The Pioneers ran their fifth indoor meet of the season this past weekend, traveling to Youngstown, Ohio to compete in the YSU National Mid-Major Invitational.

The meet took place over the course of two days, where the Pioneers picked up personal records, school records, and one new National qualifier.

The women’s distance-medley relay (DMR) team qualified for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) National Championship after competing during the first day of the meet. The relay team consisted of freshmen Alyssa Campbell and Nia Goodman, sophomore Alyssa Boyd, and senior Anna Shields.

For the DMR, Campbell ran the 1,200 meter, Goodman ran the 400 meter, Boyd ran the 800 meter, and Shields ran the 1,600 meter. Their total time was an 11 minutes and 57.81 second finish.

This is Goodman’s first National qualification of the season.

Goodman also competed in the women’s high-jump in which she set a school record with a jump of 1.51 meters.

For the first time in her career, Shields competed in the 400 meter run, and set a school record while doing so. With a time of 59.53 seconds, Shields took seventh place, and became the first Pioneer woman to break one minute in the event.

The Pioneers now have eight runners going to the NAIA National Championships. Junior Xavier Stephens is qualified for more than one event as well as Alyssa Campbell and Anna Shields.

Stephens ran the 1,000 meter run on the first day of the meet with a time of 2:30.34, making the National qualifying time as well as updating his school record.

“I think this is one of the best races, I was really mentally prepared for this race,” Stephens said.

Stephens has been running track since middle school, where he began developing his passion for running as well as his talent. He said he would also love to qualify for the mile and the 800 meter events for the indoor season. “Nationals is always the goal” he said.

If Stephens had to describe his 2018-2019 indoor season using one word he would describe it as “different”.

He explained that he focused on different events more last year, such as the 800 meter event where this year Stephens is running the 1,600 meter event more.

On the field, senior Michael Morris tied for second place in the high jump with a jump of 1.90 meters. Morris was .30 meters shy of tying for the first place spot, which went to senior Patrick O’Connor of Seton Hill University.

The NAIA National Championship meet will begin Feb. 28 in Brookings, South Dakota. Next week the team will compete in the first-ever River States Conference (RSC) Championship meet in Tiffin, Ohio.

Robert Berger contributed additional reporting.