Lumberjacks Trail After First Day of Big Sky Indoor Championships

BOZEMAN, Mont. – After the first day of competition at the Big Sky Indoor Championships, the Northern Arizona track and field teams find themselves second in the men’s rankings (52) and fifth in the women’s (28). The first day of action began and ended with NAU atop the podium.

Interim Director of Track and Field & Cross Country Eric Heins knows his team is capable of making up the deficits, and that championships are won on the final day.

“We did have a great first day,” We had an individual champion in the men’s weight throw, and the distance medley relay came through on top. On the women’s side we had Amber Anderson finish third in the long jump on her last jump, and our distance medley relay took second which gives us a lot of momentum heading into tomorrow.”

“Our men’s team still has a good shot to win, but it will be a dog fight,” Heins said. “We knew the women’s competition was going to be a battle and we find ourselves in a position to make up ground. Our ladies are just going to have to dig down and give it their all.”

The men’s weight throw kicked off the scoring for the Lumberjacks as senior Curtis Durocher hurled a new personal-best mark of 20.03m (65-8.5) to claim his second-straight Big Sky title in the event. His new season-best mark moved him up in the national rankings from 27th to No. 23. Junior Ian Nunya collected his second-straight bronze medal after a personal-best mark of 18.01m (59-01.25). Junior Jacob Nicol took fourth place (17.90-58-08.75) and senior Javier Villarreal rounded out the scoring for the Lumberjacks with a seventh-place finish (17.33m/56-10.25).

Friday’s events consisted of four preliminary races in which the Lumberjacks saw participants through to the final rounds on Saturday.

Senior Annie Skordas qualified for the finals in both the 55 and 200-meter dashes, and leads in the 200m after tying her season-best mark of 24.66. Junior Shekila Wilkinson also qualified in the 200m after crossing the finish line in a time of 24.91, and fellow junior Rashida McKinnon made it through to the final round of the 400-meter dash as well for the Lumberjacks.

NAU will have two runners in the men’s 800-meter final after sophomores Jordan Chipangama and Darius Terry qualified fourth and fifth, respectively.

NAU scored 17 points in the men’s 5,000-meter run when sophomore Ahmed Osman took second, junior Ben Ashkettle claimed third and freshman Tim Freriks logged a sixth-place finish.

The women’s 5k gave the squad its first points of the day when senior Nell Rojas took fourth place and sophomore Kortnee Burton finished closely behind in fifth.

The men’s team scored three more points in the long jump from freshman Charles White with his leap of 23-00.5. The women’s team also got some help from Anderson’s third place finish in the long jump (19-08), and senior Arshiya Hoseyni’s sixth-place throw in the shot put (46-11.75).

The first day of action came to a close with NAU finishing second in the women’s distance medley relay behind Montana. The men’s squad fell behind early to Idaho State after the first two legs of the DMR, but Chipangama made up the distance in the 800-meter portion and senior David McNeill finished off the rest of the field anchoring the mile. The time of 9:52.85 gives the NAU relay team a Big Sky record in the event.

Tomorrow’s events begin at 11:30 a.m. MST with the women’s weight throw, and close with the men’s and women’s 4x400-meter relay.