GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Friday's action at the NAIA Indoor Track & Field National Championships for the Milligan University Buffaloes in Gainesville, Fla. included runs from six athletes. Two finalists were crowned in the preliminaries, while three other personal-best times were managed on the penultimate day of the event.
The opening event of the day for Milligan was the women's Mile, in which
Kaylee Coll entered the event as an unlikely contender nationally. She nearly qualified for the final in her freshman foray into the national scene, as she posted a personal-best mark of 5:04.07 to place 11
th, just 0.75 second shy of the No. 10 spot and a qualification for the final on Saturday.
Next on the list for the Buffaloes was
Luis Peralta, who ran the 600m prelims in 1:18.35 to win his heat and qualify in fourth for the finals on Saturday afternoon at 1:35 p.m.
McKenzie Fitzgerald then ran the women's 800m in a personal-best 2:16.77 clip to finish 13
th out of 20 runners in the event.
On the men's side of the 800m,
Marti Molins Rallo qualified with the second-fastest time, but came in second in his heat to the top qualifier. He finished in 1:51.74 to reach the final at 2:25 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.
Ana Canibano then took part in the women's 1000m prelims, racing to a time of 2:55.89 to place 11
th and miss out on qualification for the final by just three places, while also setting a personal-best clip.
It was
Carter Windham who ran the men's 1000m to the tune of a 2:37.53 to finish in 19
th place to close out the day for the Buffaloes.
Saturday's first event for the Buffs will be the men's 600m for Peralta at 1:35 p.m., followed by the men's 800m of Molins Rallo at 2:25 p.m. Then, the women's 3000m will include three Buffs, as
Ellen-Mary Kearney (NAIA No. 1),
Karly Wilhjelm and Fitzgerald will all run in that race at 3 p.m.
Aaron Gottlied will race in the men's 3000m at 3:15 p.m., and then
Annabelle Stewart goes into the 5000m at 3:55 p.m., sporting the third-best time of the competitors.
Lastly, Milligan's Distance Medley Relay team on the women's side will race as the No. 2 qualified team at 4:40 p.m. to cap off the event for Milligan.
RESULTS
