Portland, Ore. - Katherine Thornton broke her school record in the 100-meter Hurdles and qualified for two finals events on the opening day of the NWC Track & Field Championships.  Thornton qualified in both hurdle events and is joined by teammate Mashani Coleman, who also qualified in two events.  

In field events, Tenley Grant finished fourth in the Hammer with a throw of 44.31 meters.  Whitley Stepp and Ella Thompson placed fifth and sixth, respectively, in the Long Jump and Kaiona Apio took sixth place in the Javelin with a throw of 36.80 meters.

Thornton finished the preliminary round with the fastest time in the 400 Hurdles at 1:04.74, with Coleman taking the fifth spot at 1:06.22.  Thornton qualified in the second spot in the 100-meter Hurdles and Coleman finished fifth in the 100-meter Sprint.

Anna Bikle ran a season best of 2:21.64 in the 800m Run to finish ninth and just barely miss out on making it to Sunday's final heat with Katie Wingo just behind in eleventh in a personal best 2:23.10.

The finals of the 3000m Steeplechase were completed during the opening day and Anastasiia Lemesh ran a season-best time of 11:41.79 to finish in fifth place, with teammate Morgan Shaw finishing seventh at 12:05.53.

The second day of the NWC Track & Field Championships begins at 10:00 am on Sunday, April 27th, at Lewis & Clark College.