The Wayne State men’s track and field team racked up 69 points to finish third at the NSIC Indoor Championship this past weekend in Mankato, Minn. It was the team’s best finish at the championship meet since 2008, when they were also third.

The WSC women finished 11th with 17 points, led by national qualifier Michaela Dendinger.

“We pretty much maxed out in points,” Head Coach Marlon Brink said. “We scored about everywhere we could.”

WSC’s success started two weeks ago at the heptathlon/pentathlon portion of the championship when Robert Sullivan and Derek Lahm gave the Wildcats an early lead with 16 points.
Sullivan won the heptathlon with a school record 5,141 points, followed by Lahm in third with 4,970 points.

WSC’s other conference champion was Antoine Bardou in the 1,000-meter with a time of 2:28.95. Just a couple of hours earlier, Bardou earned a fourth-place finish in the mile (4:13.69).

Lahm added a fourth-place finish in the long jump (23’6¾’’) and a fifth-place finish in the triple jump (47’3¾’’).

Other medalists for the men included Braxton Adams in the 60-meter (second, 6.93), Brady Metz in the triple jump (third, 48’1/2’’) and long jump (seventh, 22’11 ¾’’), Clay Kramper in the 200-meter (sixth, 22.38), Matt Nemec in the weight throw (sixth, 56’1 ¼’’), Cade Kalkowski in the weight throw (seventh, 55’6½’’) and Nick Fly in the 1,000-meter (seventh, 2:36.99).

In the relays, the distance medley relay of Nick Schmidt, Brandon Marker, Kak Ayaj and Fly was eighth (10:45.61) and the 4×400-meter relay of Marker, Habib Jallow, Nathan Pearson and Travis Eller was eighth (3:28.86).

The 4×400-meter relay team stepped up in the absence of its two best runners, Lahm and Kramper, who were out with injury concerns.

“So many people stepped up. That was bigger than any individual performance,” Brink said. “It was satisfying to see a team effort.”

For the women, Dendinger was second in the weight throw (63’4¼’’) and third in the shot put (46’¾’’).

The other two medalists were Tia Jones in the shot put (seventh, 43’4½’’) and Melissa Kroll in the 600-meter (eighth, 1:43.55).

“The women finished one place higher than last year, so that’s an improvement,” Brink said. “Tia and Melissa were able to pick up some points that weren’t on paper.”

On the men’s side, Minnesota State won the team championship with 183 points, followed by Sioux Falls (154), Wayne State (69), Augustana (67), U-Mary (65.5), Minnesota-Duluth (47), Minnesota State-Moorhead (45), SW Minnesota State (45), Northern State (39), Concordia-St. Paul (21) and Minot State (3).

On the women’s side, Minnesota State won the team championship with 171 points, followed by U-Mary (103), Winona State (100.5), Minnesota-Duluth (82), Augustana (58), Concordia-St. Paul (45.66), Northern State (41), St. Cloud State (39), Minnesota State-Moorhead (37), Sioux Falls (33.33), Wayne State (17), SW Minnesota State (10.5) and Minot State (1). Upper Iowa failed to score any points.

“The NSIC is a very talented conference,” Brink said. “It’s probably one of the top three Division II conferences in the country.”

Dendinger qualified for nationals in the shot put and weight throw and Sullivan qualified in the heptathlon. Nationals will be held March 9-11 in Birmingham, Ala.

“It feels great,” Sullivan said. “The road was hard, but getting to this point makes all the hours of film and absence of a social life worth it.”

This is Dendinger’s second trip to nationals. She qualified as a sophomore in 2015 before red shirting last year due to injury.

“It feels great to compete with the best in Division II,” Dendinger said. “After my injury, I worked twice as hard to get back to where I left off finish off this indoor season.”