MARION, Ind. - The final week of the year for Grace's track and field team kicked off on Wednesday at the 2024 NAIA National Outdoor Championships.

The Lancers competed in six events during the NAIA opening day, highlighted by Brandon Kleber's All-American performance.

Kleber placed eighth in the 10,000-meter finals which earned the Lancers' first NAIA All-American honor of the meet. It's also the men's first NAIA Outdoor All-American award since 2022. Kleber's time of 30:37.87 was less than a second off the school record.

Grace successfully navigated its three preliminary races on Wednesday to reach the finals later this week.

The 4x800-meter relays both raced in the prelims. The women's team of Morgan Welch, Tara Friesen, Anna Hulstedt and Kylie Sauder crossed the finish line in 9:05.75, good for the second-fastest mark.

The men's quartet of Luis Loera, Brady Hunsberger, Logan Rufenacht and Dimitri Margaritidis finished fifth with a time of 7:36.04.

The 4x800 squads will race in the finals on Thursday, starting at 6:15 p.m. for the women and 6:50 p.m. for the men.

Margaritidis also performed well in the preliminary rounds of the men's 1,500. He entered the day seeded seventh and finished Wednesday's prelims in fifth with a race of 3:52.49. As a result, he will compete in the 1,500 finals on Friday at 2:10 p.m.

Grace also had two runners compete in the women's 10,000 finals. Mallory Hiatt (38:22.38) and Madelyn Skidmore (40:14.26) finished 18th and 24th respectively in the women's.

Josiah Thompson represented the Lancers in the javelin. He finished 26th with a toss of 142-feet-3.

The Lancers will have another busy day on Thursday, featuring the finals of the 4x800 relays. Grace will also compete in the preliminary races for the women's 5,000, women's 4x400 relay as well as the men's and women's 800.