FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (Dec. 6, 2024) – Four Northern Arizona distance runners will be getting the indoor track and field season started for NAU this Saturday, Dec. 7 at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener hosted by Boston University in Boston, Mass.
Ali Upshaw,
Drew Bosley,
David Mullarkey and Santiago Prosser will be competing against some of the top professional and collegiate runners in the world in the 5,000-meters.
The meet will be broadcast live on FloTrack from the Track & Tennis Center on BU's campus. The women's 5k begins at 2:10 p.m. Mountain Standard time and Upshaw will race in the second of the nine heats. The men's 5k follows at 4:30 p.m. MST with Bosley in heat one and Mullarkey and Prosser in heat two of nine. The faster heats are run first.
Upshaw, Mullarkey and Prosser are all coming off All-American cross country seasons while Bosley will be competing in an NAU jersey for the first time since the 2024 NCAA Indoor National Championships.
Bosley is no stranger to the 5k at Boston University, as he is making his fourth-straight appearance in the event at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener. His best finish and placing came in 2022 when he clocked a time of 13:13.26, his indoor personal best and currently the ninth fastest all-time in NCAA history, to finish fourth.
On the same track, but at a different meet in January of 2023, Bosley broke the NCAA record in the indoor 3,000-meters with a time of 7:36.42. The indoor 5k record is held by Bosley's former teammate
Nico Young who clocked 12:57.14 on Jan. 26, 2024, also in Boston. Should Bosley crack 13 minutes on Saturday, he'd be the second collegian ever behind Young to break 13 minutes indoors in the 5k.
Mullarkey will be making his indoor track debut for NAU on Saturday after transferring in from Florida State. During the cross country season, Mullarkey was the top runner for the Lumberjacks at each meet. He won the 2024 Big Sky Conference individual title and earned All-American honors with an 18
th place finish in 29:11.9 in the men's 10k at the NCAA National Championships. His indoor 5k personal best at FSU was 13:28.23, ran last year at the Boston University David Hemery Valentine Invitational.
Prosser will be running in just his second-ever collegiate 5k indoors and his first since the 2023 Big Sky Indoor Track and Field Championships where he finished fourth with a time of 14:19.77. During the cross country season, Prosser earned his third-straight All-American honor after finishing 38
th in the men's 10k at the NCAA National Championships, also earning a 12
th-place finish at NCAA Mountain Regionals and fifth at the conference championships.
Upshaw raced in the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener last year in the 5k where she placed 41
st overall with a time of 15:56.67. Throughout the season, Upshaw improved her 5k time to 15:43.82 in Boston to her current personal best of 15:36.48 less than two weeks later in Seattle before winning the Big Sky 5k title indoors. During the cross country season, Upshaw won the individual conference title, finished sixth at NCAA Mountain Regionals, and earned All-American honors in at the NCAA National Championships with a 22
nd place finish.
The bulk of the NAU track and field team will kick off its season on Jan. 10, 2025, in Flagstaff for the Friday Night Axe 'Em Open, one of five home meets the Lumberjacks will host this season, including the 2025 Big Sky Conference Indoor Championships.
NAU will travel back to Boston for the John Thomas Terrier Invite from Jan. 31-Feb. 1. Away meets are also highlighted by the Husky Classic and the Don Kirby Invite, both from Feb. 14-15, and the Alex Wilson Invite hosted by Notre Dame on Feb. 22. The NCAA Indoor National Championships are from March 14-15 in Virginia Beach, Va. To view NAU's full 2024-25 indoor schedule, click
here.
Both the men's and women's teams were predicted to finish first in the Big Sky Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll. Last season, the men won their 12
th-consecutive Big Sky title indoors while the women won their fourth-straight. This season, the Lumberjacks will go for their fifth-straight sweep as a squad.
The women's team has scored over 200 points in the last two Big Sky meets, including the highest point total ever with 204 in 2023-24 en route to the program's 16
th overall women's indoor title. The men have won 26 total in program history.
The Lumberjacks are led by head coach
Michael Smith who has won seven-straight Men's Indoor Coach of the Year Awards and four-straight on the women's side. In August, Smith announced he would step down at the end of the 2024-25 outdoor track and field season to pursue professional coaching opportunities.
In 2023-24, NAU sent seven total student-athletes to the NCAA Indoor National Championships where the men's squad placed fourth overall. Young, who has graduated and now runs professionally for adidas, won indoor titles in both the 3k and the 5k. Young also ran the fastest collegiate mile ever clocked at 7,000 feet and set an NCAA indoor record in the 5k (12:57.14).
