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2010 NAIA Men's & Women's Outdoor Track and Field National Championship Preview

05.26.2010

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The 59^th Annual Men's and 30^th Annual Women's National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Outdoor Track and Field National Championships will take place from May 27-29 in Marion, Ind. The event is hosted by Indiana Wesleyan University and is held at the Outdoor Sports Complex on the IWU campus. It is the first year that Indiana Wesleyan will host the national championships.

The Championships will feature over 1,400 student-athletes on 241 teams from across the U.S. and Canada competing in 48 different events contested over three days. There are 125 men's teams and 116 women's teams participating. The championships will begin with the men's decathlon and women's heptathlon on Thursday morning at 10:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. CDT, respectively. The women's hammer throw heads the field events at 10:00 a.m. and the women's 4x100m trials kicks off the track events at 1:30 p.m. Opening Ceremonies start at 4:45 p.m. on Thursday and the Awards Ceremony wraps up the events at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Two-time defending national champion Azusa Pacific (Calif.) is gunning for its third straight title and 16^th overall, most in NAIA history. The Cougars have defeated Dickinson State (N.D.) for the outdoor title in each of the past two seasons. Azusa Pacific defeated the Blue Hawks 61-57 in 2008 and 80-71 in 2009. The Cougars have six athletes entering the championships with top-10 qualifying scores in their events. Abendego Magut's qualifying time of 29:43.49 in the men's 10,000m run ranks second amongst the field and Casey Stevick's score of 6,912 points in the decathlon also ranks second.

On the women's side, two-time defending national champion Wayland Baptist (Texas) will look for its own three-peat. The Flying Queens held off Simon Fraser (B.C.), 80-69 in 2008 and dominated the competition a year ago. WBU scored 102 points, 44 points more than runner-up Oklahoma Baptist's 58. Wayland Baptist's 4x100m, 4x400m and 4x800m relay teams all rank in the top-five among the field. Kimberly Smith will be shooting for her third-straight 100m dash title; the junior enters the championship, with a NAIA-best qualifying time of 11.38.

The women's 2009 Most Valuable Performer, Natasha Miller of Biola (Calif.), returns to the championships. Miller holds the highest qualifying score in the women's heptathlon (5162), second-best high jump (1.75m), and the third best 100m hurdle time (14.19).

The entire 2010 NAIA Men's and Women's Outdoor Track and Field National Championships will be streamed online.

The Oregon Tech men send Bryant Sentman (Decathlon, high jump and javelin), Kyle Gomez (Javelin) and Trevor Lundsten (Javelin). Sarah Schelb (Javelin) and Nikki Smith (100 meter hurdles) will make their fourth-straight NAIA national championship appearance, while Emilee Nehring (long jump) will join the women’s 4x800 relay team of Rachel Novak, Statia Smith, Amanda McMillan and Lori Carter.

For 2010 Track and Field championship schedule, click here

For more information on the national championships, click here.