PITTSBURG, Kan. – In thrilling fashion, University of Sioux Falls Track & Field posted two All-American finishes on the first day of the NCAA Indoor Championships Friday. Junior Kimberly Peterson earned her third career All-American honor and highest career national meet finish with a runner-up mark in the women's pole vault with two clutch third-attempt clearances. The USF men's distance medley relay squad of Billy Beseman, Logan Hansen, Zach Lundberg and Mason Phillips extended the program's strong tradition in the DMR, taking eighth with a school record time. Phillips and freshman Taryn Ceglowski both competed in the men's and women's mile prelims, respectively, but finished outside the top nine advancing to Saturday's finals.
 
Coming in as the No. 2 seed, Peterson lived up to her billing and hit a new indoor personal-best mark in the process. At the 2016 NCAA Indoor Championships in the same Pittsburg State facility, Peterson entered as the No. 2 seed, but failed to clear her opening height. Two years later, the redshirt junior brushed off any past miscues and cleared her first two bars (3.72 meters/12 feet-2.25 inches and 3.82m/12-6.25) on her first attempt each.
 
As the bar progressed to 3.92 meters (12-10.25), Peterson was one of nine athletes left in the 19-athlete field. The Elizabeth, Colo. native missed her first two attempts before responding with a clutch third attempt to stay in the competition as one of four athletes left. Missing her first jump at 4.02 meters (13-2.25), Peterson advanced again with a second-attempt clearance, now just one of three vaulters left in the competition.
 
Eventual champion Emily Presley of Missouri Southern made 4.12 meters (13-6.25) on her first attempt, placing the pressure on her opponents. Peterson and Pittsburg State's Haven Lander both missed their first two attempts at the sixth bar of the competition,w hcih only heightened the tension. Lander elected to pass on her final attempt, giving Peterson a chance to move into solo second – if both vaulters would finish at 4.02 meters, Peterson would have been relegated to third place due to her miss at the previous height.
 
With her second third-attempt clearance of the meet, Peterson, made it safely over the 4.12-meter bar and set a bit of history in the process. Although she wasn't able to clear 4.22 meters (13-10.00), Peterson's 13-foot 6.25-inch clearance is an indoor personal best and she moved up to the No. 10 spot on the NCAA Division II all-time performers list. The runner-up finish is the highest finish at the national meet after she earned fourth-place finishes at the 2015 indoor championships and 2016 outdoor championships.
 

Shortly after Peterson's outstanding performance in the women's pole vault, the men's distance medley relay took to the track. Sophomore Zach Lundberg and junior Mason Phillips were both on last year's 10th-place DMR squad and earned second-team All-American honors, but two of the best mid-distance runners in USF history were set on making it to the podium. Joining forces with junior Billy Beseman and freshman Logan Hansen, USF's distance medley quartet entered with the sixth-fastest qualifying time and they looked to join the ranks of USF's 2015 DMR team (Bobby Brockmueller, Taylor Wensmann, Jase Kraft and Billy Brockmueller) as first-team All-Americans.
 
Beseman, who helped the 2017 squad qualify for the NCAA Championships last season but was unable to compete at the national meet due to injury, led the Cougars off in the first 1,200 meters. Bunched with the top 10 runners in the leadoff leg, Beseman clocked a 3:04.75 before handing off to Hansen. Thrust into the spotlight as a freshman, Hansen held strong in the 400-meter leg, turning in a 51.19-second split.
 
Lundberg was the alternate in last year's national-meet DMR, in which he also ran the 800-meter leg. The Omaha, Neb. sophomore cut more than two seconds off his split last season and after a 1:52.64 leg, he handed off the baton to Phillips, USF's record-setting miler, who was looking for some championship redemption.
 
Less than three hours after narrowly missing out on advancing to the NCAA Championships men's mile final, Phillips would run nearly the same distance with hopes of leading his team to an All-American finish. With work to be done – Phillips took the baton in 11th place and a few seconds back of the top eight – Phillips steadily reeled in the runners in front of him. With less than a lap left in his 1,600-meter leg, Phillips completely closed the gap with a 4:07.80 split and edged out in-state foe Black Hills State by 0.04 seconds.
 
Finishing with Phillips's last-lap kick, USF's men's DMR turned in a school record time of 9:55.01, breaking the 2015 All-American squad's record by more than three seconds. The cherry on top of his outstanding junior season in which he set four individual school records, Phillips now has six records with his name on it.
 
Opening the NCAA Championships for USF, Phillips competed in the men's mile prelims, but came up short of advancing to the finals in an extremely deep field. Finishing fifth in the second of two heats, Phillips needed to qualify on his time, but he came up two seconds shy in 4:11.54 of the top nine, placing him 12th in the 16-athlete field.
 
A standout from the start of her career, freshman Taryn Ceglowski had already broken three program records and ran a leg on a fourth, helping her to Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Women's Newcomer of the Year honors. The Salida, Colo. native qualified in two events and elected to run the mile, going against the top runners in NCAA Division II. Maintaining her position in the pack for the majority of the race, a late push by the runners ahead of her dropped her to eighth in her heat at 4:59.62, and placed her 16th overall.