Track & Field Competes at Indoor Summit League Championships
The South Dakota men’s and women’s track and field teams traveled to Brookings to compete in the Summit League Indoor Track and Field Championship on Feb. 28 and March 1.
Lydia Knapp earned the Coyotes’ first medal of the meet, placing third in the weight throw. Teammate Delaney Smith also secured a fourth-place finish in the event.
The Coyote men had a strong showing in the pole vault, finishing second, third, fourth, sixth and eighth, earning a significant portion of their first-day points in the event.
Mason Sindelar claimed titles in both the mile and 800 meters, posting a meet-record time of 4:05.4 in the mile and clocking 1:50.82 in the 800. Teammate Caleb Rivera followed Sindelar with a runner-up finish in the mile, crossing the line in 4:06.03.
Erin Kinney, competing in her final indoor meet as a Coyote, won both the 60-meter and 200-meter dashes with times of 7.32 and 23.83 seconds, respectively. Sara Reifenrath added another title for USD, winning the 400 meters in 52.95 seconds. Both athletes either broke or narrowly missed setting school and meet records.
Sara Reifenrath continued to add to her resume, breaking her own Summit League Indoor Championship record in the 400 meters, running 52.95 seconds. She then anchored USD’s 4×400 relay team of Averi Schmeichel, Berkeley Engelland and Ellie Thomas, which broke the meet record with a time of 3:40.46, besting USD’s 2023 mark of 3:41.71.
Townsend Barton placed third in the heptathlon with 5,171 points, the third-highest total in program history. Teammates Noel Spence and Derek Eidsness finished fifth and seventh, respectively.
Joe Lynch secured the men’s high jump title, clearing 7 feet, ¼ inch to earn gold for the Coyotes. Teammate Landon Olson took second with a clearance of 6-8 ¼.
In the women’s pole vault, Anna Willis and Cassidy Mooneyhan shared the title, both clearing 14-1 ¾. Eliza Aitken took fifth (13-4 ¼), while Kailee Swart finished sixth at the same height.
USD continued its podium presence in the 60-meter hurdles, where Averi Schmeichel placed third with a time of 8.35 seconds, following a school-record time in Friday’s prelims.
On the women’s side of the 800 meters, USD placed three in the final, with Berkeley Engelland taking third in 2:10.87, just 0.22 seconds off the winner. Ellie Thomas took fifth at 2:12.16 and Sydney Stodden grabbed 7th at 2:14.04.
USD earned another runner-up finish in the men’s 60-meter hurdles, where Jaden Damiano ran a personal-best 7.81 seconds, a time that now ranks third in program history.
In distance events, Caleb Rivera placed second in the 3,000 meters with a time of 8:11.16, running the third-fastest time in USD history.
To close out the first day, USD’s distance medley relay team of Andrew Atwood, Caden Denker, Evan Janzen and Natneal Kifle placed third in 10:02.05, the fifth-fastest time in program history.
Both Coyote teams finished third overall in the championship, with the women scoring 126 points and the men tallying 130. USD now awaits the NCAA Indoor Championship selection, where the top 16 athletes in each event qualify for the national meet in Virginia Beach on March 14-15.
