May 11, 2026
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The top 16 student-athletes who have qualified for the 2026 NAIA Women's and Men's Outdoor Track and Field National Championships have been announced Monday evening.
This year, the qualifiers will meet in Asheville, N.D., at Karl Straus Track for the final competition of the season.
Six qualifiers for the 2026 women's championship also competed in the 2025 championship heptathlon, including Dakota State's (S.D.)
Amelie Steins where she finished 12
th in last year's national meet.
Casey Olson also qualified for the heptathlon for the Trojans. All six returners from last year's championship have qualified with a higher mark than what they set at the previous national championship.
It's the first time in Dakota State women's outdoor track & field program history to send two heptathlon athletes to the NAIA National Championships.
Steins, Frontier Conference Women's Outdoor Track & Field Most Valuable Athlete, is seeded No. 6 on the heptathlon list with a school record 4,796 points set at the conference multi-events meet on April 19-20 in Dickinson, N.D. Olson is tied for No. 13 with her personal record 4,505 points with Maria Connealy of Benedictine (Kan.), which was also set at the conference meet last month.
Dakota State and Central Methodist (Mo.) are the only two schools that qualified two athletes in the heptathlon. The heptathlon gets underway next Wednesday (May 20) at 10:15 a.m. (Eastern Time)/9:15 a.m. (Central Time) with four events and continues next Thursday (May 21) at 9:30 a.m. (ET)/8:30 a.m. (CT) with four remaining events.
On the men's division in the decathlon, six qualifiers for the 2026 championship also competed in the 2025 national meet including DSU's
Tysen Grinde where he finished fifth. Those returners from the 2025 championship have qualified with a higher mark than what they set at the previous national championship.
Grinde is seeded No. 7 in the decathlon with his career best mark of 6,667 points set at the Frontier Conference multi-events conference meet last April.
The NAIA decathlon starts next Wednesday at 10 a.m. (ET)/9 a.m. (CT) with five events and concludes next Thursday with five remaining events at 11 a.m. (ET)/10 a.m. (CT).
The final qualifiers list for the championships will be announced Wednesday, May 13, at 10 a.m. (Central Time) on NAIA.org.
