GRAND FORKS, N.D. – On the opening day of the Summit League Indoor Championships at the Pollard Center on Friday, the North Dakota women impressed with three all-conference finishers and the team currently sits third with 41 points. Elise Ulseth and Erica Benson in the pentathlon both earned all-conference honors, while Natalie Mohring also picked up all-conference accolades in the weight throw.
Ulseth set the tone for North Dakota, becoming the Summit League Indoor Pentathlon Champion with a school record 4,080 points to start the day. Her point total in the pentathlon currently moves her into No. 15 nationally. The top 16 student-athletes nationally at the conclusion of all conference championships will qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships.
On her way to the pentathlon title, Ulseth won three of the five pentathlon events and finished second in both the shot put and 800 meters. In the second pentathlon event of the day, Ulseth also broke the school record in the high jump with a clearance of 5-9 1/4 (1.76m). She also set a personal-best in the shot put with a throw of 37-2 1/2 (11.34m).
Benson finished as the runner-up in the pentathlon with 3,712 points, improving her No. 2 point total in program history. She was second in the pentathlon high jump with a leap of 5-7 (1.70m). Benson set a PR of 2:23.31 in the final event of the pentathlon in the 800 meters.
Brooklynn Gould took sixth in the pentathlon with 3,464 points, trailed by Elle Thorson in 10th with 3,241 points. Gould was second in the pentathlon long jump with a PR of 17-10 1/4 (5.44m) and set a personal-best in the 800 meters in a time of 2:24.01.
North Dakota added 11 points to its point total in the weight throw, where the Hawks went 3-6-7. Mohring earned all-conference honors, finishing third with a toss of 63-0 1/4 (19.21m), followed by Allison Lardy taking sixth in 59-5 (18.11m) and Kenna Curry finishing seventh with a throw of 58-7 1/2 (17.87m).
Jadyn Keeler took seventh in the 3,000 meters with a PR of 9:52.60 to add two more points to UND's point total, also moving her up to No. 5 in the North Dakota record books.
Ulseth and Jennifer Parent added five more points in the long jump, with Ulseth taking sixth (18-5 3/4, 5.63m) and Parent placing seventh (18-3 3/4, 5.58m).
The final points for the UND women came in the distance medley relay (Mikayla Weiss, Courtney Werner, Jerzie Finstad and Conny Wohlfahrt), where North Dakota finished seventh in 12:48.70 for two more points.
On the track, the Fighting Hawk men picked up their first four points of the meet in the distance medley relay from the team of Matt Russell, Max Baker, Alec Nelson and Nelson Ruto. The men's DMR squad placed fifth in a time of 10:23.15, running the sixth-best time in school history.
Michaela Oosthuizen ran a personal-best of 2:12.97 to qualify for the 800-meter final, moving up to No. 7 in school history in the event. On the men's side, Nelson also ran a PR in the 800 meters with a time of 1:53.61 to move up to No. 5 on the UND top-10 list, missing out on the finals by 0.22 seconds.
Hinewai Knowles earned the final qualifying spot in the women's 60-meter hurdles with a personal-best time of 8.80 in prelims, improving her No. 4 time on the North Dakota top-10 list. Aleece Durbin also ran an 8.86 to improve her No. 5 time, followed by Mackenzie Severson in 9.14 to move up to No. 9.
Mitchel Wangler qualified for the finals in the men's 60-meter hurdles in a time of 8.29.
Jory Vasek clocked a PR of 49.85 in the 400-meter prelims and now owns the ninth-fastest time in program history.
All three Hawks in the women's 60-meter prelims improved their marks on the Fighting Hawk top-10 list but will narrowly miss out on the finals on Saturday. Severson ran a 7.77 to tie for the No. 3 mark on the list, followed by Durbin getting 7.78 for No. 5 and Knowles finishing in 7.79 for the six-spot on the all-time performance list.
At the conclusion of day one for the heptathlon, Trenton Hanseder is the top Hawk in eighth place with 2,435 points. His throw of 36-0 (10.97m) in the shot put was a personal-best.
Ben Hidani sits 11th in the heptathlon with 2,394 points and recorded a PR in the shot put with a lob of 32-3 3/4 (9.85m). Aric David is currently 13th with 2,370 points. David notched PR's in both the shot put (33-7 1/4, 10.24m) and high jump (6-0, 1.83m).
North Dakota will host day two of the Summit League Indoor Championships on Saturday. The meet will commence at 9:30 a.m. (CT) with the final heptathlon events, followed by field events starting at 11 a.m. (CT) and events on the track beginning at 1 p.m. (CT). Live results will continue to be available at HerosTiming.com, and the meet will be streamed at HBConnects.com/undtrack, with a live stream and camera angles from the track, high jump, long jump, throws and pole vault areas.
