EUGENE, Ore. – The Northern Arizona University track and field team is taking the highest number of athletes to the NCAA Championship final round in program history this weekend, as 10 Lumberjacks make the trip to historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. for the national finals Wednesday through Saturday.
The team, split up evenly with five men and five women, consists of four distance runners, three jumpers, and three throwers. Of the 10 athletes, four are true freshmen.
Each of the 10 athletes earned their trip to Eugene by placing among the top 12 at the NCAA West Preliminary Round May 23-25 in Austin, Texas. The same standards applied to the NCAA East Preliminary Round in Greensboro, N.C., setting up a field of 24 athletes per event throughout the four-day meet this weekend in Oregon.
The top eight finishers in each event will earn First Team All-America honors, while Second-Team All-America accolades go to the next eight at the conclusion of the meet. The top eight athletes will also score points toward their school’s team score.
The meet will be broadcast live all four days, but coverage will vary based on the time and day of competition. The Pac-12 Network will provide web coverage Wednesday starting at 12 p.m. Pacific time, Thursday beginning at 11 a.m., and Friday and Saturday at 12:30 p.m. ESPN3, a web service which requires cable or internet provider authorization, will have coverage Thursday beginning at 3:50 p.m., Friday at 4:30 p.m., and Saturday at 2 p.m. Finally, ESPNU will be broadcasting live on television Friday starting at 4:30 p.m. and Saturday beginning at 2 p.m.
WOMEN
All five Lumberjack women making the trip to Eugene will be making their first appearance at the final stage of the NCAA Championships.
Freshman discus thrower Julia Viberg holds the highest ranking of the five (14th) thanks to a career-best mark of 177 feet, 4 inches that also earned her the first Big Sky Conference title of her career. Viberg, a native of Sweden, is the fifth NAU female athlete to compete in the discus at the national level.
Junior hammer thrower Lauren Stuart and junior high jumper Lauren Laszczak enter the meet ranked 20th in their respective fields. Both nabbed the 12th and final spot into the national finals at West Prelims to earn berths into the final round.
Stuart, who set the NAU school record (61.48m/201-8.75) earlier this season, is the second hammer thrower to advance to the NCAA Championship final round in school history. Laszczak, who won the Big Sky high jump title for the second time in her career, joins All-Americans Debbie Orr (1991) and school record holder Brittney Rogers (2006-07) as the only female high jumpers to compete on the national stage for NAU.
To round out the squad, senior Rochelle Kanuho (10,000m) and freshman Kylene Knutsen (javelin) each enter the meet ranked 23rd based on their season-best finishes. Kanuho, who ran a career-best time of 34:20.69 at the Mt. SAC Relays, ran a great tactical race in Austin to qualify in the 11th position, while Knutsen added almost eight feet to her career-best (155-5) to snag the final qualifying slot.
Kanuho is the fourth NAU 10,000-meter runner to qualify to the NCAA finals. Knutsenwill be the first NAU athlete in history, male or female, to throw the javelin at the national meet.
MEN
On the men’s side, two of the five Lumberjack male athletes will make repeat appearances at the NCAA Championship finals. Senior and nine-time All-American Diego Estrada (5,000m) is appearing for the third time in his five-year career, while sophomore high jumper Deante Kemper is slated to compete for the second-straight season.
Estrada is the only athlete currently in scoring position based purely off rankings. His season and career-best time of 13:15.33 in the 5,000 meters not only leads the country but is the second-fastest in-season outdoor time in NCAA history. Estrada already has one outdoor All-America honor to his credit placing fifth overall in the same event at the 2011 NCAA Championships.
Kemper, who holds a share of the indoor school record in the high jump (7-3.25), heads to Eugene with a chip on his shoulder after placing 21st at the 2012 national meet. Kemper, who advanced past the West Prelims in a tie for ninth, is looking to break seven feet for the first time this outdoor season.
Junior Edgar Panford is fresh off a career-best performance at the NCAA West Preliminary Round that saw him leap 52 feet, 4 inches in the triple jump and place fifth overall. The mark was two feet farther than his previous personal best, and elevated him to second all-time on NAU’s school record list.
Kemper and Panford are the only Lumberjack men to compete at the NCAA Championships in their respective events in school history.
The remaining two athletes, true freshmen Futsum Zienasellassie and Nathan Weitz, are hoping to cap their inaugural seasons in the same fashion in which they started. The pair ended the 2012 cross country season as the top two freshmen in the nation, with Zienasellassie garnering All-America honors to boot at November’s NCAA Cross Country Championships.
This weekend, Zienasellassie will join Estrada in the 5,000 meters, while Weitz competes in the 1,500 meters.
Zienasellassie, the 2011 Gatorade National Runner of the Year, enters with a season-best time of 13:50.50 and a 15th-place ranking. Weitz, who put together two of the best races of his young career to qualify for the NCAA final round, heads to Eugene ranked 19th with a season-best time of 3:44.19.
