FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – Diego Estrada ran an altitude-converted sub-four minute mile, obliterating Olympian Lopez Lomong's four-year-old school record by nearly five seconds on Saturday, highlighting a day filled with top marks for the Northern Arizona University track and field teams. Estrada's NCAA auto-bid time of 3:55.46 is currently the second-best mile time in the country.
"Having Diego take down an Olympian's record is exciting, but the fact that it converts to a sub-four minute mile makes it even better," said Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Eric Heins. "I was really glad that there were so many people in the stands today to witness that."
His record mark did not come without valuable help from a teammate, however. NAU senior John Yatsko was charged with pacing Estrada for the first several laps of the race, in an effort to earn him the splits needed to set the record, achieved by Lomong in 2007.
"It felt like a 5K race when John was pacing me, so I knew if I could hit 62 seconds on that first 400 meters the record was going down," said Estrada, a five-time All-American for the Lumberjacks. "That first quarter mile gave me the confidence to make it. Even though I won, I don't think it has sunk in yet."
Not to be overshadowed, NAU freshman high jumper Deante Kemper had a big day of his own. Kemper drew equally raucous applause from the crowd as he first cleared 7-0, then returned to clear 7-2.25. Both marks were personal bests for the Kemper. He narrowly missed both an NCAA auto-bid (7-4) and an NAU school record (7-3.25) on his three final jumps at 7-4.25.
The two performances were merely the beginning of a big day for the Lumberjacks, as they added nine more athletes (four men, five women) to the list of Big Sky qualifiers. NAU now has 28 athletes qualified in 21 different events for the conference championships.
By the end of Saturday, the Lumberjacks had placed eight competitors atop the podium in their respective events, including Estrada and Kemper, and placed in the top-five 39 times.
Pascal Tang threw three feet farther than his previous conference-leading mark in the weight throw, tossing 62-11.5 for the win. Tang was followed in second and third by teammates Karl Gehrke (55-7.5) and Gus Margiotta (49-4.5), respectively.
The Lumberjacks swept the top-two spots in both the women's and men's 800-meter races, with European stars Caroline Hogardh (2:12.71) and Agnes Laurent (2:14.53) pacing the women, and Chris Ganem (1:53.88) and Caleb Potts (1:55.22) leading the men. The marks were the first Big Sky qualifiers of the season for Hogardh and Laurent, while Ganem notched his second after qualifying in the mile run two weeks ago.
Kortnee Burton blazed through the 3,000-meter race in a time of 10:00.36 to take the victory, beating her nearest competitor by 11 seconds. Burton was the sole NAU qualifier in the 3K, but she was joined by freshman Sarah Baker in earning a Big Sky auto-bid for the 5,000 meters.
Senior Nicole Elliott earned a personal-best mark in the weight throw with a toss of 61-10.5, good enough for second place, to along with a fifth-place finish in the shot put. The weight throw performance placed Elliott among the top 30 marks in the nation as of Saturday.
Other notable female competitors for the Lumberjacks were freshman Alexis Clay, who won the women's open long jump with a jump of 17-4.5, freshman Darriel Banks, who earned second-place in the 60-meter dash (7.59) and third in the 200-meter dash (25.04) while lowering both her times from two weeks ago, and senior Rashida McKinnon, who earned second place in the 400-meter dash with a time of 58.07 and anchored the NAU 'A' 4x400-meter relay squad to a second-place finish (3:52.11) by running 56.1 seconds in the final split.
Rounding out the meet highlights for the Lumberjack men was a title for the NAU 'A' men's 4x400-meter relay squad (Dennis Givens, Miles Di Sabella, Adel al Nasser, and Arnaud Froidmont) and second-place finishes for Caleb Hoover (3K; 8:18.37@), Tim Freriks (Mile; 4:12.42@), Gus Margiotta (shot put; 53-00), and Edgar Panford (triple jump; 49-7).
