The South Dakota track and field program is set to compete in four separate meets in the Long Beach, California area starting Thursday, April 15. The Coyotes will be represented at the Bryan Clay Invitational, Pacific Coast Invitational, Mt. SAC Relays, and Beach Invitational over three days.
This series of competitions gives South Dakota athletes opportunities to improve their rankings and qualify for upcoming championship events. The schedule includes distance runners at the Bryan Clay Invitational beginning Thursday morning and continuing into Saturday, with additional competitors at the Pacific Coast Invitational on Thursday. The Mt. SAC Relays will see Coyote athletes competing Friday and Saturday as well.
Live results for most events can be found through Finished Results for the Bryan Clay, Pacific Coast, and Beach Invitationals; Record Timing will provide updates from Mt. SAC Relays.
In national event squad rankings by USFTCCCA for this season’s third checkpoint, South Dakota has three men’s groups—pole vault (4th), discus (27th), shot put (41st)—and two women’s groups—pole vault (11th) and 400-meter hurdles (20th)—ranked in the NCAA top 50.
Individually ranked Coyotes include Caelan Harland (21st pole vault), Brandon Vander Sluis (29th shot put), Jaden Damiano (41st 110m hurdles), Wyatt Stewart (44th pole vault), Beau Karst (50th pole vault) on the men’s side; Marleen Mülla (23rd pole vault), Anna Willis (25th pole vault), Delaney Smith (48th hammer throw) on the women’s side.
For NCAA West regional qualification toward outdoor championships later this spring in Eugene, Oregon—with rounds held in Fayetteville, Arkansas—the Coyotes have several athletes inside qualifying marks: Harland is ninth regionally in pole vault; Vander Sluis ranks 14th regionally in shot put; Stewart holds multiple top-25 spots; while Mülla is thirteenth among women’s pole vaulters.
Summit League Outdoor Championships are scheduled for May 14-16 in Fargo, North Dakota. Current conference leaders from South Dakota include Damiano leading the men’s 110m hurdles with a time of 13.86 seconds; Harland topping men’s pole vault at 17-9¼; Vander Sluis leading men’s shot put with a mark of 60-6¾; Mülla first among women’s pole vaulters at 13-10; Smith leading women’s hammer throw at 196-2.
Several Coyotes have improved or entered school all-time indoor top ten lists this spring across various events including Atwood’s performance in men’s 800 meters and Timmerman moving up to second all-time among women’s outdoor performers over ten thousand meters.
