NAU Claims Three Big Sky Titles, Women Lead Team Race Heading Into Final Day

PORTLAND, Ore. (May 15, 2026) – Northern Arizona track and field claimed three conference titles, multiple podium finishes and a large group of finals qualifiers Friday during the opening day of scored events at the 2026 Big Sky Outdoor Championships at Mt. Hood Community College.

After seven scored events, the NAU women lead the conference standings with 51 points while the Lumberjack men sit third with 36 points entering Saturday's final day of competition. Idaho is second in the women's standings with 46 points, followed by Montana at 40. Weber State leads the men's standings with 66.5 points ahead of Montana State at 49 and NAU at 36.

The Lumberjacks were led by conference titles from Addie Engel in the women's 10,000 meters, Cael Grotenhuis in the men's 10,000 meters and Justin Cardoza in the men's long jump.

Engel delivered one of the top performances of the meet, winning the women's 10K in a meet-record 33:26.05. The performance moved the senior to No. 7 all-time in school history. NAU also placed second, third and seventh in the event behind Ava Mitchell (34:21.95), Ali Upshaw (34:24.66) and Anna Fenske (35:19.27), giving the Lumberjacks 26 points in the event.  

In the men's 10K, the Lumberjacks finished 1-2 as Grotenhuis claimed the conference title in 29:48.39 while Aidan Puffer followed closely behind in 29:48.61.   Cardoza added another conference title for NAU in the men's long jump, winning the event with a mark of 7.53m.  

NAU also scored heavily in the throws. Ronan Gallagher placed third in the women's hammer with a throw of 54.30m while Sariyah Horne-Kemp followed in fourth at 53.83m. In the men's hammer, Nikolas Strait added points with a sixth-place finish after throwing 59.33m. Alexa Hamilton earned a fourth-place finish in the women's long jump at 5.86m.  

On the track, the Lumberjacks advanced athletes throughout the day into Saturday finals.

The women's 1500-meter final will feature five Lumberjacks after Emma Stutzman, Hayley Burns, Ava Mitchell, Payton Godsey and Grace Copeland all qualified through prelim competition. In the women's 800 meters, Burns, Stutzman and Nikita Moore each advanced to the final. The men's 800-meter final will include Colin Sahlman and Tor Hotung-Davidsen after both automatically qualified from prelims.  

Josiah Johnson, Shon Martin and Erick Reyes-Aguilera each advanced to the men's 110-meter hurdles final. Johnson and Nicolas Martinez also moved through to the men's 400-meter hurdles final.    

Additional finals qualifiers included Sydnie Watkins in the women's 100-meter hurdles, Jordann Germain in the women's 400 meters and Luke Yruretagoyena in the men's 400 meters.      

Earlier in the evening, Nikita Moore earned bronze in the women's steeplechase with a time of 10:02.27 while Tess Hannigan placed sixth. Randy Espinoza finished fourth in the men's steeplechase after running a personal-best 8:41.64.  

Saturday's final day of competition begins at 10 a.m. MST with field events before track finals start at 11:30 a.m. MST. The day will feature championship races in the 1500 meters, hurdles, relays, 5,000 meters and multiple field events as team titles are decided.

Live results can be found here.

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