GENEVA, Ohio --- Senior
Natasha Miller broke her NAIA record and won her third-straight pentathlon title, winning four of the five events and establishing a new record score of 4,023 to highlight day one action on Thursday at the GaREAT Sports Complex in Geneva, Ohio.
Miller was absolutely dominate in her final indoor pentathlon, winning four of the five events including setting a personal best in the long jump. She opened up the meet with a win in the 60m hurdles, crossing the line in 8.72 seconds, 0.13 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.
“I am very happy to reach my goal of 4,000 points today,” commented Miller. "It is a true blessing to compete in the NAIA. The athletes have great attitudes and the environment gives a lot of makes it a great place to compete.”
In the high jump, Miller easily cleared 5-10 to win the event with the next-best jump coming in at 5-5.25. After a ninth-place finish in the shot put, Miller picked up a victory in the long jump with a leap of 19-feet, 1/2 inch (5.80m), bettering her indoor personal best and school record of 5.65m.
Miller then wrapped up the pentathlon with a victory in the 800m run with a time of 2:20.39, barely edging out Brianna Leslie of Azusa Pacific who crossed in 2:20.73.
Miller becomes the first NAIA women to record more than 4,000 points in the pentathlon at the national championship meet. It also was her fifth individual indoor title, making her one of just 10 women's athletes to achieve that feat.
The rest of the day's activities at the championship were preliminary races in a number of distance events and Biola qualified in each one attempted.
Senior
Sarah Brooks reached the finals in the 5,000 meter run with a prelim time of 17:43.09, a personal best by 17 seconds. She finished seventh in her heat and had the 10th fastest time overall.
Biola also ran the preliminaries for two relays. In the 4x800m relay, the Biola team of
Katie Thede,
Brooke Forsi, Nychelle Fischetti and
Kelsey Gasner broke the school indoor record with a time of 9:14.70, nearly three seconds faster than the previous best.
The Biola Distance Medley Relay team of Fischetti,
Ashley Bush,
Jane Kerner and Gasner ran the second-fastest prelim time, posting a time of 12:04.97.
Meet Results and live scoring can be found on the NAIA website or at
http://www.lightningtiming.com/results/20110303/.
