FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (Jan. 30, 2025) – After a week break from competition and less than a month until the Big Sky Indoor Championships, the Northern Arizona track and field teams are ready for a big weekend of action both locally and out East.
NAU kicks off the weekend with its third of four regular season home meets when it hosts the Ron Mann Classic in Flagstaff, Ariz., at the Skydome on Jan. 31. Field events are slated to begin at noon followed by the running events at 3 p.m. Mountain Standard time. Live results can be found
HERE.
Additionally, 14 distance runners will be traveling to Boston, Mass., for the prestigious BU John Terrier Classic from Jan. 31 to Feb. 1. The women race on Friday while the men compete on Saturday. Live results are available
HERE and the meet can be watched
HERE on Flotrack with a subscription.
In Flagstaff, Northern Arizona will host Division I competition in Cal State Fullerton, CSU Bakersfield, Grand Canyon, Southern Utah and Utah Tech, while welcoming a handful of professional teams, community colleges and unattached runners.
Garret Bernt and
Desmond Lott currently hold the top marks in the conference in the weight throw, with Bernt ranking 10
th nationally, and will be back to improve on those marks along with
Nikolas Strait who has the fifth-farthest mark in the Big Sky. Lott will also compete in the shot put, where he leads the Big Sky Conference and has thrown consecutive personal bests in the event.
A pair of male jumpers in
Ian Lipsey and
Sirr Butler will look improve their marks in the jumps. Lipsey currently has the fourth farthest long jump in the conference while Butler ranks second in the triple jump.
On the track, Northern Arizona boasts four of the top ten 60-meter hurdlers in the Big Sky Conference.
Shon Martin,
Josiah Johnson,
Tyson Givens and
Zachary Taylor rank fourth, fifth, seventh, and 10
th, respectively.
Lamar Smith will also look to improve on his time on the 60-meters, which is currently the sixth fastest in the country.
For the women,
Shanye Harris (60-meters) and
Sydnie Watkins (60-meter hurdles) both rank third in the Big Sky in their respective events and will toe the line in them on Friday.
The 'Jacks are strong on the women's side in the throws events as well.
Sariyah Horne-Kemp and
Ronan Gallagher rank fourth and fifth in the conference in the weight throw and the duo will look to climb those rankings on Friday. Additionally,
Larissa Francois represents NAU in the shot put and ranks sixth in the conference in that event.
Northern Arizona will still have solid distance representation in Flagstaff, with 13 combined runners competing in the men's and women's 3,000-meters plus the mile.
In Boston,
Karrie Baloga,
Ava Mitchell and
Emma Stutzman will be competing in both the mile and the 3,000-meters, while
Alexandra Carlson and
Agnes McTighe will race the 3k. In the 5,000-meters, NAU will be represented by
Elise Stearns and
Ali Upshaw.
Upshaw raced in the 5,000-meters already this season in Boston back in December, setting an NAU and Big Sky Conference record with a time of 15:27.86. She broke Stearns' previous school and conference record, and the time is still the 11
th fastest in the country to date.
Carlson currently ranks second in the country in the mile with a time of 4:27.20 after being converted for altitude, while McTighe ranks 15
th in the same event.
On the men's side,
Colin Sahlman will be back to race the mile after winning the event at this same meet last season with a time of 3:53.17 that set an NAU and a Big Sky Conference record. He is also entered in the 3,000-meters. Also doubling in the 3,000-meters and the mile are
Ford Washburn,
Kang Nyoak,
Caleb Easton, and
Clayton Shively. At the Lumberjack Team Challenge, Washburn clocked a time of 3:55.22 when converted at altitude for the 12
th fastest time in Division I currently.
Drew Bosley and
David Mullarkey will race the 5,000-meters. The duo competed in the same event in Boston on Dec. 7, with Mullarkey's time of 13:38.27 currently ranking 29
th nationally and Bosley's time of 13:43.62 ranks 42
nd.
The bulk of the team will venture outside of Flagstaff for the first time this season in two weeks when NAU competes at the Husky Classic in Seattle, Wash., from Feb. 14-15.
