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Women's Preview: Ladies Set to Close Out The Year of the Beacon
 
The potential is there for another record-breaking weekend for NCU as the Beacon women's track & field program looks to close out the year on a high note.
 
Many points have been scored by the NCU women's track & field team over the years at the NAIA National Championship. Carried on the backs of the distance program, the team has collected 30 points dating back to 2011.
 
With the continued development of a full track & field program in addition to the continued dominance of the distance runners, the Beacons have it well within their reach to score upwards of 20 points this week alone.
 
Last year the team scored an all-time high with nine points. In 2013 they had their best finish ever taking 30th place. 2016 could prove to be the standard bearer in both categories as NCU aims for a potential top-20 finish.
 
At the NAIA championships, scoring points and earning All-American honors go hand in hand as they are both awarded to the top-eight finishers in each event. The Beacons will bring a full team of eight competitors to this year's event and all have a chance to claim one of those spots in their respective events.
 
JAVELIN
 
Kicking things off will be the championship finals for the women's javelin at 3:00 pm CDT on Thursday. Boasting the top two finishers in the Cascade Conference, NCU has the potential for a landslide of points from the event. Sophomore Bailey Dell, the CCC Champion, is seeded second in the event, having landed a school-record and season-best throw of 47.01m at the Southern Oregon Invitational. Junior Madeleine Nelson, the CCC runner-up, is ranked 12.
 
Both NCU throwers will be in the first of two scheduled flights. Based on projections, Dell should have the overall lead after the flight. It is anything but a sure bet however, as Elizabeth King, a senior from Concordia-Nebraska is also in the fight flight. King was the national runner-up last season after winning the title in 2014. Dell's average this season is 44.72m, just surpassing King's 44.27.
 
Their biggest competition for the individual championship will compete in flight two. Freshman Seri Geisler from Valley City State College had the best throw in the NAIA this year at 50.20m on May 7 at the Ron Masanz Classic. She won the North Star Athletic Conference championship and has an average distance of 45.06, just over a foot better than Dell.
 
LONG JUMP
 
Another conference champion looking to make a dent in the NAIA scoring column will be senior Shaneesa Applegate in the long jump which takes place on Thursday at 5:30 pm CDT.
 
Applegate has steadily improved this season and will hope to peak after jumping a school-record 5.60m at the CCC Championship. Applegate comes in seeded just 24th, but her best mark sits a mere 3 ½ inches shy of the top-ten.
 
1500m
 
Sandwiched in between the javelin and long jump on Thursday afternoon will be the preliminary round for the 1500m run at 3:20 pm CDT, featuring NCU's junior All-American duo of Sierra Brown and Alyssa Harmon. There will be 28 runners divided into two heats with NCU's pair both running in the first heat. The top-four finishers from each heat will advance to the championship, along with the next four fastest finishers for a final field of 12 for Saturday's championship run at 3:00 pm CDT.
 
Brown, who earned All-CCC honors with a third-place finish, is seeded at no. 8 for the event, which would potentially earn her third career All-American nod. Last year she didn't make it out of the preliminary rounds, taking 14th place.
 
Harmon is seeded 17 with a season-best time that sits just three seconds out of the top-10. This will be her first time competing in the event at the NAIA championship.
 
3000m STEEPLECHASE
 
Another distance event with a qualifying round will be the 3000m STEEPLECHASE which will also feature a pair of NCU athletes. Juniors Michelle Fletcher and Macie Gale finished 1-2 at the CCC Championships and are in position to score solid points for the Beacons. They will both start in the first heat of the prelims on Thursday at 6:50 pm CDT.
 
Fletcher is seeded fourth in the event after a season-best time of 10:47.57 which set a new school record at the Oregon State High Performance Meet in April. Among her biggest competitors to win the national championship are sophomore Lyndee Dawson from Biola University and junior Marissa DeWispelare from Doane College. Dawson won the NAIA 3000m national championship during the indoor season and is seeded no.2. DeWispelare is a 2015 Cross Country All-American like Fletcher and finished third in the steeple last year.
 
Gale earned her first ever All-Conference honor two weeks ago. Owning the 15th fastest time in the NAIA this season, she will aim to be one of the 14 runners who will advance to the finals (top-5 from each heat along with the next four fastest) which take place on Saturday at 2:00 pm CDT.
 
10000m
 
There will be just one running of the 10000m championship which will close out night one of the championships at 7:50 pm CDT on Thursday. Running for the Beacons will be sophomore Rosa Schmidt. Schmidt won the CCC Championship in the event and is seeded no. 5 nationally.
 
Schmidt earned her first All-American honor during the 2015 cross country season and will look to repeat against some familiar faces from the fall including senior Kristen Garwood from Hannibal-LaGrange University, senior Karis Frankian from The Master's College, and freshman Jessa Perkinson from Southern Oregon University. All three earned All-America honors for cross country. Garwood and Frankian both claimed top-five finishes in the event last year including a runner-up performance for Frankian.
 
5000m
 
Many of the same runners that Schmidt will see on Thursday night in the 10k will also run in the finals of the 5000m on Saturday at 5:30 pm CDT, including Frankian who is the top seed in both distances.
 
In fact, the stacked 5K field features six runners among the top eight seeds that earned All-American honors during the cross country season including four of the top-five finishers. Among that group are a pair of Beacons in Harmon and Brown.
 
Harmon, the national runner-up in cross country comes in with the seventh-fastest track time this season. Brown, who finished fourth in the fall, owns the sixth-fastest time.
 
The track leader is Frankian, who finished fifth at the cross country championship. The second seed belongs to NAIA cross country national champion Kellian Hunt. The senior from Biola joins Frankian as the only two competitors to break the 17-minute barrier during the 2016 track season.
 
The Beacon duo will also face a familiar foe from the CCC in the form of Southern Oregon's Perkinson. Perkinson won the CCC championship, beating out Brown and Harmon who finished 2-3. 

Beacon Men Ready for First NAIA Trip
 
The Northwest Christian University men's track & field team will be in uncharted territory this weekend as they compete at Mickey Miller Blackwell Stadium in the NAIA National Championship for the first time in school history.
 
Four athletes will compete, having earned their way into the championship event during the season.
 
Starting things off at 5:30 pm CDT on Thursday will be the Javelin, featuring a pair of Beacons. Sophomore Christian Hackney and senior Garth Gant battled back-and-fourth this season, trading the school record on multiple occasions. Gant finished fourth at the CCC championship while Hackney took fifth. Gant currently holds the school record with his heave of 56.73m at the Southern Oregon Invitational in April.
 
A field of 21 throwers will compete across two flights. Christian Hackney is in flight one while Gant will compete in flight two. Among those competing, Gant is seeded 14 and Hackney is 15.
 
NCU's best chance to make a splash on the national stage will be CCC 3000m Steeplechase Champion TJ Wright. In order to score points for your team and earn All-American honors in your event, you must finish in the top-eight during the event final. Wright is considered to be among the favorites to do just that.
 
Wright obliterated the school record multiple times in the event this season, setting the new standard of 9:22.89 at the San Francisco Distance Carnival on April 1. He is currently ranked seventh in the event. The 3000m Steeplechase will not have a preliminary race as all 17 qualifiers will automatically advance to the championship on Saturday at 2:20 pm CDT.  
 
There will be a preliminary for the 5000m run on Friday night, which will feature sophomore Garrett Kraal. NCU's school-record holder (14:53.30) took third place at the CCC Championships two weeks ago to earn All-Conference honors. There are 21 competitors slated to compete and Kraal is seeded 18th among them. He will compete in the first heat of the prelims at 7:00 pm CDT on Friday afternoon. The top six from each of two heats, along with the next four fastest runners will advance, making a field of 16 for Saturday's championship. 

COMPLETE SCHEDULE (PST)

THURSDAY
1:00 pm - Women's Javelin - FINAL
1:20 pm - Women's 1500m - Trials
3:30 pm - Women's Long Jump - FINAL
3:30 pm - Men's Javelin - FINAL
4:50 pm - Women's 3000m Steeplechase  - Trials
5:50 pm - Women's 10000m - FINAL

FRIDAY
5:00 pm - Men's 5000m - Trials

SATURDAY
12:00 pm - Women's 3000m Steeplechase - FINAL
12:20 pm - Men's 3000m Steeplechase - FINAL
1:00 pm - Women's 1500m - FINAL
3:30 pm - Women's 5000m - FINAL
3:55 pm - Men's 5000m - FINAL