DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University women's track and field team will begin action at the 2023 Mid-American Conference Outdoor Championships on Thursday, May 11, at the Lee R. Jackson Track and Field Complex at the University of Akron. The three-day meet will continue through Saturday, May 13, competition is scheduled to begin each day at 9 a.m. CT.

NIU finished the regular season by winning seven events at the Huskie Classic this past Saturday (May 6), including the 100-meter dash where Skylynn Blue (Indianapolis, Ind.) ran the fastest time in the MAC this season at 11.41 seconds. Two other Huskies ran top-10 conference times in the 100 at the Huskie Classic as Kimone Hines (Hanover, Jamaica) ran 11.58, third-fastest in the conference this season, and Suerethia Henderson (Lima, Ohio) ran 11.86, eighth-best in the MAC. 

The preliminary round of the 100-meter dash is scheduled for Friday at 4:20 p.m. CT. 

Blue is the defending conference champion in the 200 meters and heads to Akron with the second-fastest time in the event this spring. Her season-best time this year is 23.93 seconds, set at the Michael Johnson Invitational on April 21, but she won last year's championship with a time of 23.46 seconds. The 200 meters begins on Thursday at 5:25 p.m. CT with the preliminary round. 

The Huskies are the top seed in the 4x100-meter relay with Hines, Blue, Scout Regular (St. Louis, Mo.) and Henderson recording a time of 45.22 seconds at the Michael Johnson Invitational. The 4x100 is the opening track event on Saturday, scheduled for 12 p.m. CT. 

Along with the relay, Regular brings the fourth-fastest time in the MAC into the conference championship in the 100-meter hurdles. Last season she finished runner-up in the hurdles, which starts on Friday at 3:10 p.m. CT. 

In the field events, Diamond Riley (St. Louis, Mo.) is seeded second in the triple jump with a top mark this season of 12.75 meters (41-10.0). Riley has placed in the event twice previously at the MAC Outdoor Championships, including a fourth-place finish last season. 

Last season, NIU finished fourth at the MAC Outdoor Championships, scoring 94 points. Along with Blue in the 200 meters, the Huskies are also the defending champions in the 4x400-meter relay with Roshell Rowe (Manchester, N.J.) and Kennedy Crawford (Douglasville, Ga.) set to return from last season's winning quartet. NIU also won the 4x400 meters at the MAC Indoor Championships earlier this year. 

Live results throughout the meet will be available via Finish Timing.