Interim track and field and cross country coach Eric Heins will have to wait a little longer to see if the interim tag will indeed be stripped.

NAU director of athletics Jim Fallis said this week the athletic department has finished its search for a new track and field and cross country director and the department's search committee will now begin interviewing candidates.

"The search has closed," Fallis said. "The only reason that it hasn't been finalized yet and we haven't finished the product is because there's been so much going on.

"We'll have this thing done, I'm hopeful, in the next month."

Heins applied for the full-time position and Fallis said he'll be given consideration just like all of the other candidates.

"He's applied for the position, just like everybody else," Fallis said. "The committee will go through and do the evaluation and look at the qualified candidates and move on from there."

Heins took over for J.W. Hardy when Hardy bolted in August to take the same job at Boise State. With the cross country season on tap at that time, NAU named Heins the head man on an interim basis and he shined in his audition.

In early March, Heins was named the Big Sky Conference's male indoor track and field coach of the year after the Lumberjacks men's squad won the indoor title.

Heins was also the conference's men's and women's cross country coach of the year in December after both teams won Big Sky titles.

Under Heins' guidance, NAU produced an individual national champion at the NCAA Indoor National Championships when David McNeill won the 5,000-meter title.

While Fallis wouldn't say if Heins was a leading candidate for the job or not, he did say there was quite a bit of interest in the opening.

"We received a number of calls on the position," Fallis said. "Everybody wants to be a coach, so there's never a shortage for people applying for coaching positions."

The Jacks will continue their outdoor season this weekend when the team heads south for a doubleheader, competing in the Mesa Classic on Friday and then the Sun Angel Classic at ASU.

KIM HONORED

NAU freshman golfer Stephanie Kim, a freshman from Phoenix, was named the Big Sky Conference's golfer of the week on Wednesday.

Kim captured medalist honors at the Wyoming Cowgirl Classic and tied the school 54-hole record with an even-par 216, topping Portland State's Britney Yada by two strokes.

Kim opened Monday with a four-under-par 68, a school single-round record. She shot a 74 in Monday's second round and closed with another 74 on Tuesday.