2020-21 Cross Country/Track & Field Notebook (Week 3)

COMING UP: Cross Country at LC Winter Invitational (Lewiston Orchards), Friday, 1 p.m. (PT); Track at NAIA Indoor National Championships (Yankton, S.D.), March 3-6.
 
WATCH LIVE: LCSC will attempt to have live video of Friday's races through their SIDEARM Video Portal.
 
CROSS COUNTRY HEADS TO LEWISTON: The Yotes will return to the trails on Friday, making the trip to the Lewis-Clark Valley for the LC Winter Invitational. C of I will be competing at the 5,000 and 8,000-meter distances for the first time this year and will be matched up against Northwest, Carroll, Walla Walla and host Lewis-Clark State. The races will be held on the LC Cross Country Trail in the Lewiston Orchards – the site of the upcoming Cascade Conference Championships.
 
TRYING TO STAY PERFECT: Both C of I teams are 2-for-2 in races this season, each sweeping Eastern Oregon in November's Duel in the Dirt, while both winning races at the C of I Ice Chipper.
 
BOTH TEAMS RANKED IN TOP-25: The race will feature four of the Top-26 teams in the NAIA in both genders – as the Coyote women head into the meet ranked No. 6, with Carroll at No. 10, LCSC at No. 17 and Northwest at No. 26. The men's race will pit No. 6 LC State against No. 16 C of I, No. 21 Carroll and No. 26 Northwest.
 
SIX INDIVIDUALS, TWO RELAYS HEADED TO INDOOR NATIONALS: The Yotes will take a large contingent of athletes to the upcoming NAIA Indoor National Championships in South Dakota, as six individuals and a pair of relays will compete in the 4-day event. For the Coyote men, Stephen Campbell and Bryan Terry will both compete in the shot put, while Kendrik Caldwell will compete for the second-straight year in the heptathlon. For the women, Katylynn Duff has the No. 2 mark in the NAIA in the weight throw and the No. 9 shot put mark, Abbey Shirts is ranked No. 4 in the 1,000-meters, with Erin Moyer qualifying in the 5,000-meters. In addition, both the women's 4x800-meter relay and the distance medley relay will compete – both ranked in the Top-8.  For the women's DMR, it is the 13th time in the last 14 years that C of I has sent a team to Nationals.
 
HISTORY AT NATIONALS: It marks the 11th-straight season that the Coyote men have sent at least one athlete to Nationals, with their best finish in 2013, placing 13th. The women's squad will send athletes for the 14th-straight year, having placed third overall at the 2014 Championships. The C of I women have won seven indoor national titles – as the 2013 and 2014 distance medley teams claimed national crowns, with Hillary Holt winning two mile championships, along with 800 and 3,000-meter titles – while in 2018, Molly Vitale-Sullivan ran away with the 5,000-meter crown.
 
SITE FOR INDOORS MOVED: Due to COVID restrictions at the original site of the Championships, the NAIA Indoor National Championships has moved from Brookings, S.D., to the First Dakota Fieldhouse in Yankton, S.D. The event has increased to four days, with the women's teams competing on Wednesday/Friday and men's teams competing on Thursday/Saturday, to limit participants in the venue.
 
RECORDS FALL AT POLAR VORTEX CLASSIC: The snow and cold in the Treasure Valley did not damper the spirits of the C of I, Northwest Nazarene, Eastern Oregon, College of Southern Idaho and Lewis-Clark State track teams, as the Yotes played host to the 2-day Polar Vortex Classic at Caldwell High. The event, the second indoor/outdoor meet of the winter, featured a pair of school records broken – as Stephen Campbell blitzed the shot put mark (54-feet, 1.5-inches) and Lane Maher broke the 60-meter hurdle mark (8.47 seconds) for the second-straight meet. The C of I women won eight different events – Jessica Dorohov (200-meters), Abbey Shirts (1,000-meters), Erin Moyer (5,000-meters), Kiersten Lancaster (60-meter hurdles), Morgan Harrison (high jump), Catylynn Duff (shot put / weight throw) and the 4x800-meter relay. For the men's team, Lane Maher (60-meter hurdles), Kade Setoki (long jump), shot put (Stephen Campbell), weight throw (Bryan Terry) and the distance medley relay, were victorious..
 
LOOKING AHEAD: Following the NAIA Championships, the C of I cross country team looks to return to action on March 12 at the Walla Walla Invitational.