MARION, Ind. -- The NAIA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships completed its first day of competition on Thursday in what is the largest event ever held on the campus of Indiana Wesleyan University.

Indiana Wesleyan is currently hosting the first of at least three years of the national championships in Marion, Indiana. The national meet will conclude Saturday evening.

Some Wildcats competed in finals on Thursday but did not score while five advanced to semifinals or finals to be held Friday or Saturday.

Two of the five were women's relay teams.

The Women's 4 x 100-Meter Relay team consisting of Laura Bowman, Chelsea Heyne, Katelin Morgan and Lizzy Skinner ran a school-record time of 46.86 seconds to advance from the trials to the semifinals at 3:50 p.m. on Friday.

The Women's 4 x 800-Meter Relay team also advanced on Thursday to the finals at 6 p.m. on Friday. Angi Wolgemuth, Lindsay Waggoner, Kailee Whitaker and Amanda Johnson ran a 9:15.88 to win their heat and automatically advance to tomorrow's finals.

Bowman, a member of the 4 x 100-Meter Relay, also had individual success. She set a second school record on Thursday in the Women's 100-Meter Dash in a time of 11.77 seconds to advance to the semifinals at 2:40 p.m. on Friday. Bowman will also compete in the semifinals of the Women's 200-Meter Dash at 3:20 p.m. on Saturday. She earned the right to move on with a time of 24.58 seconds in the trials.

For the men, Seth Virgil earned a spot in the Men's 200-Meter Dash semifinals at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. His time of 21.55 seconds earned him the spot from the trial runs on Thursday evening.

Five Wildcats were able to compete in finals on Thursday. Victoria Lee was 20th in the Women's Hammer with a mark of 150 feet five inches. Morgan earned 11th place in the Women's Long Jump with a leap of 18-1.75. Justin Schortgen placed 27th in the Men's Hammer with a toss of 161-8.

Two Indiana Wesleyan student-athletes ran in the only track final on Thursday, the 10,000-Meter Run. Kelsey Devereaux finished 22nd in a time of 39:28.68 while Angela Arvoy was 37th with a time of 40:50.87.

Indiana Wesleyan had three events where student-athletes did not advance past trials or semifinals.

Morgan just missed the cut in the Women's 100-Meter Hurdles in a time of 14.94 seconds while Laura Dziagwa did not make the finals in the Women's 3,000-Meter Steeplechase. The Men's 4 x 800-Meter Relay team of Dan Carrick, Ethan Naylor, Andrew Albert and Eric Brown ran a time of 7:41.72 to finish fifth in their heat and miss the finals by three seconds.

University of Sioux Falls (S.D.) and Grand View (Iowa) College lead the women's team standings with 15 points apiece with five events complete. Concordia (Ore.) University holds a 10 point advantage on the men's side after securing 25 points in three events Thursday.

The second day of competition heats up at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, May 28 with the start of the second half of the Men's Decathlon and Women's Heptathlon. Track and field events will begin at 1 p.m.

NAIA Day 1 Recap