Lady Yotes Send Three to Finals at NAIA Championships
GULF SHORES, Ala. – The College of Idaho sent three athletes into competition in today's preliminary heats of the NAIA Women's Outdoor Track & Field Championships, with all three Lady Yotes punching their tickets to Saturday finals at Mickey Blackwell Stadium.
The Lady Yotes will have competitors in the 400-meter hurdles and the 1,500-meters, with four other athletes and a relay team competing in events tomorrow.
Tiana Thomas, who claimed three All-America honors indoors this season and was a five-time Cascade Conference champion this spring, dominated the 400-meter hurdles, running away from the seven other competitors in Heat 3 to secure a spot in the finals. The senior recorded the best time in the four preliminary heats (1:00.94) – giving her the top lane option on Saturday.
In the 1,500-meters, both
Amy Pfaff and
Lila Klopfenstein will head to competition on Saturday. Pfaff, an All-American in the event last season, raced in the faster of the two prelims, placing fifth, with her time of 4:33.79 the fifth-fastest overall, earning the first of four at-large spots in the final. Klopfenstein, an indoor All-American in the 3,000-meters, placed fourth in her heat of the event, earning an automatic berth to the final with a time of 4:35.29.