The Meet

South Dakota track and field will face the three Dakota rivals in the Dakota Quad Classic on Saturday at the Shelly Ellig Indoor Facility in Fargo, North Dakota. Field events will get underway at noon with running events to begin at 1 p.m. The Coyotes' combined events athletes make the trip a day early to compete in the women's pentathlon and men's pentathlon on Friday as a part of the Bison Open.
 

The Coyotes

South Dakota entered the initial national rankings of the season at No. 16 on the women's side and No. 19 on the men's side as announced on Jan. 25 by the USTFCCCA. The Coyotes were the only mid-major squad with both its men's and women's teams ranked in the top-25.
 
The Coyotes, coming off a bye week, face their first out-of-state competition of the season. South Dakota opened 2021 with back-to-back home meets on Hillenbrand Track in Vermillion, the site of 18 of the Coyotes' national top-50 marks. The season is still young, but in this week's USTFCCCA rankings USD boasts the No. 1 men's and No. 2 women's pole vault squads in the country with eight vaulters ranked in the top-30 of the event. On the track, sophomore Brithton Senior shattered his coach's DakotaDome facility record with a clocking of 7.90 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles. He leads a hurdles squad that ranks sixth nationally. The final Coyote event group ranked in the top-10 nationally is the women's shot put crew.
 

The Competition

Four of the Summit's top-five teams will go head-to-head in Fargo this week. North Dakota State is the defending champion for both men and women, and has home-field advantage this weekend. South Dakota State split the second and third spot with South Dakota, with the Coyotes taking the edge in the women's race. North Dakota took fourth in last year's women's race and fifth on the men's side. This weekend's competition will give an early feel for the Summit League Championships at the end of the month, although the meet will use quadrangular scoring, which limits each event to two scorers.
 

The League Leaders

The Coyotes currently lead the Summit League in 12 of 32 events this season, the second-most by a league institution.
 
Men's 60-meter hurdles: Brithton Senior, 7.90 seconds
Women's 200 meters: Sara Reifenrath, 24.21 seconds# (adjusted from 24.58 for track size)
Women's 400 meters: Sara Reifenrath, 55.37 seconds# (adjusted from 56.10 for track size)
Men's High Jump: Jack Durst, 7-0 ½ or 2.15m
Women's High Jump: Carly Haring, 5-10 ¾ or 1.80m
Men's Pole Vault: Ethan Bray, 18-1 or 5.51m
Women's Pole Vault: Gen Hirata, 14-1 ¼ or 4.30m
Men's Triple Jump: Jacob Jenkins, 48-0 ½ or 14.64m
Women's Pentathlon: Holly Gerberding, 3,739 points
Women's 4x400-Meter Relay: Danielle Thompson, Madison Jochum, Alli Wroblewski, Sara Reifenrath, 3:51.27# (adjusted from 3:54.34 for track size)
Men's Distance Medley: Brendan Scott, Lionel McPhaull Jr., Dylan Blake, Braden Peters, 10:42.09# (adjusted from 10:50.81 for track size)
Women's Distance Medley: Kelsi Kearney, Haley Arens, Brigit Blote, McKenna Herrmann, 12:29.60# (adjusted from 12:37.63 for track size)
 

One Last Thing

While the forecasted high on Saturday in Fargo isn't expected to reach above 0°, competition will be sizzling inside the Shelly Ellig Indoor Facility. This marks the first time the Coyotes will compete in the building for a regular season meet.