July 14, 2026
GREENWOOD, Ind. – Two Dakota State (S.D.) standouts headlined a group of outstanding student-athletes named to the 2025-26 Academic All-America® men's track & field/cross country teams as selected by College Sports Communicators (CSC).
Cody Farland and
Tysen Grinde were named to the Second Team.
Farland is one of the six repeat selections on the CSC Academic All-America® men's track & field/cross country NAIA teams. He is joined in a return selection by Luca Madeo of Cumberlands (Ky.), Josh Forbes of Taylor (Ind.), Evan Hodkinson of Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio), Eric Materna of Marian (Ind.), and Ryan Stade of Montreat (Ohio).
Farland was on the Second Team All-America® selection in 2023-24.
The NAIA Academic All-America® program is being financially supported by the NAIA national governance structure to assist CSC with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the 2025-26 NAIA Academic All-America® program.
Farland earned his third NAIA All-America status this past spring for the Trojans. He was on the 4 x 800-meter relay team – with
Nolan Slominski,
Tyler Nicke, and
Franklin Johns – that finished fourth in the national final with a time of 7 minutes, 32.13 seconds on May 20.
It was the first time since the 2010 outdoor season that the Trojan men's 4 x 800-meter relay team earned NAIA All-America status (Andy Cody, Matt Fideler,
Cody Foreman, and Tyler Van Peursem).
Farland, Slominski, Nicke, and Johns broke the outdoor men's 4 x 800-meter relay in the national semifinals, the day before the national final (on May 19). They finished the semifinals with a new school record time of 7 minutes, 29.08 seconds, breaking the previous record by the 2010 relay team by Coy, Fideler, Foreman, and Van Peursem with a time of 7:30.74.
Farland also earned Frontier Conference All-Conference status in the outdoor 4 x 800-meter relay last May. Cody is a graduate student in cyber operations at Dakota State University.
Grinde had a stellar track & field season for Dakota State, earning NAIA All-America status in heptathlon (indoor) and decathlon (outdoor). He added an NAIA All-American in indoor high jump.
He finished in a three-way tie in the high jump at the NAIA Indoor Track & Field Championships, clearing the height of 1.99 meters (6 feet, 6.25 inches). It was the first time since 1997 that a Trojan athlete earns NAIA Indoor All-America high jump status (Kurt Wallace).
Grinde piled up a career best 5,181 points (second most points scored in DSU men's heptathlon school history) to place sixth at the NAIA national heptathlon, earning the All-America status. It marked the fifth straight year that DSU had an All-America heptathlon athlete since 2022.
He added another NAIA All-America status in the decathlon at the national meet last May. Grinde rose from being placed 14
th after the first three events and finished strong with fourth-place finish. He scored a career best 6,982 points to earn his second straight NAIA Outdoor Track & Field decathlon, his fourth overall NAIA All-America status at Dakota State.
His decathlon score is the second most in DSU men's outdoor track & field school record, behind Treshawn Roberts with 7,172 points in 2024.
Additionally, Grinde also swept the Frontier Conference high jump titles during the indoor and outdoor track meets. He also earned All-Conference in the heptathlon and decathlon. He shared the Co-Frontier Conference Men's Indoor Field Athlete-of-the-Meet with Ty Leischner of Dickinson State (N.D.), scoring the most points in the field events.
Tysen is a junior computer science major at Dakota State University.
