Skylar Forgey

MITCHELL, S.D. The paths to get to the 2014-15 NAIA Indoor Championships for the two Dakota Wesleyan University women s team qualifiers could not have been more different, but the pair is heading to Geneva, Ohio to start competition on Friday.

Juniors Nicole Court-Menendez (Lewiston, Maine) and Skylar Forgey (Colome, S.D.) each qualified for the championships and will take part in the three-day event at the SPIRE Institute. The championships started today with several events, including the heptathlon.

Court-Menendez will compete in the 3,000-meter race walk at noon on Friday, while Forgey will be in the 1,000-meter run semifinals at 3:45 p.m. Times are eastern standard. The schedule is subject to change and the event can be viewed at www.naianetwork.com.

I expect that they will go out and have their best performances of the season,” DWU Head Coach Derik Fossum said. They definitely deserve to have their best day on the biggest stage. Coach Eric Larson has done a great job training them and they have both worked very hard all season long.”

The event is also the first National Championships for Fossum as the head coach for DWU after taking over the program in January. He has been there before as an athlete for the Tigers.

It will be little bit different I am sure,” Fossum said. I think I will be able to enjoy the event even more. As an athlete you are mostly focused on what you need to do in order to be prepared for competition. As a coach I think I will be able to appreciate more what all the athletes are bringing to the competition and I will enjoy watching some great performances.”

Court-Menendez competes in the race walk for DWU and must seek out events throughout the year to compete in in order to qualify for the national championships. She qualified in her first opportunity this season and will look to add yet another All-American performance to her resume. She has been named an All-American four times (twice in indoor and outdoor). She qualified with a time of 16 minutes, .24 seconds.

The experience of NAIAs is so amazing,” Court-Menendez said. There are so many talented athletes and it s really fun to watch all the competition and meet new people. This year it was nice to have two races with some good competition to get me ready which is something we haven’t been able to find very often.”

For Forgey, the path the national championships was a bit more stressful as she qualified on her last opportunity of the schedule at the Great Plains Athletic Conference Indoor Championships after missing out on qualifying one we prior by less than a second. She qualified with a time of 3:02.20 in the 1,000-meter run, which is a school record in the event.

Qualifying for nationals was a goal I set for myself at the beginning of the year,” Forgey said. It was amazing to see all the hard work I’ve put in finally pay off. I knew that I had one shot left to qualify, so I gave that race everything I had.”