By Journal Sports Staff

ALLENDALE — Northern Michigan University tied for its best ever finish at the GLIAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships that ended Friday, setting a school record and posting six NCAA Division II national meet provisional qualifying marks.

In addition, NMU won two events and saw senior Michelle Juergen named Field Athlete of the Meet for the second time this year after she won the same award at the GLIAC indoor finals.

Marquette Senior High School graduate Izabelle Peterson, a sophomore for the Wildcats, won the 200-meter dash at a outdoor finals for the second time in 2019, also winning the event at the indoors. Her time Friday was 24.17 seconds, also an NCAA provisional mark.

Peterson was also second in the 100 in 11.85 and earned another provisional.

NMU sophomore teammate Nina Augsten won the heptathlon with 4,520 points for another provisional mark.

Augsten won the heptathlon’s 100 hurdles, long jump and javelin. NMU freshman Kelsie Sibbald, who was fifth overall, won the heptathlon’s 800.

Juergen didn’t win an event, but placed in the top three in a trio of events — second in the triple jump with a leap of 37-feet-10, third in the long jump with 18-2 1/4 and third in the high jump at 5-6 1/2.

Host Grand Valley won in a runaway with 282 points. Ashland was second with 140 while the Wildcats totaled 118 points in the 11-school meet. Michigan Tech was sixth with 42 and Lake Superior State 11th with 5 1/2.

Northern sophomore Dunja Drobac scored in the triple jump in fourth with 36-1 1/4, while freshman teammate Ninti Little was seventh with 17-5 1/2.

Senior Shayla Huebner, another MSHS graduate, was second in the 800 in a school record 2:08.97 for a provisional.

Outside the heptathlon, Augsten was fifth in the 100 hurdles in 14.58.

Two NMU relays were runners-up. The 4-by-100 team of Peterson, junior Sydney McPeters, senior Jenna Long and sophomore Lauren Alarie clocked 46.90, while the 4-by-400 relay of McPeters, Huebner, senior Paige Dutcher and junior Paige Du Bois timed 3:47.41.

In the 400, Dutcher was third in 56.92 and Du Bois sixth in 58.71, while in the 400 hurdles, NMU junior Megan Martin was fourth in 1:04.25 and senior Lynsey Collins of Escanaba sixth in 1:05.64.

Northern junior Hanna Torvi was sixth in the 3,000 steeplechase in 11:06.80, while junior Katelyn Smith was eighth in the 5,000 in 18:07.75.

The team competes at several “last chance” meets next weekend as the final opportunities to qualify for the three-day NCAA Division II Outdoor National Championships starting May 23 in Kingsville, Texas.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.