The Nighthawks took a trip to southern Idaho this weekend to compete in the Bengal Invitational, hosted by Idaho State University. The meet consisted of many teams ranging from D1 to NAIA programs and took place on ISU's Davis Field. With an additional 25 personal records gained in Pocatello, the Nighthawks improved to 228 personal records for the season.

"The team was able to put it all together at this meet," said head coach Danny Bowman. "They overcame lots of mental stress (due to their preparation for their academic finals next week), anxiety, and other stressors in their lives to perform at a high level. I'm very pleased to see them pull through."

The Nighthawks women did well against a competitive field on Friday and Saturday. The women's 4X400m team snagged second in 3:53.86, just one second behind Idaho State. The team made up of Kalli Brence, Abbey Wood, Alejandra Gomez, and Laine DeJong is now fifth in NNU history. 

"I was really looking forward to this event," said Gomez, who ran the third leg. 

"Before the race started, I was nervous, but I remembered that Coach told us that the objective was to enjoy ourselves, not to think about the time, and to have a good time. That helped me a lot to have a good performance. I am super happy and proud of the girls as well as myself."

Junior Abbey Wood continues to improve, achieving another personal record in the 200m dash with a time of 25.24, good enough for third all-time at NNU. 

Junior Destany Herbert got a personal record in the shot put throw with a distance of 12.95m, putting her fourth in NNU history.

Freshman Katie Baniaga broke into the NNU Top-Ten list on Friday with her 12.60 performance in the 100m dash. Her time puts her ninth all-time for NNU. 

"Before my 100m, I was hoping to PR by a little bit and just focus on my block starts," Baniaga explained.

"So, when my race was over, I did not expect to run a 12.6! After seeing what I did, I'm excited to just keep practicing and critiquing myself. There are tons of things that I need improvement in and that race only makes me more hopeful for future ones."

On the men's side, senior Tyler Shea took gold in the 5000m run with a time of 14:38.48 (14:18.84 adjusted for altitude), his eyes set on improving on the NNU school record he currently holds.

Hunter Braseth also got a personal record in the 200m with 21.60 seconds — fourth in NNU history. 

Laurenz Waldbauer won the javelin throw with a mark of 72.38 meters, seven meters in front of second place. The freshman surprised the stadium by breaking the NNU record, setting a new Davis Field record, becoming No. 2 all-time in GNAC history, and taking his place as No. 1 in the nation for javelin in this 2022 outdoor season. 

"After the rough start into the season with a shoulder strain I initially didn't think I would be able to throw at 100%," said Waldbauer. 

"However, after my warmup, I felt great. I was happy with my first two throws that weren't full power yet, so I thought I could step it up. That didn't work out too well for the next three throws because they were full of technical flaws and therefore pretty short. 

"My last throw, however, did not have as many mistakes. Most importantly the release was right. While I had a good feeling about the throw right after letting it go, I had no idea that it would go that far," explained Waldbauer.

"I'm super happy about my performance and want to thank my coach and trainer for their good work in preparing me for this meet. I hope to fully recover soon and to further work on my form."

If that's Waldbauer's performance coming back from an injury, we can only imagine what he'll achieve as the season progresses. 

The Nighthawks are now gearing up for the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships in Ellensburg, WA on May 13-14. Turner Nye and Steven Schmidt will also be competing in the decathlon at the GNAC Combined Events Championships in Bellingham, WA this coming Monday and Tuesday.