The dynastic NAU women and men’s distance program overwhelmed the rest of the Big Sky Conference once more on Saturday. But, overall, the NAU men came up a single point short of winning the team title, though the Lumberjack women dominated the team competition.
It was a great meet for NAU sophomore Colin Sahlman, who won the 1,500 meters, the 800 meters an hour later, then came back to anchor the 4×400 and gain a few places, but not enough to put NAU in the top four. The fifth-place finish meant Montana State’s men won the meet, 186-185. The NAU women won by a whopping 106 points.
In the women’s 1,500 meters, Lumberjack senior Annika Reiss bided her time in the pack until the 800-meter mark, when she made a move on the inside to take the lead, with Northern Colorado’s Regina Mpigachai pulling into second place.
But Reiss, who won last year’s 1,500 meters in the conference, was just getting started. On the bell lap, she surged and pulled away and won in 4:17.71, a little off the 4:15.98 she ran in April at the Bryan Clay Invitational, but impressive nonetheless.
Teammates Maggi Congdon, Nikita Moore, Gracelyn Larkin finished third, fourth and fifth, respectively. Places 6 through 9 were taken by NAU’s Keira Moore, Bryn Morley, Karrie Baloga and Ava Mitchell.
The men’s 1,500 wasn’t quite as NAU saturated as the women’s race, but Sahlman and Nico Young easily took control in the final 600 meters and never looked back. Sahlman led start-to-finish, while Young stayed in the pack, then went way to the outside and caught up with his teammate. Sahlman won in 3:47.28, with Young at 3:47.59. Kang Nyoak was in the mix with the leaders early, and finished fifth in 3:50.50.
An hour later, in the 800 meters, Sahlman cruised to the victory in 1:48.08, while Young placed third in 1:49.68.
Congdon ran her first outdoors 800 of the season and blew by Northern Colorado’s Mpigachai in the stretch to win in 2:06.38. Reiss was third in 2:07.50, Nikita Moore fourth in 2:09.20 and sister Keira Moore in fifth at 2:10.52.
The 5,000 meters, both men and women, were foregone conclusions: NAU would dominate.
Young toyed with the men’s field for about 2 1/2 miles, hanging back before blowing away the field in the bell lap to win at 14:02.70. For the women, senior Gracelyn Larkin and junior Ali Upshaw, transfers from the University of New Mexico, led the NAU stampede.
The two ran together most of the race before Larkin took off on Upshaw, who finished second.
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