JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. -- The Indiana Wesleyan University indoor track and field teams opened the NAIA Indoor National Championships on Thursday night in Johnson City, Tennessee.

The women’s 4 x 800-meter relay team placed third in their heat and earned the sixth seed overall with a season-best time of nine minutes 31.67 seconds. The team of Chelsey Horkman, Melissa Morgan, Ashley Bucher and Cassidy Wagner will compete at 7:15 p.m. on Friday night in the finals.

For the men, the distance medley relay team of Josh Foss, Bryan Hazel, Zach Weber and Jason Wenzel finished in an IWU varsity record 10:03.31 to advance to the finals as the second seed. Indiana Wesleyan’s time was three seconds faster than last year’s national champion. The Wildcats time is just seven seconds off the national record.