INDIANAPOLIS – University of Sioux Falls Track & Field will send five student-athletes to the NCAA Outdoor Championships on May 23-25 at Javelina Stadium in Kingsville, Texas. Texas A&M Kingsville will serve as host of the championships which will include 754 participants, including both 377 men and 377 women student-athletes.

The USF student-athletes who earned a trip to nationals include sophomore Emma Hertz and junior Miranda Phipps of the USF Women's team while Zach Lundberg, Mason Phillips and Tristan Zawadzki will compete for the Cougar men.

This is the third consecutive NCAA Championship meet for which the Cougars have qualified multiple men and women under the guidance of second-year USF Director of Track & Field Doug Petersen.

Since joining the NCAA Division II ranks in 2012, Sioux Falls has qualified multiple women to all 13 previous NCAA Championship and will send two  more this season. The Cougars will be represented by multiple men for the fifth time in seven NCAA Outdoor Championship opportunities and the 13th time in 14 total NCAA Championship meets over the past six years. Three of the five (Hertz, Phipps, Lundberg) attending nationals have set school records in the events in which they will be competing.

After breaking school records in the women's discus and shot put, Hertz, who was a second team NCAA DII Indoor All-American, will compete in both events at DII nationals. She ranks ninth in DII in the discus with her school record of 51.57 meters (169-02). On May 1, 2019, she cracked the school record with a toss that was seven feet better than her previous mark. She ranks 11^th in the shot put with a school record throw of 15.56 meters (51-07.75) at the USD Twilight on April 23, 2019.

Phipps is also a school record holder in the javelin and ranks 14^th in DII with a throw of 46.51 meters (152-07). Phipps, who was second at the NSIC Championship in the javelin, set the school record and DII qualifying mark at the USD Twilight on April 23.

Zawadzki is ranked ninth nationally and first in the NSIC. Zawadski has a DII qualifying mark of 5.16 meters (16-11), which he set at the South Dakota Challenge on April 6. Zawadzki swept the NSIC Indoor and Outdoor pole vault titles.   

Lundberg owns the school record and is ranked 11^th in the 1,500-meters. Lundberg, who finished second in the 1,500 meters at the NSIC Championship, is joined by junior Mason Phillips in the event at nationals. Lundberg, who earned second team outdoor All-America in 2018 after breaking the school record in the 1,500 meters at the DII nationals in Charlotte, NC, set a school record of 3:46.64 at the Bryan Clay Invitational on April 17.

Phillips, who captured the 800 meter title at the NSIC Championship, qualified for  DII nationals in the 1,500 meters with a clocking of 3:47.98 at the Drake Relays on April 24. Phillips, who has earned six combined All-American honors in cross country and track and field, has a combined nine NSIC Weekly Athlete of the Week honors in track and field and cross country.  In his career at USF, he has 28 cross country or track and field titles (relay or individual), including nine in 2018-19, and 21 second place finishes with eight in 2018-19. As such, he has placed first or second 49 times at USF. Last spring (2017-18 year), he was named USF's Male Athlete of the Year.

Of note, Phillips and Lundberg were part of USF's first-team All-American and record-setting Distance Medley Relay (9:48.74) at the 2019 NCAA DII Indoor Nationals. They were also key performers for USF's cross country team that won its first-ever NSIC crown in the fall of 2018 and finished a program-best fifth at the NCAA DII Cross Country Championships.