Four Bison Men Flood Throwing Events at NCAA Indoor Championships

Thursday, March 11

Fayetteville, Ark.

6:30 p.m.

North Dakota State

NCAA Indoor Championships

Photo by: The Summit League

Four Bison Men Flood Throwing Events at NCAA Indoor Championships

3/10/2021 5:20:00 PM | Men's Track and Field

Live Results
Meet Schedule (PDF)
Qualifiers, Start Lists & Results

North Dakota State University throwers Alex Talley, Kristoffer Thomsen, Trevor Otterdahl and Maxwell Otterdahl will represent the Bison men's track & field team at the NCAA Indoor Championships this Thursday and Friday in Fayetteville, Ark.

Talley, a senior from West Fargo, N.D., will take part in both the weight throw and shot put, joining former NDSU national champion Payton Otterdahl as the only Bison men to compete in two events at the Division I indoor national meet. Talley also qualified in both events last year, but the meet was ultimately canceled due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. He enters ranked third nationally in the weight throw and tied for fifth in the shot put this season.

Like last year, Talley is the only athlete this season to qualify for the NCAA Championships in both throwing events.

Senior Trevor Otterdahl (weight throw), junior Kristoffer Thomsen (shot put), and sophomore Maxwell Otterdahl (shot put) will give the Bison the most entries in the throwing events of any school in the nation.

The weight throw will be contested on Thursday at 6:30 p.m., and the shot put is Friday at 11 a.m. The NCAA Indoor Championships are limited to the top 16 performers in the country in each individual event.

Alex Talley
Senior
West Fargo, N.D.

Weight throw NCAA ranking: 3rd
Weight throw NDSU all-time rank: 2nd
Personal Best: 75-01.75 (22.90m)

Shot put NCAA ranking: T-5th
Shot put NDSU all-time rank: 2nd
Personal Best: 67-04.75 (20.54m)

Trevor Otterdahl
Senior
Rosemount, Minn.

Weight throw NCAA ranking: 12th
Weight throw NDSU all-time rank: 3rd
Personal Best: 72-03.75 (22.04m)

Maxwell Otterdahl
Sophomore
Rosemount, Minn.

Shot put NCAA ranking: 12th
Shot put NDSU all-time rank: 4th
Personal Best: 64-06.00 (19.66m)

Kristoffer Thomsen
Junior
Aarhus, Denmark

Shot put NCAA ranking: 15th
Shot put NDSU all-time rank: 3rd
Personal Best: 66-08.50 (20.33m)

Competition Format
Each competitor in the throwing events is allowed three attempts in the preliminary round. The nine best marks, after tie-breaking, will advance to the final and earn three more throws.

All-America Honors
The top eight finishers in all events will earn first team All-American honors, and places 9 through 16 will be named second team All-Americans.

Nation's Best
The Bison men finished the 2021 indoor season ranked No. 1 in the national Event Squad Rankings for both the shot put and weight throw, with four Bison surpassing 60 feet in the shot put and three beyond 68 feet in the weight throw this season.
In all of Division I, there are only three NCAA qualifiers who rank in the nation's top 40 for both throwing events this season – Alex Talley, Trevor Otterdahl, and Maxwell Otterdahl.

Second Chance
Both Talley and Thomsen were in Albuquerque, N.M., last season – qualified in the same events – when the NCAA Indoor Championships were canceled.

Brothers Make Debut
Trevor and Maxwell Otterdahl will be making their NCAA Championships debuts this week.

All-American History
NDSU has claimed eight All-America honors in men's indoor track & field at the Division I level.

Following a Legend
North Dakota State's Payton Otterdahl swept the throwing event titles at the 2019 NCAA Indoor Championships, becoming only the second man in NCAA history to win both the shot put and weight throw at the Division I national meet. He is the oldest brother of Trevor and Maxwell.