Katie Kosmos, a senior out of Doane College (Neb.) has always flirted with victory, but success seemingly teased her and kept an unfair distance from one of the finest athletes in Tiger history. Not any more, though.

After 3 consecutive Top 5 finishes, Kosmos won the heptathlon crown during the second day of the 56th Annual NAIA Outdoor Track & Field Championship Meet at Fresno Pacific University. Kosmos fought through some fierce competition to take the title with a season-best score of 5,061 points. She held off Azusa Pacific University's (Calif.) Zora Golcevska, who was second with 4,938, and Kate Alderson of Point Loma Nazarene (Calif.), who tallied 4,933. Azusa Pacific's Morgan Altizer was fourth with 4,660 points.

"Being able to win this is great," said Kosmos, a 4-time Great Plains Athletic Conference Female Athlete of the Year. "To accomplish this during my senior year is something special."

Last year, on this same track, Kosmos scored a personal-best 5,234 points, but she finished second overall in the heptathlon

"The long jump really hurt me last year, and after today's performance (16' 9 ¼") I was concerned again," said Kosmos, who finished third in the NAIA heptathlon as a 2004 freshman and fourth as a 2005 junior.

Yet, there was no need to fret. The senior out of Lincoln, Neb., came back with a season-best throw of 126' 9" in the javelin to re-take the overall lead heading into the final event and her specialty, the 800 meters.

"Most heptathletes dread the 800, but I actually was looking forward to it," said Kosmos, who battled through most of the season with an Achilles tendon injury. "It's usually everyone's weakness, but I'm not afraid to compete in the 800. I was hoping to put some distance between me and the rest of the field."

Kosmos won the 800 with a 2:23.50 to break away from Golcevska and Alderson and become Doane's first-ever NAIA heptathlete champion.

Kosmos' performance introduced an outstanding second day of competition for all of Doane track & field.

Tiger Adam Landerfield posted a near half-second personal-best to surprise the field and win the men's 110-meter high hurdles with a windy 14.17, edging Lamar Baskin of Oklahoma Baptist, who finished with a 14.21. Landerfield becomes only the second Doane athlete ever, and the first in ten years, to win the NAIA 110-meter high hurdles.

Later in the day, freshman D'Antagnan Dai'ne finished fifth in the 100 meters with a 10.64, and then senior Dave Craven cleared a personal-best 6' 9 ¾" to finish third in the high jump. The trio of Tiger men collected 22 points combined, and propelled Doane into second place after the second day of competition with 32 points, trailing only Azusa Pacific, which has collected a two-day total of 38 points.

Azusa Pacific catapulted back into the team lead after claiming its fifth straight 4x800-meter relay title. The Cougars clocked a stadium record 7:30.70, taking the lead on the second leg and then pulling away over the final 2400 meters. With the victory, Azusa Pacific joins Lindenwood University (Mo.) in the men's 4x100 and the Prairie View A&M (Texas) in the women's sprint medley as the only programs to win five consecutive relay crowns.

Azusa Pacific also leads the women's competition after 2 days with 45 points, followed by Cedarville University (Ohio) with 23 points. Point Loma Nazarene University (Calif.) is third with 22 points.

In other Friday competition, sophomore Josh Cloyd of King College (Tenn.) won the long jump with a personal-best leap of 24' 0 ¾" to become the first-ever King athlete to capture an NAIA title.

For the third time in the past four years Patrick Stroupe of Central Methodist University (Mo.) won the men's 5000-meter race walk, besting his own stadium record set last year with a time of 22:10.76. With the victory, Stroupe becomes the fifth athlete in NAIA history to win at least three men's race walk crowns.

Paul Castaneda of Concordia University (Calif.) backed up his NAIA indoor shot put championship from this past March by taking the outdoor version today with a personal-best put of 58' 10". Cedarville sophomore Ben Michaud was second with a school-record put of 58' 5 ¼".

In other men's events, Wayland Baptist University sophomore Sergiy Oliynyk took advantage of a no-height in the pole vault by University of British Columbia's Reid Gustavson to come from behind and win his second straight decathlon title, tallying 6,733 points. Oliynyk used huge throw of 170' 5" in the javelin to assume the overall lead and then clocked a 4:46.80 in the 1500 meters to keep Jonathon Hilton of Oklahoma Baptist University in second place with 6,633 points.

Mike Mason of British Columbia successfully defended his crown in the high jump with a leap of 6' 11 ¾", while Mike Rodgers of Oklahoma Baptist won the 100 meters in rather easy fashion with a 10.21.

On the women's side, Shannon Hellman on South Dakota Tech made it a sweep of the high hurdles. After taking the indoor 60-meter edition in March, Hellman added the 100-meter high hurdles title to her collection today with an outstanding and legal time of 13.73.

Laniece Clark of McKendree College (Ill.) won the women's 100 meters with an 11.82 to edge Akisha Simmons of Wayland Baptist, who was second at 11.86.

Olivet Nazarene University (Ill.) captured its first-ever NAIA relay title when the Tigers won the women's 4x800 with a stadium record 8:55.13, narrowly edging Oklahoma Baptist which posted an 8:55.97.

Goshen College's (Ind.) Tina Peters took the 3000-meter race walk, an event she won at the indoor championships as well, with a 15:20.21.

In the field events, Annie Hess of Concordia University (Ore.) won the women's discus (169' 1") while Cedarville's Sarah Ensslen won the triple jump (42' 0")

The NAIA Outdoor Track & Field Championships conlcude Saturday with the crowning of the men's and women's team champions.

For complete up-to-the-minute results of the NAIA Outdoor Track & Field Championships go to CFPI Timing & Data. For more detailed information on the NAIA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, go to the NAIA website. For audio and video highlights of the meet, visit Fresno.edu/naia2007.