Trojans Win Fourth Straight NSAA Title

Dakota State extended their program history school record of four straight NSAA men’s outdoor track and field championship team titles this past weekend, after they racked up a new conference team meet record of 311.5 points.

DSU broke the previous conference meet record of 300 points in last year’s conference meet. The Trojans claimed seven titles on the third day of the conference meet, as well as six runner-up honors.

Dickinson State finished second in the team standings with 206 points. Viterbo was third with 120 points, followed by Waldorf fourth with 99.5 points. Valley City State was fifth with 61 points, Iowa Wesleyan sixth with 34 points, and Bellevue seventh with seven points.

Conner Tordsen kicked off Friday’s action by dominating the throwing events, winning a pair of conference titles. He tossed the NAIA ‘A’ qualifying mark of 165 feet, 4 inches to win the conference discus throw title for the second straight year, as well as the sixth consecutive year that a Trojan athlete had won the conference discus throw title (Tyler Moulton – 2021 and Tyler Lems for three straight years – 2017, 2018, 2019).

Ethan Damerum added a third-place finish in the discus throw with a toss of 134 feet, 4 inches for the Trojans. Ryan Chapman hit a personal record 133 feet to follow up with a fifth-place finish. Jacob Joachim was seventh with a 132 feet, 1 inch toss, while Zachary Haugen was eighth with a throw of 125 feet, 11 inches. Jackson Zastera recorded a toss of 117 feet to finish 13th.

Tordsen earned this third throwing title during the North Star conference meet, winning the shot-put title with the NAIA ‘A’ qualifying toss of 53 feet, 6.5 inches (Career Best). It marked the first NSAA conference shot-put title since 2018 by Lems. His shot-put is the second-best mark in DSU men’s outdoor track & field school record, just .03 meters shy of meeting the school record held by Adam Clark in 1987 with a mark of 16.35 meters (53 feet, 8 inches).

Damerum was sixth with a 44 feet, 7.5 inches shot-put toss for Dakota State. Terrell Moran followed up with an eighth-place finish with a toss of 42 feet, 2.75 inches, followed by Joachim ninth with41 feet, 11.25 inches. Chapman was 11th (40 feet, 2.25 inches) and Dylan Johansen placed 12th (38 feet, 6.75 inches).

After the conference meet was completed, Tordsen was awarded two different postseason awards. He was awarded the NSAA Outdoor Field Athlete-of-the-Meet by scoring the most points in the field events. He scored a total of 35 points in the conference meet, winning three throwing titles (hammer throw, discus throw, and shot put) and placing fourth in the javelin throw (5 points).

The league’s head coach voted Tordsen as the NSAA Men’s Outdoor Track & Field Most Valuable Athlete, highlighted by his numerous NAIA ‘A” automatic qualifying marks as well as being named to the NAIA National Men’s Outdoor Field Athlete-of-the-Week on back-to-back weeks.

All three DSU jumpers hit personal record marks in the long jump, led by Ben Hoverson with a fifth-place finish after jumping 22 feet, .25 inches. Nathan Ingalls was ninth with a leap of 20 feet, 4.25 inches, followed by Chase Marshall with an 11th place finish with an 18 feet, 7.75 inches leap.

Bryant Paulsen cleared a personal record of 1.75 meters on his first attempt in the third round (5 feet, 8.75 inches) in the high jump, placing eighth for the Trojans. Caden Gortmaker also successfully cleared 1.75 meters on his third attempt in the third round (5 feet, 8.75 inches) and finished 10th.

Friday’s running events began with the 3000-meter steeplechase, with all three Trojans producing career best times in the race. Colter Elkin captured the title with a time of 9 minutes, 43.37 seconds. Daniel Green earned runner-up honor with a time of 9 minutes, 45.49 seconds, followed by Dalton Brouwer with a fifth-place finish in 10:18.94. 

Michael Foster, Joseph Larson, Trey Reindl, and Riley Greenhoff teamed up for a runner-up honor in the 4×100-meter relay for Dakota State. The Trojans registered a time of 42.51 seconds in the race.

Cody Farland repeated as the NSAA’s 1500-meter run title by breaking the conference meet record time of 3 minutes, 56.70 seconds (1.70 seconds shy of meeting the NAIA ‘B’ provisional qualifying time). He broke the previous NSAA conference meet record time of 4:02.06 set by Christopher Moreno of Dickinson State in 2017.

The Trojans dominated the 1500-meter run with five additional runners placing in the top eight.  Curtis Johnson tallied the runner-up honor in 4:03.44, followed by Evan Slominski with a third-place finish in 4:05.36.  Dylan Hilger added a fifth-place finish in 4:13.28, while Blake Schmiedt was sixth with a personal record time of 4:14.16.  Yohannes Kassa finished eighth with a personal best time of 4 minutes, 18.93 seconds.

Three DSU runners improved their Thursday’s prelims times in the 100-meter dash in Friday’s finals.  Greenhoff led with a runner-up with a time of 10.70 seconds, which was .10 seconds shy for the NAIA ‘B’ provisional qualifying time (11.02 seconds in the prelims – 2nd fastest).  Foster added a time of 11.08 seconds for place sixth (11.25 seconds in the prelims – 6th fastest).  Reindl placed eighth in 11.11 seconds (11.29 seconds in prelims – 7th fastest).

Other Thursday’s 100-meter dash prelims included Larson with a time of 11.48 seconds (12th), Marshall in 11.98 seconds (16th), and Emmanuel Drain in 12.34 seconds (17th).

The NSAA announced its Champions of Character recipients after the 100-meter dash and prior to the 800-meter run. Trey Reindl is this year’s recipient for Dakota State.

The Trojans placed four runners in the top four in the 800-meter run, won by Farland with a time of 1 minute, 56.74 seconds. It was the fourth straight year that a DSU runner won the North Star’s 800-meter run title (Joshua Krull in 2021 and 2022 and Alex Derr in 2019).  

Slominski collected a runner-up honor in the 800-meters with a time of 1:57.62.  Johnson was third in 1:58.84, while Krull was fourth in 2 minutes, .47 seconds. Ian Beyer added a 10th-place finish in 2:08.56 and Reese Henrie with a 12th-place finish in 2:09.09.

Greenhoff paced the Trojans to a third-place finish in the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.46 seconds, .01 second shy of achieving the NAIA ‘B’ provisional qualifying time. Reindl was fifth in 21.91 seconds, followed by Foster with a sixth-place finish in 22.41 seconds. Larson was 12th after recording a time of 23.04 seconds.

Obang Ojulu led Dakota State with a seventh-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles, clocking a time of 59.12 seconds.  Paulsen was ninth with a personal record time of 1 minute, 1.19 seconds. Jaacks was 11th in 1:02.44.

Taylor Myers captured the conference’s 5000-meter run title for the second straight year – the fourth straight year that DSU had won the 5000-meter run title. He clocked a time of 15 minutes, 45.80 seconds. Martin Bailey added a time of 15 minutes, 55 seconds to earn the runner-up honor.

Elkin was third in the 5000-meters race with a time of 15 minutes, 57.25 seconds for Dakota State. Tyler Kennedy produced a fifth-place finish in 16 minutes, 11.31 seconds. Lucas Harr finished with a time of 19:46.36.  

The conference meet wrapped up with the 4×400-meter relay. The team of Greenhoff, Slominski, Greigg, and Reindl captured the title with a time of 3 minutes, 25.50 seconds. It marked the fourth consecutive year that the Trojans had won the 4×400-meter relay conference title.

The NSAA outdoor track & field head coaches had voted DSU’s Anthony Drealan as the Coach-of-the-Year award, guiding the Trojans to their fourth straight conference title. 

The NSAA outdoor track & field conference meet marked the final career collegiate track for the Trojans’ seniors Daniel Green, Riley Greenhoff, Steven Greigg, Jakob Kaiser, Tyler Kennedy, Tucker Murtha, Obang Ojulu, and Trey Reindl.

Dakota State will be sending seven athletes to the NAIA Men’s Outdoor Track & Field National Championships on May 24-26 in Marion, Indiana.  

The Trojans athletes that are tentatively scheduled to compete at the national meet are Curtis Johnson, Evan Slominski, Joshua Krull, and Cody Farland in the 4×800-meter relay, Conner Tordsen in the hammer throw, discus throw, and shot put, Jacob Joachim in the hammer throw, and Treshawn Roberts in the decathlon.