The Event... Several members of the Northwestern track and field team will compete at the 2008 NAIA Indoor Track and Field National Championships this weekend in Johnson City, Tenn. Competition gets underway on Thursday, March 6 with the multi-events and several relays get underway Thursday evening. Individual events will begin on Friday, March 7 just after 12:00 pm. To view the complete schedule of events, click on the following link: Schedule of Events.
Red Raider Notes... Six Red Raider athletes and one relay team will compete at the national championships. Entries that place in the top six in their respective events earn All-American honors. For the men, junior Dan Walhof (Edgerton, Minn.) will compete in the 3000m run. Walhof finished third in the event and earned all-conference honors at the GPAC Championships on Feb. 23. He crossed the line in 8:43.98 and is seeded 14th at nationals. The sixth best qualifying mark is 8:37.98 coming into the meet.
The women's team has five individual and one relay team competing at the championships. Senior Laura Jacobson (Galva, Iowa) is seeded fourth in the 1000m run with a time of 2:58.55. She placed second and earned all-conference honors in the event at the GPAC Meet. Olivia Johnson (Milford, Iowa) is seeded fourth in the one mile run with a time of 5:00.48. The freshman placed second and earned all-conference honors in the one mile run at the GPAC meet. Charity Miles, a freshman from Thedford, Neb., is seeded second in the 5000m run with a time of 17:41.24. Miles set a new GPAC records in both the 3000m and 5000m runs and earned all-conference honors with the first place finishes. Emily DeWeerd, a sophomore from Ireton, Iowa, is seeded 28th in the 60m hurdles with a time of 9.4 seconds. She set a school record at the GPAC Championships with her seventh place finish. Freshman Kaitlin Beaver (Sioux Center, Iowa) is seeded 29th in the high jump with a leap of 5-03. She place second and earned all-conference honors at the GPAC Championships. All the above running events will begin the prelims on Friday afternoon with the semifinals being run in the evening. Finals for the field events will begin on Friday night.
The distance medley team is seeded fourth with a time of 12:18.33 and will run in the semifinals on Thursday evening around 6:45 pm. Members of the distance medley team are: Olivia Johnson, Jess Regan, Laura Jacobson and Charity Miles.
To view the complete results and catch the latest updates from the 2008 NAIA Indoor Track and Field Championships, click on the link below:
