MEET CENTRAL

BROOKINGS, S.D. – Southern Oregon junior Abi Stevens is a nine-time All-American after her best performance yet Thursday in the first session of the NAIA Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Sanford Jackrabbit Athletic Complex.

Stevens placed third in the pentathlon, climbing four spots on the leaderboard in the fifth and final discipline with a personal-best 800-meter time of 2 minutes 19.82 seconds. She cleared the rest of the 16-person field in the race by nearly four seconds and finished with 3,604 points – nine more than fourth-place Abby Clark of Montana Tech.

Stevens has now qualified for nine national indoor and outdoor competitions and placed top-seven in each of them. She'd never previously done better than fourth place, which she got as a freshman in the pentathlon and as a sophomore last spring in the outdoor heptathlon.

She has recorded career-best pentathlon scores in back-to-back outings. Three weeks ago, she qualified at the Whitworth Invitational with 3,566 points.

Her top-scoring disciplines Thursday were in the 800 and the 60-meter hurdles (9.41 seconds), accumulating 826 points in both. She set herself up for the top-three finish with a PR of 34 feet 9 ¾ inches in the shot put, traditionally her weakest event.

Stevens had the field's fourth-best score in the high jump (5-6) and the seventh-best in the long jump (17-3 ½). She finished 112 points behind the champion, Dickinson State (N.D.)'s Kaitlyn McColly.

Only Jessa Perkinson (2014-18) owns more All-America hardware than Stevens in SOU women's track and field history. Perkinson was an 11-time All-American in track earned three more honors and cross country.

SOU's only other representative at the meet, Luke King, competes in the shot put at 12:30 p.m. PST Saturday.

WOMEN'S PENTATHLON (16 total entries)
3. Abi Stevens, 3,604
60m Hurdles – 9.41 (826); High Jump – 1.65m (795); Shot Put – 9.90m (523); Long Jump – 5.27m (634); 800m – 2:19.82 (826)