POCATELLO, Idaho - The Southern Utah University track and field teams closed out competition at the Big Sky Championships Saturday, as a multitude of athletes had a solid conclusion to the four-day meet for the Thunderbirds.

Nelson Douglas provided one of the best highlights of the entire meet for SUU on the last day of action, setting a new personal best in the 200 Meter Dash, running a time of 20.90 to take second place in the event. Noah Bringhurst also had a strong performance in the same event, recording a time of 21.10 to take fourth place, as the pair earned a combined 13 team points for SUU. 

Both the men's and women's 4x100 Meter Relay teams had impressive showings, as each squad managed to secure a third-place finish. The men's team comprised of Dylan Gibson, Noah Bringhurst, Max Morley, and Nelson Douglas set a new school record in the event, as the four individuals combined to record a blistering time of 40.62 to move atop the Southern Utah track and field record books. On the women's side, Ronnie Walker, Iana-Michovani Graham, Maya Benjamin, and Jordyn Nielson combined to finish in 46.96 seconds to take home third place and earn SUU six points.

In the Men's 1500 Meter Final, Nate Osterstock had the best finish out of the trio of T-Birds that qualified for the final round, taking fifth place by recording a time of 3:46.56. Travis Feeny and Santiago Gaitan also competed in the event, finishing in ninth and tenth place, respectively.

Iana-Michovani Graham followed up her strong performance in the preliminaries of the 100 Meter Dash by running almost an equivalent time of 11.88 in today's finals, taking sixth place and earning three team points for the Thunderbirds. Payton Riggs also managed to record a sixth-place finish competing in the Men's 800 Meter Run, turning in a time of 1:53.43 to secure another three points for SUU.

Seadra Hamilton closed out a strong Championship weekend by setting a new personal record in the Women's 400 Meter Hurdles with a time of 1:01.00 to capture a sixth-place finish in the event. Jace Rodgers had equal success on the men's side of the event, setting a new personal best by finishing in 53.25, securing another sixth-place finish for the T-Birds.

Osterstock found more success in the Men's 5000 Meter Run, clocking a time of 14:34.46 to take 13th place overall. Jacob Francis also cracked the top-15 of the leaderboard, finishing in 14:44.54 to place 15th overall. On the women's side of the event, Madisan DeBos took home seventh place, running a time of 17:16.43 to earn two points for SUU.

The Men's 4x400 Relay Team, made up of the same four individuals from the 4x100 team closed out the meet for Southern Utah by recording a time of 3:16.39, just missing out on a top-three finish as the team came in fourth place on the final leaderboard. 

The end of the meet marks the end of team competition for the Southern Utah track and field teams this season; but, the teams will now wait to see which of their individual competitors will qualify for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds. The preliminaries will take place in Fayetteville, Arkansas from May 26 through May 28.

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