INDIANAPOLIS – Two-time All-American Billy Beseman of the University of Sioux Falls Men's Track and Field/Cross Country Team has been named to the 2019 Google Cloud Academic All-District® Men's Track & Field/Cross Country Teams as selected by CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America).

Beseman, a junior sports management major from Perham, Minn., is among the 12 student-athletes from District 7 (Northern Sun, MIAA, Great American conferences) to be recognized for their combined performances on the field and in the classroom.

The Google Cloud Academic All-America® program separately recognizes outstanding student-athletes in four divisions — NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA. First-team Academic All-District® honorees, which include Beseman, advance to the Google Cloud Academic All-America® ballot. First-, second- and third-team (if applicable) Academic All-America® honorees will be announced June 26.

 

Beseman has had a standout year for USF in cross country and track and field. Beseman's year was highlighted by a first-team All-American performance as part of USF's program-best fourth-place finish in the Distance Medley Relay at the NCAA DII Indoor Championship in Pittsburg, Kan. In that race, USF's team of Beseman, Zach Lundberg, Trey Furgeson, Beseman and Mason Phillips established a school record clocking of 9:48.74 and finished just .17 from second place and .83 from first place. He was also part of USF's first team All-American Distance Medley Relay (8th place) at the 2018 NCAA DII Indoor Championships as that team finished in 9:55.01 and also included Phillips, Lundberg and Ferguson.

During his time at USF, Beseman has earned six Academic All-NSIC honors (cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field) and a USFTCCCA All-Academic honor in Cross Country. He was third at the 2019 NSIC Indoor Championship in the 1,000-meter run. With a time of 2:26.96, Beseman's broke the old NSIC record but two other competitors finished ahead of him. With his performance Beseman moved into second in USF history in the 1,000-meter run.

He played a role as the USF Men's Cross Country Team won the program's first-ever NSIC team championship in the fall of 2018. At the NSIC Championship, he placed 22^nd (25:09.4). Beseman was 63^rd as part of the USF Team that finished third at the Central Region Championship last fall and advanced to the NCAA DII Championship for a second straight season. He also was part of USF's team which claimed a program-best fifth place at the NCAA DII Cross Country Championship.

Beseman had a standout outdoor season in 2018-19. He was selected USTFCCCA All-Region in the 1,500-meters as he clocked a career-best 3:50.29, which is fourth best-all-time at USF, at the Bryan Clay Invitational on April 19. He claimed sixth place in the 800-meters at the NSIC Outdoor Championship in Duluth, Minn., as he helped USF to a fourth-place team finish.

At the Howard Wood Dakota Relays, Beseman finished fourth with a career-best clocking of 1:52.83, which ranks second all-time at USF.  He was part of USF's record-breaking distance medley relay which won the Drake Relays with the school record time of 9:59.80 and included Beseman along with Ferguson, Lundberg and Phillips.  Beseman was also part of a record-setting 4x1,600-meter relay squad, which placed second in 16:40.16 at the Drake Relays and finished less than a second behind DI and Big 12 Oklahoma State in 16:39.79. Beseman, along with Jase Kraft, Lundberg and Phillips, ran the race for the first time and finished ahead of all DII schools as well as DI programs Air Force, Minnesota, Tulsa, North Dakota State and Marquette.