In last week’s article, I made predictions for the DII Indoor National Championships hosted by Minnesota Mankato. It might be best if I skip the lotto, since my sixth sense is clearly defective. Last weekend was packed full of action and excitement, filled with close races and surprising upsets. For those who were not lucky enough to be there, or had a poor internet connection, I will recap many of the meet’s highlights, which included exciting finals and record breaking performance. By scoring points in all but one running event, the Adams State College Grizzlies won their first ever women’s track and field title at the NCAA Division II level. Adams State won with 55 points, followed by St. Augustine with 48 points. Lincoln narrowly took third with 38.33 points over Southern Illinois –Edward’s 38 points. When asked about Adams State’s victory, Head Coach Damon Martin said, “I'm just flabbergasted, it's been a real up and down year, the weather's been kind of poor and we've got off to a slow start, but we had a lot of great young ladies that stepped up to the plate and the assistant coaches did a great job, the sprinters and hurdlers that we had. We almost scored in every running event except for the 400-meter dash, so I’m really proud and it was a great team effort." In the men’s competition, St. Augustine’s won the indoor title for the third straight year. St. Augustine’s 68 points bested Abilene Christian’s 49 points, which was good for a solid second place finish. Adams State took third with 39 points over Grand Valley State, which had 37 points. St. Augustine’s Head Coach George Williams commented on their win by stating, “You always feel good when you win, we're happy that we've won, but we have to move on now. It's in the past. We have to move on and hope that we get our team together and make sure they do what they came to school for. Academics-first, track-second and a controlled social life-third. I always say the only way we can win is with good character and a good attitude. Talent doesn't always win it all." Seattle Pacific’s duo of Jessica Pixler and Jane Larson placed first and second in the women’s mile. Pixler led from the start, hitting the half mile mark in 2:20 and finishing in a time of 4:47.79. The real race was for second, and was between Larson and Adams State’s Tanya Gaurmer. The two stayed stride for stride throughout most of the race, Larson besting Gaurmer by barely a step in a time of 4:51. It was sprint finish in the men’s mile between Harding’s Daniel Kirwa, Mansfield’s Chris Cummings and Minnesota State-Mankato’s Denise Mokayo. Mokayo led the pack of milers from the beginning, but never created a gap. Kirwa made a move after the 800 meters and Mokayo and Cummings responded. At this point in the race, the trio slightly gapped the rest of the pack. Kirwa’s move paid off, and he came out ahead with a winning time of 4:12.62. Cummings finished second in 4:12.63 and Mokayo finished third with at time of 4:12.72. The women’s 800 meters had all the makings of a great race. Two of the entrants had won indoor titles earlier in the meet: mile champion Jessica Pixler and 400 meter champion Erica Young from St. Augustine.Despite the presence of these veteran champions, a new champion was crowned this year. Southern Illinois’s Coreen Ellis led from the break, creating a slight gap with one lap to go. This gap was quickly covered by South Dakota’s Emma Erickson, who breezed pass Ellis and won the race with a time of 2:09, three seconds faster than the next finisher. Erickson later commented “[Winning the race] was unexpected but made it more awesome. To be the underdog and come out and do that. It blows me away how awesome all these athletes are. I'm just so happy I was able to compete at this level." The men’s 5000 meter was a constant battle. Queen’s Daniel Kanyaruhuru led the pack keeping pace with 15 laps to go, at which point Grand Valley’s Nate Peck took over the lead with Kanyaruhuru on his shoulder. With 10 laps to go Californian University-PA’s Chris Clark made a move; Kanyaruhuru and Harding’s Daniel Kirwa went with him. With 7 laps to go Kanyaruhuru reclaimed the lead, gapping the rest of the field. Kanyaruhuru finished with a time of 14:12.85, followed by Peck (14:17.85), Kirwa (14:21.65), and Clark (14:26.18). Wilbert Walker of Lincoln won both the triple jump and the long jump. This was a substantial victory for Walker, who set an NCAA championship record in the triple jump and won a title in the long jump in 2006, but was unable to compete last year due to injury. Minnesota State junior Katelin Rains won the pole vault with a new national indoor record of 14' 1-3/4". Rains broke her own previous national championship meet record of 14', as well as her own national DII indoor record of 14' ½. The women’s 60-meter hurdle prelims saw a series of record breaking performances. Adams State freshman Indira Spence set a new meet record with her time of 8.41. Spence’s record only stood for a matter of minutes, as fellow freshman Shermaine Williams from Johnson C. Smith flew to a record-breaking 8.23 in the next heat. There were many other exciting races, but my internet was not in best working order so I missed many of them. It is on to the next season with many outdoor contests already beginning this next weekend. Here is the link to the results: http://www.flashresults.com/2008_Meets/indoor/NCAADII/