March 5, 2026

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Dakota State (S.D.) collected an All-America status on the first day of the 61^st annual NAIA Men's Indoor Track & Field National Championships.  The three-day national indoor track & field meet is being hosted at Alachua County Sports & Events Center at Celebration Pointe for the second straight year.

Tysen Grinde highlighted the first day for the Trojans in two different events, competing in four events of the heptathlon and the high jump.

He started the first event of the heptathlon with a time of 7.44 seconds in the 60-meter dash, earning 732 points.  He added 750 points in the long jump after leaping 6.73 meters (22 feet, 1 inch).

Grinde tossed 11.75 meters (38 feet, 6.75 inches) to earn 591 points in the shot-put for the Trojans.  He closed the first day of the heptathlon as the top high jumper, clearing the height of 2.00 meters (6 feet, 6.75 inches) for 803 points.

He is currently sixth in the heptathlon standings with 2,876 points.  He continues the heptathlon action Friday morning at 10 a.m. (Eastern Time)/9 a.m. (Central Time) with the 60-meter hurdles, followed by the pole vault, and the 1000-meter run.

Grinde continued his action in the high jump, where he finished in a three-way tie for fifth place with 1.99 meters mark (6 feet, 6.25 inches) with Daniel Blount of Ottawa (Kan.) and Julian Holt of Rochester Christian (Mich.).  As a result, he collected his first NAIA Indoor All-America status (his second overall with his decathlon last spring). 

Grinde became the first NAIA Indoor Track & Field All-America high jumper since DSU Hall of Famer Kurt Wallace in 1998 (Wallace was also an All-America indoor pentathlon in 1997).

Solomon Carter, Franklin Johns, Mohamed Muse, and Tyler Nicke (alternate Logan Recoy) ran in the second heat of the 4 x 800-meter relay.  The top two relay heat finishers and the next two fastest times advance to the finals.

The Trojan men's 4 x 800-meter relay team finished with a team season best time of 7 minutes, 41.12 seconds, placed third in the second heat.  DSU fell short to advance to the final, where they placed 10^th overall out of 21 teams that completed the relay.  Their time is the third fastest in the DSU men's indoor track & field school record book.

Dakota State scored 2.5 points after the first day of the meet in the team standings, tied for sixth place with Ottawa.

Besides Grinde continuing his action in the heptathlon Friday, three DSU weight throwers – Zachary Haugen, Tarin Bingham, and Oliver Tordsen – are set to compete at 3 p.m. (ET)/2 p.m. (CT).