The Master’s women’s 4×800 relay team got to stand on the podium after an eighth-place finish, and several individuals qualified for event finals, at the NAIA Track & Field National Championships.

The team of Emma Nelson, Rebekah Niednagel, Suzie Johnson and Ellen Palmgren ran a 9:08.70 in the final of the 4×800 to earn the eighth-place podium and become All-Americans.

“It’s not at all what we thought was going to happen,” said Nelson after the race. “Honestly, we didn’t know what to expect as it’s always in the Lord’s hands, but going into it we were asking the Lord for His peace and that whatever the outcome was we would use that platform to proclaim His name.”

At the start of the second leg, when Nelson was passing the baton off to Niednagel, a runner from an opposing team stepped in front of Niednagel as she turned to run, causing the Mustangs runner to stumble and avoid a collision.

“It happens fairly often, especially at nationals because the teams are so close in ability,” Niednagel said. “I’ve definitely dealt with that before on both sides. I’ve been the person who had to move out of the way and been the person running into people. (The problem is) you can’t get into your momentum right away. But it’s really easy to just pick right up and just focus on the girl in front of you.”

Three teams ran the race in under nine minutes, with the University of British Columbia winning with an 8:46.34.

“The competition is definitely tough this year,” Johnson said. “All those teams are so close in times, but the crazy part is we were in last for most of the race and we were like, ‘Well, we have to give it our all and give it our best and see what we can do. And to come out with only a second away from our (personal record) we just knew that was straight from the Lord. It wasn’t one of our best races, but the Lord blessed us with a really good time.”

The women’s 800m prelims saw Ellen Palmgren earn a spot in Friday’s final with a time of 2:11.70, which was seventh fastest. Suzie Johnson finished 13th overall with a time of 2:12.98.

“I feel like these nationals have been a testament to what Job says — The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord,” Palmgren said. “These nationals in general have not been what any of us were thinking they would be. There’s been some hard trials to go through for a lot of us and just some disappointing races. But the Lord is still on His throne and going into (Friday’s final) I just really want to focus on that.”

For Palmgren, it will be her last race in outdoor track.

In the men’s 5000m prelims, both Brint Laubach (14:45.56) and Connor Ybarra (14:51.47) earned a spot in Friday’s 12-athlete final. Hunter Romine (15:23.31) finished 33rd and Cedar Collins (15:24.93) finished 35th.

“I was just really excited,” Laubach said. “After last night’s 10k it was just a huge blessing to be able to run that with my teammate Hunter. But going into the 5k, I felt confident, but ultimately I just wanted to honor and glorify the Lord with whatever He was going to give me. I was really praying that some of the guys would be able to come in with me if that was what the Lord had planned for us. If not, then to respond humbly and to give Christ to others. But today was just a huge blessing for me and my teammate Connor.”

Ybarra qualifies for the 5k final in his first outdoor nationals competition. He followed at the back of the pack as his preliminary race began, steadily making his move forward before finishing sixth in the 14-man prelim. When all the times were tallied from the three heats, which involved 40 runners, Ybarra’s 12th place finish, the last spot to qualify for the final, was less than a second ahead of 13th.

“These prelims are usually a little bit slower as they start out pretty relaxed with a kick at the end,” Ybarra said. “It’s very tactical. So our goal was to stay as relaxed as possible, depend on the Lord and His strength, and then in the last couple of laps move up in the pack. And then to go all out. Those last two laps were like a hammer. So praise God, He allowed me to be in the right position at the right time to barely make it.”

In the women’s 3000m Race-Walk final, Allie Methum finished 12th with a time of 29:27.41.

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