MANKATO, MINN. – The University of Sioux Falls Men's Indoor Track and Field Team, which was  led by a new championships record in the Distance Medley Team, hold a day one lead at the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Championships which opened on Friday at Minnesota State University. USF's Women's Team, which was led by Chloe Peterson's second place finish in the long jump, sit in fifth with 17 points.

The USF Men's Team leads the NSIC Championships after the first day with 53.5 total points. U-Mary is second with 42 followed by preseason NSIC favorite Minnesota State in third at 29 points.  In the women's team race, U-Mary ended the first day's session in first with 43 points followed by Augustana (39) in second, MSU (20.50) in third, Wayne State (20) in fourth and USF, fifth.

The USF men's DMR team of Jase Kraft, Logan Hansen, Billy Beseman, and Mason Phillips claimed the NSIC title with a stellar 10:06.50 which set the NSIC Indoor Track and Field Championship record. The USF squad broke the record by more than five seconds than the previous record held by Augustana in 2018 in 10:11.86.

USF also had a big time performance in the pole vault from Tristan Zawadzki, who won a title with an NCAA DII provisional mark 5.09-meter (16' 8.25") jump. Zawadski's vault places him fifth all-time at USF and 11^th in the DII. Teammate Connor DeJong finished second after posting a 4.93-meter (16'2") result.  

Also scoring points for USF was sophomore Patrick Hagan and senior Chandler Nelson, who placed sixth and seventh, respectively, in the men's weight throw. Hagan took sixth with a distance of 17.26-meters (56' 7.50), while Nelson was seventh after throwing 17.01-meters (55' 9.75").

In the men's high jump, senior Joseph Kirkebak took fourth with a jump 1.96-meters (6' 5") which gained the Cougars 4.5 points.

USF also had a number of strong performances in preliminary competition.

In the men's 600-meter run, senior Trey Furgeson took fourth with a qualifying run of 1:23.33. Furgeson will move on to compete in the finals tomorrow afternoon.  USF junior Jacob Morse will advance to the finals in the men's 60-meter hurdles after a personal record of 8.29 which places him sixth heading into the final on Saturday. Morse now moves into third in program history in the 60-meters.

 In the men's 1,000-meter preliminary run, senior Billy Beseman led USF with a first place qualifying time of 2:31.19. Hanson, a USF sophomore, took sixth in the event with a 2:32.84 clocking as he also qualified for finals.

Lundberg qualified for the finals in the 3,000-meter run with a first place time of 8:19.45. Senior Steven Brown took third in the event and also qualified for Saturday's finals round with an 8:19.73 showing.

Phillips, a senior All-American, took second in the preliminary round of men's 800-meter run with a time of 1:58.82 which automatically qualified him for the finals.  
 
Women's Results -
USF Women's Team, which was fifth in the NSIC team race, was led by Peterson. She gained eight points for USF in the women's long jump after a second-place finish of 5.65-meters (18' 6.50"). Peterson was just edged out by Augustana's Olivia Montez Brown, who jumped 5.73 (18' 9.75").

Freshman Carolyn Groeger also scored points for USF as she finished fourth in the woman's pole vault after going 3.35-meters (10' 11.75"). Groeger's finish provided five points to the team total.

USF's DMR team of Kiara Matten, Zoe Cigard, Sadie Thompson, and Rebacca Goertzen took fifth place with a 12:34.51 clocking and gained four points for the Cougars.

Several USF women's team members advanced to the finals including Peterson, who had a personal record in the preliminary round of the women's 60-meter dash with a 7.73 (7.724) clocking. Peterson's time the second fastest in USF history and ranks her seventh heading into the finals on Saturday. In the same race, Troesher also clocked a 7.73 (7.725) and is eighth headed to finals.  Troescher holds the top spot in USF history with a 7.70 which she posted at the St. Johns Invitational on Feb. 9.  

Sophomore Taryn Ceglowski took fourth in the women's 1,000-meter run with a qualifying time of 2:58.64. She will move into the finals as the fourth seed.

USF will resume action tomorrow at 10 a.m. with the finals of the NSIC Indoor Track and Field Championships.