Nice little workout for NAU’s distance contigent Saturday in Spokane. Technically, it was the Big Sky Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships, but the Lumberjacks women and men managed to “tempo it” and still dominate the meet — and easily win both team titles.
Not surprisingly, Nico Young won the men’s mile in 4:01 — a pedestrian pace for him. Somewhat surprisingly, Aussie-import Nikita Young edged out teammate Annika Reiss to take the women’s mile in 4:47.76.
Teammates Aaron las Heras and Theo Quax, second and third respectively, gave the NAU men the mile sweep, las Heras coming back 14 hours after winning the Big Sky 5K Friday night. The men’s race was an exercise in tactics, not time. From the gun, all six NAU runners went straight to the back and let Montana State do all the work.
Young and las Heras moved up to third and fourth, respectively, halfway through, with Quax lurking. With two laps left, Young surged and las Heras and Quax following behind. Young’s time was a Big Sky meet record. In a post-race interview on ESPN, he said, “I think I executed very well.”
Yup. Seems so. Other “vital” news from Young’s ESPN interview: He listened to Taylor Swift songs after his shakeout run Saturday.
Moore snuck up in the women’s race. Reiss appeared to have the race in hand after fending off Northern Colorado’s Regina Mpigachai. In the final turn and down the stretch, Moore emerged and went outside of Reiss to lean for the victory. Mpigachai finished third, followed by NAU’s Ali Upshaw, Karrie Baloga, Bryn Morely and Meagan Van Pelt.
Reiss, a senior, got redemption in the 3,000 meters, picking up the victory in convincing fashion by three seconds (9:30.46) over Moore. A night earlier, Upshaw outleaned Reiss in the 5,000. But not this time.
In the men’s 5,000, senior Brodey Hasty (very senior; seems like he’s been there forever) got his first indoor conference victory at 8:16, finishing with a 27.5-second last 200 meters.
As expected, Colin Sahlman and Maggi Congdon breezed to victories in the 800 meters.
Congdon wrapped up an impressive meet by anchoring NAU’s 4×4 relay victory to give the women’s team a whopping 204 points.
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