Weight Throw Domination Sparks Bison Men on Day One at Summit League Championships

Friday, February 26

Fort Wayne, Ind.

8:30 a.m.

North Dakota State

Summit League Indoor Championships - Day One

Photo by: Richard Svaleson

Weight Throw Domination Sparks Bison Men on Day One at Summit League Championships

2/26/2016 10:35:00 PM | Men's Track and Field

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FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The North Dakota State men's track & field team posted a dominant showing in the weight throw to open up a first-day lead at the Summit League Indoor Championships on Friday.

Junior Conrad Schwarzkopf won the weight throw for his first career Summit League title, and the Bison men swept the top six places in the event to score 36 team points. Schwarzkopf took first place at 60-05.75 (18.43m), Alex Renner threw a career-best 59-04.25 (18.09m) for runner-up honors, and Steffan Stroh finished third for the Bison.

Brandt Berghuis, Brian Blasey and Payton Otterdahl rounded out the sweep of the top six places for NDSU. It was the first time in Summit League history that a school swept the top six places in the weight throw.

The NDSU men hold an 11-point lead in the team standings after the first day of competition. The Bison have 52 points, followed by Oral Roberts (41), South Dakota (35) and South Dakota State (33).

Camron Roehl, Aron Klos, Matt Jennings and Brant Gilbertson took third place in a tight finish in the distance medley relay.

Bison senior Colin Paarmann finished fifth in the long jump at 22-05.00 (6.83m).

NDSU senior Brendan Skime placed sixth in the 3,000m in 8:36.92. Junior Grant Mjelstad was sixth in the pole vault, clearing 15-06.25 (4.73m).

In addition to the athletes who scored team points with top-8 finishes on Friday, the NDSU also qualified a substantial number of athletes into Saturday's finals.

The Bison are in position to score big in the heptathlon, with redshirt freshman Ryan Enerson leading with 2,865 points through four events. Kevin Drotts stands in third place with 2,684 points, Matt Neururer is fourth with 2,671, and Grant Mjelstad is fifth with 2,639. NDSU also has Matt Moberg in seventh and Brock Larson in eighth.

NDSU qualified four men to the eight-man final of the 60m hurdles – Jerome Begin, Paarmann, Enerson and Larson.

Sophomore Landon Jochim advanced to Saturday's finals in the 200m and 400m, clocking 22.26 in the 200m and 49.50 in the 400m. Freshman Jacob Richter will join Jochim in the 400m final after running 49.90 in the prelims.

Jonah Warwick (1:54.08) and Dalton Herding (1:55.31) both qualified for the 800m final.

Heptathlon competition resumes at 9:30 a.m. ET / 8:30 a.m. CT on Saturday. Running events begin at 1 p.m. ET / 12 p.m. CT.