The Wayland Baptist men's and women's track and field teams will be joining more than 1,110 student-athletes from 110 schools across the U.S. and Canada in the 45th Annual Men's and 30th Annual Women's National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Indoor Track and Field National Championships on March 4-6 in Johnson City, Tenn.

The event will take place at the East Tennessee State University Memorial Center "Mini-Dome." Johnson City has hosted this event since 2001.

Click here to go to the National Championship website. Click here to view the Live Scoring.

Athletes will be competing in 42 different events contested over the three day period. The heptathlon opens the Championships at 1 p.m. on Thursday with the pentathlon beginning at 1:30 p.m. The running events get started on Thursday at 4 p.m., with the 5000-meters and relays.

The Pioneer men will be looking to overthrow reigning NAIA champion Azusa Pacific University, which has won three straight team titles and six since 2002. Other strong contenders on the men's side include Dickinson State University and fellow Sooner Athletic Conference member Oklahoma Baptist, which finished third last year.

Senior Kirby Dunn and freshmen Myrun Roundtree and Kennedy Kithuka lead the group of 15 WBU men making the long trip to Tennessee. Dunn finished as the runner-up in the 1000-meters last year and is the favorite this year with the NAIA's top time so far in the event, 2:26.66. He will also run on the 4x800-meter relay and the top-seeded Distance Medley Relay.

Roundtree is the top seed in the long jump with a NAIA-best jump of 7.44 meters (24-05) and has the fourth-best jump in the triple jump at 14.71 meters (48-3.25). The Bonham, Tex. native will also compete in the 60-meter dash.

Kithuka enters the championships with the top times in both the 3,000- and 5,000-meters, is the anchor of the DMR, and a part of the 4x800-meter relay team. Due to scheduling constraints, however, WBU Head Coach Brian Whitlock has elected not to run Kithuka in the 5,000-meters, but has instead entered him in the Mile. The native of Kenya owns the school record in the Mile with a 4:09.71, but is seeded second at the NAIA meet behind Oklahoma Christian's Silas Kisorio, the 2009 NAIA Cross Country Individual Champion.

Another Pioneer male athlete who should score major points over the weekend is junior Caleb McLean, a two-time Indoor All-American, who is among the favorites in the 400-meters, and will run the anchor on the 4x400-meter relay team, which is currently ranked fifth. Joining McLean as part of the 4x4 team will be sophomores Andre Hamilton, Mario Scott and Jerry-Lee Davis, as well as freshman Fernando Barrio. Hamilton and Barrio will also compete in the open 400-meters, and Davis will run in the 200-meters.

Junior thrower Brandon Mansfield, who established a new school record with a throw of 17.74m (56-2.5) in a meet two weeks ago, is among the top-seeded athletes in the Men's Weight Throw, and sophomore Lee Prevost is among the leading contenders in the 200-meters. Prevost will also be competing in the 60-meters and as part of the DMR team.

Other athletes trying to help the WBU men win their first indoor title in over 20 years are freshman Hildon Boen in the 800-meters, the 4x800-meter relay, and the DMR; freshman Edward Taragon in the 5,000-meters; Victor Lemay, a junior, on the 4x8 relay and the DMR; freshman Jarrod Morris on the 4x8 relay; and sophomore Lucius Lopez on the 4x8 and the DMR.

The Wayland women are the two-time defending indoor national champions, and are attempting to become just the second team in history to win three straight titles, joining a McKendree program that won four championships from 1999-2002. The Pioneers already have an NAIA-record five team championships to their credit. Whitlock and associate head coach Rohan Thompson, the 2009 Coach of the Year honorees, have a strong group returning, led by junior All-American Kimberly Smith. The sprinter is the reigning two-time champion in both the 60-meter and 200-meter dash, and is the current meet recordholder (7.30) in the 60-meters, a mark she set as a freshman.

This year Smith is undefeated in both sprint events, and was recently selected as a member of the Jamaican National Team. She has run a NAIA-best time of 7.23 in the 60-meters, and established a new WBU record in the 200-meters with a 24.02 last month in Colorado Springs.

Senior All-American Kydia Echols, who was forced to sit out all of last season with an injury, is back and is the favorite in the 600-meters. Her school-record time of 1:31.70 is tops in the NAIA this year. Echols and Smith are both members of the 4x400-meter relay team, which is seeded second, and Echols will also run as a part of the third-seeded 4x800-meter relay team.

Jumpers Bianca Grant, a sophomore, and Latanya Nation, a junior, were both named All-Americans last year, after finishing third and fourth in the long jump. Grant has the second best mark in the NAIA this season, jumping 5.84-meters (19-2). Nation, on the other hand, is ranked second in the triple jump with a mark of 12.12-meters (39-9.25).

Both young women will also compete in running events. Grant is seeded fourth in the 60-meter dash, while Nation, who tied for second in the 60-meter hurdles last year with a school record 8.83, is among the favorites in that event this weekend.

Senior sprinter Keliesha Ross, who is a three-time Indoor All-American, will compete in both sprints, as well as the 4x4 relay, along with sophomore Leandria Lee. Another returning Indoor All-American, senior Elva Pedroza, is the lone returnee off last year's national champion 4x800-meter relay team. She will also be running in the 1,000-meters, along with freshman Milca Villegas.

Other competitors for the WBU women at the national meet include freshman Jennifer Secrest in the 600-meters and as part of the 4x8 relay team; freshman Catherine Leubner in the 5,000-meters; and freshman Brittany Walton on the 4x4 relay team.

The road to another championship will not be easy for Wayland Baptist with two key members of the past two year's national title teams missing from the lineup. Caroline Karunde, the defending NAIA Champion in the 3,000-meters, and Purity Biwott, the runner-up in the Mile, helped lead the Texas Tech women to the best finish in program history at last weekend's Big 12 Indoor Championship. The two former Pioneers finished first and second in the Mile and were part of the conference champion DMR team. Biwott also won the 800-meters, and Karunde had a third place finish in the 3,000-meters for the Lady Raiders.

The team thought to present the biggest challenge for the Pioneer women is Azusa Pacific. The California school has finished as the national runner-up the past two seasons, being edged out by just one point in each of those years. Oklahoma Baptist is also a top contender on the women's side.