin Cooney (19.84m) are first and second respectively in the weight throw, while junior
Parker Joens is third in the shot put with a mark of 18.25m.
The Lumberjacks' sprinters and hurdlers carry a wave of momentum following big performances at last week's NAU Tune Up. Junior
Carter Bracken ranks fourth in the 60m hurdles with an altitude-converted time of 8.03. In the 60m dash, freshman
Joseph Hylton is sixth in the conference with an altitude-converted time of 6.89.
The NAU women are bringing a well-balanced team to Pocatello to take down Sacramento State, the defending champion, and hoist the trophy for the third time in four years.
Wilson will try to get the Lumberjacks off to a fast start as the only athlete in action on Thursday. Her school record 3,487 points in the Pentathlon set during the Mountain T's Invitational currently ranks fifth on the conference performance list.
In the sprints, juniors
Jada Jackson and
Miracle Onyemaobi and freshman
Kenya Coburn will look to carry NAU. Coburn and Jackson rank third and fifth on the conference performance list respectively in the 60m dash with altitude-converted times of 7.61 and 7.65. Meanwhile, Onyemaobi leads NAU in the 200m (24.85) and 400m (54.86) with the latter leading the entire conference.
Moving into the mid-distance and distance events, the 'Jacks are second in the conference in the 800m, mile and 3000m. Sophomore
Melanie Loff (2:10.41), redshirt freshman
Bryn Morley (4:46.35) and senior
Mikayla Malaspina (9:37.01) pace NAU in the three events respectively with sophomore
Pipi Eitel ranking third and fourth in the Big Sky in the mile and 3000m.
Malaspina is entered in all three distance events including the 5000m where she owns the Big Sky's fastest time this season of 16:11.00.
The Lumberjack women will be led in the throws by sophomore
Matilde Roe in the shot put (14.74m) and freshman
Kimberly Buchanan (16.95m) in the shot put and weight throw respectively. Roe ranks third and Buchanan ranks eighth in the conference entering the weekend based on marks this season.
On the men's side, Beamish (mile), Ferro (3000m), Grijalva (5000m) and Cooney (weight throw) return as individual indoor conference champions. The Lumberjack women won three total gold medals at last year's indoor championships, but none of those athletes are returning or competing this weekend.
