OGDEN, Utah (May 12, 2021) – Recording a pair of personal bests in her first trip to the meet, Northern Arizona freshman
Madeline Wilson provided an exciting start to the Lumberjacks' weekend at the 2021 Big Sky Conference Outdoor Championships in Ogden, Utah.
After four events of the heptathlon, Wilson sits in fifth place and is the one of just two underclassmen in the top five as well as the only freshman among the top eight of the event. Scoring second-place finishes in both the 100-meter hurdles and the 200-meter, Wilson speed on the track put her in position to score NAU's first points of the championship meet.
Opening the day with the 100m hurdles, Wilson won her heat with a time of 14.63 to score 891 points. The time topped her personal record of 14.73 set at the Desert Heat Classic in Tucson at the start of the month.
Only Montana's Jansen Ziola ran faster, finishing with a 13.79 in her heat of the event, as the sophomore opened the day with a lead in the heptathlon that she would hold onto at the end of the day.
Clearing 1.56 meters in the high jump, Wilson finished in seventh to score 689 points in the second event of the day. Opening up at 1.50 meters, Wilson cleared the height on her second attempt before coming through with crucial third jump clearances at 1.53m and 1.56m.
Wilson remained on the field for shot put where she progressed up to her best throw of the day on her final attempt. After tosses of 9.39m and 9.52m, Wilson came up with throw a 9.76m to place eighth in the event and added 514 points to her score.
Sitting in sixth overall with three events complete, Wilson moved back onto the track where she closed out her day just as she began. With a time of 24.81 in the 200m, Wilson placed second in her heat and second in the event overall behind Ziola's 24.43.
The PR wiped more than half of a second off her previous best in the event, a 25.49 run in Flagstaff during the 2020 indoor season. Wilson's previous best outdoor best of 25.54 came in April at the Jim Click Shootout in Tucson.
Scoring 904 points with her 200m time, the most in any event during her young career in the heptathlon, Wilson moved back up to fifth a first-day total of 2,998 points.
Ziola led the conference at 3,220 followed by Idaho State's Ashley Vanvleet Sturgis' 3,164 and teammate Jaree Mane's 3,043. Wilson trailed Mane's score, and a possible spot on the podium, by just 45 points.
Wilson will be back inside of Weber State's Stewart Stadium on the Chick Hislop Track Thursday morning at 10:30 a.m. MST/9:30 a.m. locally in Flagstaff. Just three events remaining, beginning with long jump followed by javelin and the 800m.
