FULL RESULTS
DAY 3 RESULTS
POCATELLO, Idaho (February 29, 2020) – For the 11th time in school history, the Northern Arizona men's and women's track & field teams swept the Big Sky Indoor Track & Field Championships on Saturday as the 2020 Lumberjacks continued a rich tradition for the Blue & Gold.
The men captured their ninth consecutive Big Sky indoor team title and 23rd overall. No other school has more than six men's indoor championships. For the women, they are back atop the conference for the third time in four years and the 14th time overall in program history.
"I'm really proud of the way both teams fought for these championships," said Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Mike Smith. "They were full team efforts. We stress that how we compete is just as important as the outcome. The way we went about that on both sides was fantastic."
The sweep of both team titles is the third in the last four years as well. Coincidentally, the last three times the Big Sky Indoor Track & Field Championships have been hosted in Pocatello, NAU has claimed both team championships (2014, 2017, 2020).
The Lumberjack men ran away with the championship scoring 141.5 points and putting the rest of the conference in the rearview mirror. Idaho State, the host, was a distant second with 89.5 points.
The NAU women hoisted the trophy after outlasting Sacramento State, last season's women's indoor champions and the preseason favorite to repeat. The Lumberjacks recorded 103 team points, just edging out the Hornets' total of 100.5 by two and a half points.
"The women's team came down to two points and that was a matter of tenacious, unrelenting focus and belief," Smith said. "Halfway through last night and even halfway through today, we thought it was a long shot but it shows how special track & field is because things can change in just a few events. We capitalized at the end of the meet."
A pair of Lumberjacks – senior
Mikayla Malaspina and freshman
Abdihamid Nur – collected individual honors. Malaspina, who narrowly missed becoming the fifth Big Sky woman to be a triple indoor champion in a single year, was named the Big Sky's Most Valuable Women's Athlete. Nur, who swept the 3000m and 5000m, earned Big Sky Men's Freshman of the Year.
Malaspina and Nur were at the forefront of an absolutely dominant performance by both squads' distance runners. On Saturday alone, NAU placed five of the top eight in the men's and women's miles, five of the top eight in the men's 3000m and four of the top eight in the women's 3000m.
NAU's distance team combined for the Lumberjacks' three total event wins on Saturday, including Nur and Malaspina sweeping the 3000m races.
In the men's 3K, Nur recorded his second gold medal performance of the weekend with a time of 8:17.30. He became the eighth Lumberjack male to be a double indoor champion in the last eight years. He also joins senior
Tyler Day as well as former Lumberjack greats Futsum Zienasellassie and Matt McElroy to win both the indoor 3K and 5K in the same year since 2013.
Nur led a pack of four Lumberjack runners across the finish line who swept the top four places. Behind Nur was junior
Blaise Ferro (8:18.70), Day (8:19.15) and junior
Luis Grijalva (8:22.40). For Ferro, it was a personal-best time. Sophomore
Ryan Raff registered a seventh-place finish with a time of 8:24.26.
Grijalva won the mile with a time of 4:09.79 in yet another event in which the NAU men swept the podium spots. In second, sophomore
Theo Quax ran a time of 4:12.11 and senior
Geordie Beamish placed third with a time of 4:12.33. Senior
Cade Burks (4:14.16) and Raff (4:16.70) placed sixth and eight respectively.
"The men's team got off to a big start on day one and didn't let off the pedal," Smith said. "We were pretty dominant and day two. I'm really happy to uphold NAU's tradition in the Big Sky Conference. We tell our athletes that's what it means to compete at NAU and they backed that up today."
The Lumberjack men also scored points in each specialty group starting with senior
Cameron Rayford and freshman
Jack Normand in the jumps. Rayford posted a fifth-place finish in the triple jump with a mark of 14.52m and Normand set a new personal-best in the high jump of 1.94m, which earned him a tie for sixth.
Junior
Parker Joens (18.31m) and redshirt sophomore
Jake Arnold (17.27m) finished third and sixth respectively in the shot put. Moving into the sprints and hurdles, freshman
Joseph Hylton (6.89) registered a seventh-place finish in the 60m dash and junior
Carter Bracken (8.09) was sixth in the 60m hurdles. Rounding out NAU's individual scorers was Beamish in the 800m with a third-place time of 1:54.24.
While the men's title was never in serious doubt throughout the final day of competition, the women's championship came down to the last event between NAU and Sacramento State.
Entering the day third on the leaderboard behind Idaho State and Idaho, the Lumberjack women started their move up the standings with a big performance in the mile. Malaspina paced five 'Jacks in the top eight, finishing second with a time of 4:54.78, which is a new personal best.
While junior
Pipi Eitel (5:00.41; fifth-place), redshirt freshman
Bryn Morley (5:00.85; sixth-place) and redshirt freshman
Jesselyn Bries (5:01.52; seventh-place) all held their spots in the top eight of the performance list, freshman
Annika Reiss was a critical scorer. Reiss finished eighth, scoring a crucial one point, with a time of 5:04.70 despite entering 11th on the performance list.
Juniors
Miracle Onyemaobi and
Jada Jackson were double scorers in the sprint events, starting with Onyemaobi in the 400m where she placed third with a time of 55.30. Jackson followed with a runner-up finish in the 60m dash where she posted a time of 7.59. More importantly Jackson finished ahead of three Sacramento State sprinters. Freshman
Kenya Coburn added a point in eighth with a time of 7.71.
The 'Jacks continued to pick up points in the 800m run with sophomore
Melanie Loff placing second with a personal best time of 2:09.63. Morley was seventh with a time of 2:15.83. Onyemaobi (24.40) and Jackson (24.72) then finished fourth and fifth respectively in the 200m dash, setting up NAU's big performance in the 3000m.
Malaspina smashed her previous personal best and went sub-10 minutes for the first time in her career in her second gold medal performance, running a time of 9:47.05. Bries finished sixth with a time of 9:59.69, junior
Delaney Rasmussen was seventh with a time of 10:00.37 and Eitel was eighth with a time of 10:00.96 as all three Lumberjacks also set new collegiate bests.
The women's 3K pushed the Lumberjacks in the lead and NAU's fourth-place performance in the 4x400m relay sealed up the title. Although Sacramento State won gold in the last relay, NAU's fourth-place finish by freshman
Madeline Wilson, Onyemaobi, freshman
Chloe Barylski and Loff did not provide the point-differential that the Hornets needed to overtake the Lumberjacks in the final standings.
NAU will now await to see how many athletes it will qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, N.M. on March 13-14.
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2020 Big Sky Men's Indoor Track & Field Team Points
1. Northern Arizona – 141.5
2. Idaho State – 89.5
3. Montana State – 77
4. Idaho – 68
5. Montana – 60
6. Eastern Washington – 58
7. Weber State – 55
8. Southern Utah – 44.5
9. Northern Colorado – 31
10. Sacramento State – 28
11. Portland State – 8.5
2020 Big Sky Women's Indoor Track & Field Team Points
1. Northern Arizona – 103
2. Sacramento State – 100.5
3. Idaho State – 79
4. Weber State – 77.5
5. Idaho – 71
6. Montana – 55
T7. Southern Utah – 53
T7. Montana State – 53
9. Eastern Washington – 39
10. Northern Colorado – 25
11. Portland State – 5
