VANCOUVER, BC --

OVERVIEW

The defending third place men's team and 10th place women's team are in Marion, Indiana this week for the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) Outdoor Track & Field National Championships.

For the second consecutive year, the Championships are being held at the Indiana Wesleyan University (IWU) Track & Field Stadium in Marion, and run from May 26-28. Marion is about 100-kilometers Northeast of Indianapolis, Indiana.

Last year the men finished an all-time best third place overall, led by now-graduated gold medallists Inaki Gomez (5000-meter race walk) Curtis Moss (javelin), and Reid Gustavson (decathlon). Despite some promising medal prospects, the T-Bird men are also dealing with a few injuries and have redshirted athletes, and thus don't have quite the same expectations in the team competition this year.

On the women's side, four-time gold medallist Liz Gleadle (javelin) is now graduated, but two-time defending champion Nicola Evangelista (5000-meter race walk), and 2010 silver medallist Nelly Amenyogbe (marathon) are returning. Overall, the women are looking to finish in the top-10 again.

MEN'S PREVIEW

Leading the 'Birds in the rankings is junior Evan Dunfee, who is ranked number one in the 5000-meter race walk, and leads the NAIA 5000-meter race walk performance list by nearly two minutes with a time of 19:41.67. This past October, Dunfee represented Canada at the Commonwealth Games in Dehli, finishing 6th in the 20km racewalk. He will be looking for redemption after being disqualified last year at NAIAs in what would have been almost surely a top-two finish with teammate Inaki Gomez, who went on to win gold.

Javelin throwers, sophomore Andy White and freshman Marcus Watson, are ranked second and fourth respectively in the NAIA. White has thrown 67.27-meters this season, and was fourth at the Championships last year. Watson sits a comfortable fourth in the rankings, having thrown 65.64-meters this season, which is over a meter further than the fifth-ranked thrower.

The T-Birds have three men entered in the 1500-meters, led by senior Nigel Hole. He is ranked eighth in the NAIA in the 1500-meters, with a time of 3:50.69, set at the Mt. SAC Relays back in April. At NAIAs last year Hole finished a career-best seventh in the 1500-meters final, and will be looking to improve on that in his fourth and final NAIAs appearance. Freshman Wyatt Baiton is coming in ranked 14th, having run 3:53.01 this season. And qualifying for the 1500-meters for the third year in a row is junior Jordan Smith, who has run 3:53.61, and ranks 16th.

In the 3000-meter steeplechase, Jordan Maynard, a junior, will be running in his second Championships. Maynard previously ran at NAIAs in 2008, as a member of a 4x800-meters relay team that also included Nigel Hole.

Running the gruelling 800-meters and making his NAIAs debut is sophomore David Slade, ranked 24th, with a time of 1:53.51. Another first-time NAIA qualifier is Theo Hunt, a junior, who will run the 5000-meters. Hunt ran 14:58.44 to punch his ticket to Indiana, and ranks 28th overall.

Lastly for the men, sophomore Tim Smith has made an unusual jump in distance - from the 800-meters to the marathon - in one season, and will make his debut at the 26.2-mile distance on the last day of the Championships. Smith was a member of the 4x800-meters relay team at NAIAs last year. He comes in ranked 33rd overall based off of a half-marathon time.

WOMEN'S PREVIEW

The women are lead by senior Nicola Evangelista, who will be looking for her third straight title in the 5000-meter race walk. Evangelista is ranked number one in the NAIA, with a qualifying time of 24:18.16. In recent years UBC has simply dominated the women's race walk, thanks in large part to race walk coach Gerry Dragomir, with T-Birds having won the past five consecutive titles.

The marathon will feature three Thunderbirds: Sarah Reimer, Nelly Amenyogbe, and Katie Britton. Short of the race walk, it is the best opportunity for the women to pick up valuable points in the team competition.

Reimer, a freshman, has the fourth fastest half-marathon qualifying time in the NAIA, having run 1:22:37 at the First Half Half-Marathon back in February. In November, she scored for the women's team at the NAIA Cross Country National Championships.

Amenyogbe is the reigning NAIA silver medallist in the marathon, and is ranked fifth, just behind Reimer, with a time of 1:22:57 from the First Half. She ran 3:05:31 to place second last year behind Wendy O'Lexey of Black Hills State University, timed at 2:57:59. Amengyobe was also the first T-Bird across the line at the NAIA Cross Country Championships last fall, finishing 38th overall.

Katie Britton, a senior, is ranked 31st in the marathon based of her half-marathon qualifying time of 1:30:55 from the First Half. This will be her first NAIA Track and Field Championships appearance.

Switching gears over to the field events, sophomore Erin Templeton will contest the triple jump, the only one of the T-Bird women in a non-track event this year. She is ranked 12th on the performance list, with a mark of 11.50-meters from the UBC Open in March.

Lastly, redshirt freshman Maggie Woodward will run the 5000-meters in her first NAIA Track and Field Championships. She comes in with a season's best of 17:47.31, and is ranked 23rd overall.

CHAMPIONSHIPS SCORING

The top eight finishers in the finals of each event score points for their team in a descending order of 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 from first to eighth. The points earned by each team are added together to determine the team standings at the conclusion of the meet.

T-BIRDS' SCHEDULE

Note: all events are listed here in Pacific Standard Time (PST)

Thursday:

M 1500m Heats 10:55am (Nigel Hole, Wyatt Baiton, and Jordan Smith)

M 800m Heats 1:30pm (David Slade)

M Javelin Final 3:30pm (Andy White, and Marcus Watson)

M 3000m Steeplechase Heats 5:00pm (Jordan Maynard)

Friday:

W 5000m Race Walk Final 10:40am (Nicola Evangelista)

M 800m Semi 12:35pm (David Slade)

W Triple Jump Final 2:30pm (Erin Templeton)

W 5000m Semi 3:40pm (Maggie Woodward)

M 5000m Semi 4:30pm (Theo Hunt)

Saturday:

W/M Marathon Final 3:00am (Tim Smith, Sarah Reimer, Nelly Amenyogbe, and Katie Britton)

M 3000m Steeplechase Final 11:20am (Jordan Maynard)

M 1500m Final 12:10pm (Nigel Hole, Wyatt Baiton, and Jordan Smith)

M 800m Final 1:40pm (David Slade)

W 5000m Final 2:10pm (Maggie Woodward)

M 5000m Final 2:35pm (Theo Hunt)

NAIA OFFICIAL WEBSITE CHAMPIONSHIPS PREVIEW

A preview of the Championships on the NAIA official website can be found here: http://naia.cstv.com/sports/m-otrack/spec-rel/052511aab.html

LIVE VIDEO STREAMING LINK

http://www.indwes.edu/NAIA/Thursday/