SPOKANE, Wash. – Seniors Kayla Baniaga and Morgan Erler both had strong performances to lead the Northwest Nazarene women to a sixth-place finish Tuesday at the 2026 Great Northwest Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships at The Podium in Spokane. 

Erler finished second in the 3,000 meters in a time of 10 minutes, 6.39 seconds to grab her second podium finish of the meet. She won the 5,000-meter title on Monday, the first GNAC title of her career in any sport, while also setting the school record in the event. The old record was set in 2014 by Jordan Powell. 

On Tuesday, Erler's final kick moved her from fourth to second, but she couldn't quite chase down Central Washington's Madeline Harrison, who won the race in 10:02.34. 

Baniaga, meanwhile, took seventh in the 60 (7.73 seconds) and 200 meters (25.21), a day after setting a school record in the 200 preliminaries. Baniaga ran a scorching 24.85 in the prelims to break Abbey (Wood) Braseth's old record of 24.88 set in 2023. 

As a team, the Nighthawks finished with 44 points. Western Washington won the meet with 163 points. 
Elsewhere, freshman Hazel Kunkel was fourth in the mile in 4:59.08, while fellow freshman Zoey Stauffer was eighth in 5:05.94. Freshman Macie Kern was seventh in the pole vault, clearing 10 feet, 6 inches, while junior Emma Kwok was eighth in the shot put with a mark of 39-11.25. 

The 1,600-meter relay team of Gabriella Harms, Makenze Knowles, Maddie Weatherford and Celia Jones finished eighth in a time of 4:00.47. 

The national championships are scheduled for March 13-14 in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Qualifiers for that meet will be announced on March 3.