Nine Jacks Compete at NCAA TF West Prelims

Thursday, May 24

Sacramento, Calif.

Events Begin 2 p.m. CST Thursday-Saturday

South Dakota State University

NCAA Division I Outdoor West Preliminaries

Tickets

5/22/2018 1:00:00 PM | Men's Track and Field, Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

MEET 19: South Dakota State (Men & Women) at NCAA West Regionals

When	NCAA Track & Field West Regionals: Thursday, May 24: Field Events: 2 p.m. CST \| Track Events: 6:30 p.m. CST Friday, May 25: Field Events: 2 p.m. CST \| Track Events: 6:30 p.m. CST Saturday, May 26: Field Events: 2 p.m. CST \| Track Events: 8 p.m. CST For Jackrabbit schedule, see list below
Where	Hornet Stadium (Sacramento State) \| Google Maps \| Directions & Information \| Sacramento, Calif.
Live Results	NCAA.org Live Results
Watch Live	FloTrack.org
Tickets	NCAA.org
Meet Notes	NCAA Release \| NCAA Information \| FloTrack.org NCAA West News \| Event Schedule \| Start Lists: Men // Women \| Declaration Sheets: Men // Women
Social Media	Twitter \| Facebook \| Instagram \| #GoJacks

Nine members of the South Dakota State track and field team will compete at the NCAA Track and Field West Preliminaries on May 24-26.

Events and coverage will begin at noon PST (2 p.m. CST) everyday. FloTrack.org will provide live video coverage. You can click on the link here, or go to the table above to watch.

Women: 3 Jackrabbits, 3 Events (event - regional rank: legal season-best mark)
Jr. Rachel King (3,000S - 8th: 10:01.14)
Jr. Krista Steele (800m - 32nd: 2:07.55)
Jr. Kasie Vollmer (Discus - 43rd: 169-09.00)

Men: 6 Jackrabbits, 8 Events (event - regional rank: legal season-best mark)
Sr. Colton Bender (Hammer - 27th: 206-09.00)
Jr. Kyle Burdick (1,500m - 28th: 3:44.78) (5,000m - 47th: 14:05.14)
Fr. Daniel Clarke (100m - 40th: 10.43)
So. Bryant Courter (Long Jump - 30th: 25-00.00) (Triple Jump - 13th: 51-11.25)
Fr. Trent Francom (Pole Vault - 25th: 17-02.75)
Sr. Mason Leiseth (Shot Put - 47th: 58-00.25)

The tentative schedule for the SDSU student-athletes is as follows:

Thursday:

Men's Hammer Throw - First Round (Bender): Noon PST (2 p.m. CST)
Men's Long Jump - First Round (Courter): 4:30 p.m. PST (6:30 p.m. CST)
Men's Pole Vault - First Round (Francom): 4:30 p.m. PST (6:30 p.m. CST)
Men's 1,500m - First Round (Burdick): 5:30 p.m. PST (7:30 p.m. CST)
Men's 100m - First Round (Clarke): 6:30 p.m. PST (8:30 p.m. CST)
Women's 800m - First Round (Steele): 8:35 p.m. PST (10:35 p.m. CST)

Friday:

Women's Discus Throw - First Round (Vollmer): 4:30 p.m. PST (6:30 p.m. CST)
*Men's 100m - Quarterfinal (Clarke): 6 p.m. PST (8 p.m. CST)
*Women's 800m - Quarterfinal (Steele): 6:45 p.m. PST (8:45 p.m. CST)
Women's 3,000m Steeplechase - Quarterfinal (King): 9 p.m. PST (11 p.m. CST)

Saturday:

Men's Shot Put - First Round (Leiseth): 4:30 p.m. PST (6:30 p.m. CST)
*Men's 1,500m - Quarterfinal (Burdick): 6:30 p.m. PST (8:30 p.m. CST)
Men's Triple Jump - First Round (Courter): 7:30 p.m. PST (9:30 p.m. CST)
Men's 5,000m - Semifinal (Burdick): 8:05 p.m. PST (10:05 p.m. CST)

Qualifying for the NCAA Championships - From USTFCCCA.org
"Qualifying to the final championships competition is accomplished through performance in the preliminary championships competition at each site for events contested at those competitions. Twelve competitors from each individual event and 12 teams from each relay event advance from each preliminary championships competition site to the final championships competition. Qualification, through competition in an event at a preliminary championships competition, requires participation in that event at the final championships competition. Any individual or relay team must remain eligible for advancement throughout all rounds of the championships."

USTFCCCA Regional Rankings
The USTFCCCA.org ranked South Dakota State 14th on the men's side, and 19th on the women's side in week five of the Midwest Regional rankings. The men moved up into the two spots from last week, while the women's team dropped down two spots on the final regional rankings of the 2018 outdoor season.

Five Jackrabbits are ranked top-eight in six events in the region.

3. Jr. Rachel King (3,000S)
3. So. Bryant Courter (Triple Jump)
4. Jr. Kyle Burdick (1,500m)
5. So. Chase Cayo (10,000m)
7. Jr. Rachel King (5,000m)
7. Sr. Trevor Capra (10,000m)

#EventSquad Rankings
The USTFCCCA.org ranks the top four student-athletes in each event, from all of the Division I schools and ranks them. In order to be ranked in an event, the team must have four qualified student-athletes in that specific event.

The men's team has seven of 15 eligible events ranked in the top 50, including the triple jump squad (19th), 10,000m squad (22nd), the shot put squad (35th), the 100m squad and high jump squad (both 41st), the 3,000m steeplechase squad (45th), and the long jump squad (46th). Pole vault (53rd) and 800m squads (57th) were close to making the top 50.

On the women's side, the Jacks have nine of the 13 eligible events in the top 100. The hammer throw (41st), discus (59th), and shot put (65th) squads are the lowest rankings for SDSU.

Summit League Outdoor Track & Field Championships
The SDSU track and field teams finished The Summit League Outdoor Track and Field Championships with the men capturing 215.50 points and all of the championship awards as runner-ups and the women scoring 111 points for fourth place.

Sophomore Bryant Courter capped another great outdoor championships, winning his second consecutive Championship Field MVP by scoring 23.50 points. He won both the long jump and triple jump for the second year in a row, adding PR's in both. His triple jump was a school record while his farthest long jump would have been the school championship record if it was not wind-aided.

However, his second farthest jump 25-00.00 feet to push his name up to second all-time on the school's top 10.

Junior Kyle Burdick added his second straight Championship Track MVP by winning the 1,500m, finishing runner-up in the 10,000m, and grabbing the bronze in the 800m - totaling 24 points. It was his first attempt in the 800m at the championships, while he defended his title in the 1,500m.

Freshman Daniel Clarke gather 13 points individually, then helped the team add another 10 in the 4x100m relay to win the Jacks' second straight Newcomer of the Championship Award (Courter won it last year).

Clarke scored his points by adding PR's in three of the four events he competed in, including the school record in the 100m (set it in the prelims, and would have set it in the finals) and the 4x100m relay (team reset the school record, trimming off 0.44 seconds). His third personal-best mark came in the long jump where he scored the school's fourth-best jump.

On the men's side, sophomore Chase Cayo and Wyatt Gatrost joined Burdick and Courter as the SDSU event winners. Cayo competed on the Thursday, taking the victory in the 10,000m with teammates Burdick and senior Trevor Capra rounding out the podium.

Gatrost finished the men's 800m with a photo-finish, tying South Dakota's Eldon Warner, and leading five other Jackrabbits in the finals.

Senior Mason Leiseth had one of the five school records set at the outdoor championships, setting the all-time mark in the shot put and increasing his PR by 7.50 inches.

Sophomore Evan Hieber broke the 1989 school record in the decathlon by 60 points, gathering nine personal-best marks out of the 10.

Redshirt Coby Hilton was one of five student-athletes to have multiple personal-best marks. He advanced to the finals of the 100m and 200m, finishing fifth and fourth. He jumped to the fourth-best mark in school history in the prelims of the 100m and (tied fourth-best) finals of the 200m.

Hilton would have had the third-best mark in the 200m if his preliminary time was not illegally wind-aided. The Marshall, Minn. native complimented his individual accolades with a team effort to reset the school record in the 4x100m relay once more. The team trimmed off another 0.44 seconds and won the league race.

On the women's side, junior Rachel King finished with two top-three finishes, including her first league victory in the 3,000m steeplechase, 14th overall career win.

Juniors Krista Steele and Kasie Vollmer, along with senior Vanessa Lane totaled up the last of the four Jackrabbit victories in Tulsa. Vollmer added another 2-11.00 feet to her season-best to win the discus throw while Steele posted her first outdoor 800m championship (she won both 2018 indoor/outdoor league 800m), her fifth career win in the event.

Lane ended her Jackrabbit career finally winning the heptathlon by posting two PR's and two event wins on Thursday and Friday.

Sophomore Miatta Flemister-Smith represented two of the eight personal-best marks set at ONEOK Sports Complex, en route to a seventh-place finish in the 100m and a fifth-place finish in the 200m. Both her 100m (11.92) and 200m (24.39) are in the school's top 10 (100m -T-4th, 200m - T-7th).

Summit League Championship Quick Facts
It is the third time, second in a row, the men's team has finished runner-up in the league outdoor championships, but this year was the most points scored by the Jackrabbits ever.

The women's team finished fourth for the third time in since joining The Summit League.

Second time on the men's team that a Jackrabbit has been awarded a track championship MVP or a Newcomer of the Championship. The fourth Jackrabbit that was named as the Field Championship MVP.

Five event winners in the men's side is tied for the most ever by SDSU. However, State had five individuals and one relay team, totaling six, which is the most-ever event champions.

The women's team added four event winners in the outdoor championships this year, tied for the second-most ever (2009 had 5) with the 2011 and 2015 squads.

Regular Season Wrap-Up
South Dakota State made the most of the 2018 outdoor season so far, despite being at the mercy of the abnormal weather this season.

The Jackrabbits kicked off the season where they are starting the post-season - Tulsa, Okla. The Jackrabbits compete against several Big XII and Summit League schools at the Tulsa Duals, beating all of the schools on the men's side and beating five-of-six on the women's side.

The men's 4x100m relay team added their first school top 10 mark of many, posting the school's then-second-best time, now third.

State then had its first weather change, going back to Tulsa - this time ORU, after the SMSU Mustang Open had been canceled due to weather. A small group of Jacks traveled to California to compete in the Distance Carnival and Stanford Invite.

In the first look of the newly built ONEOK Sports Complex, 13 Jackrabbits tallied 22 personal-bests, with senior Vanessa Lane competing in four events - scoring personal-bests and leading the team in two.

Sophomores Haley Mottinger and Kayla Neff scored the most personal-best marks with three each - every event they competed in.

As for the student-athletes in Stanford and San Francisco, Calif., junior Rachel King stole the show with her personal-best mark in the 3,000m steeplechase which was ranked in 21st in the world, fifth in the NCAA, and first in The Summit League. For her performance, King was the lone Jackrabbit to win a Summit League Athlete of the Week honor.

The Dakota Duals scheduled on April 7 were also canceled because of poor weather, so SDSU hosted an exhibition against South Dakota. However, on the following Wednesday, the Jackrabbits made a trip to Vermillion, S.D. to compete in the impromptu South Dakota Invite.

Senior Colton Bender first reset his 2017 school record in the hammer throw at the Invite with the school's first throw over 200 feet. Fellow senior Mason Leiseth posted a PR in the discus to re-establish his name on the school's top 10 at ninth.

Instead of competing in the Lyle Hokanson Classic, the track team waited until the following weekend and made another trip out to California.

Senior Vanessa Lane and sophomore Evan Hieber posted their first and only regular season multi-event marks, with Hieber adding a PR score that finished seventh on the school's all-time list and Lane scoring the league's best mark.

Junior Rachel King and sophomore Kendra Dykstra put the second-best and fourth-best times on the school's top 10 in the 1,500m while junior Krista Steele reset the school record in the 800m.

Sophomores Miatta Flemister-Smith and Jaymie O'Connor also posted personal-best marks in the top 10. Flemister-Smith improved both her 100m and 200m, and almost added a 400m top 10 mark. O'Connor reset her school record in the 100m hurdles.

Leiseth reset his PR in the shot put and discus - second all-time in the shot put and fourth in the discus.

On the same weekend, some Jackrabbits traveled to Northern State and tallied 14 event winners.

SDSU competed at three meets in the last weekend in April: the Mount Marty Twilight, Drake Relays, and Kip Janvrin Open.

The relay teams highlighted the Drake Relays with Jacks scoring eight relay marks in the top 10. Freshman Trent Francom was the first Jack to break the 17-foot barrier in the pole vault and junior Kyle Burdick was the first 1,500m winner since 2005. Bender also reset his school record yet again in the hammer.

At the Howard Wood and Nebraska Invite, the last time the Jacks competed before the league championships, the State runners didn't stop adding PR's. Kendra Dykstra finished with the school's fourth-best mark in the 800m while Burdick added the seventh-best in the event on the men's side.

The 4x100m relay team that finished with the school's second-best mark - short by 0.03 seconds - at the Drake Relays, went to Nebraska in hopes of gathering that school record. In return, they broke the 2015 record by 0.07 seconds. (1. R-Fr. Coby Hilton, 2. So. Landon Larson, 3. Fr. Daniel Clarke, 4. So. Sam Zenner)

Clarke, also added the school's fourth-best time in the 100m.

NCAA West Digital Program
Below is the digital NCAA West Prelims program, provided by the NCAA.

-GoJacks.com-