Three Evergreen athletes qualify for marathon in Sacramento, California

Three student-athletes from The Evergreen State College earned their qualifying berths for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Marathon Classic set for December 8, Sunday, in Sacramento, California, as part of the Cali International Marathon.

In the men's category, Jaydon Blackburn and Max Baeder will represent the Geoducks, while Alauna Carstens will be Evergreen’s lone women’s runner after all three Geoduck representatives qualified in their preliminary runs.

During the women’s marathon preliminaries, Carstens achieved the fastest overall qualifying time among women who earned berths in the NAIA Marathon Classic after registering an impressive average time of 6:18 per mile during a pair of two-hour runs.

She has quite a decorated resume for Evergreen, receiving NAIA All-American honors in cross country and the 5,000-meter run in track and field last season. Carstens has redshirted during the current cross country season but competed unattached, placing second at the George Oja Invitational last October 19 after finishing the 6k run at 20:48 and third at the Charles Bowles Willamette Invitational last October 5 after clocking 17:11 in the 5k.

On the men's preliminary marathon, Blackburn recorded the third-fastest time among all entries.

After averaging an outstanding 6:03 per mile, Blackburn also achieved the sixth-fastest time in school history for an 8-kilometer run at the Charles Bowles Willamette Invitational last October 5, with a time of 25:45. 

Meanwhile, Baeder earned his slot in the nationals after averaging 6:08 per mile in the preliminaries, which is good enough for sixth place. Last September, Baeder set the school record for the men’s 6-kilometer run with a time of 18:44.9 at the Gren River Gator Invitational at Fort Steilacoom Park.

The NAIA Marathon Championships will feature 48 runners in the women's race and 52 in the men's race, totaling 100 of the best student-athlete distance runners in the country.

"The marathon is no small undertaking, and seeing us have multiple athletes enthusiastically going for it is something special," commented Evergreen Assistant Cross Country and Track and Field Coach Katie Burnett. "Their multiple, high-ranking qualifying marks show that Evergreen is the perfect place for distance running."