Big Indoor Meet

[JackJD]

SDSU is hosting a huge indoor track and field meet this weekend. Today, 1/13/15, more than 1500 athletes representing 42 schools took advantage of one of the best indoor facilities in the country. Very few facilities can handle that kind of a crowd and do so with plenty of room for the athletes and spectators. The meet continues tomorrow starting at 9:30 am.

I've had the pleasure of working at the meet. From time to time I've asked athletes from visiting schools what they thought of the new SJAC and the comments are uniformly "wow", "awesome" "great track" "great facility" and related.

Schools traveled from Winnipeg, Canada; Billings, Mt; Gillette, WY; Duluth, MN; Valley City and Dickinson, ND; Des Moines, IA. The defending national Junior College champs, Iowa Lakes, is back for the second meet of the season in the SJAC. Summit colleagues include NDSU; USD and Omaha. UND out of the Big Sky Conference is there. Local schools Augustana and U of Sioux Falls were there with their top-notch distance runners and USF's amazing pole vaulters (winning vault of 17 ft 1.75 inches). Minnesota State-Mankato and NSIC compatriots Northern State, Minot, St. Cloud State had some strong performances. Black Hills State from the Rocky Mountain Conference brought some strong competitors. All the smaller schools in South Dakota were there including Mt. Marty; Dakota State; Dakota Wesleyan.

If you're planning on going to Brookings for the NDSU basketball game, stop in at the track meet and see the facility in action. Make sure you stay for the wrestling match against Stanford! Big day in Brookings!

[JackJD]

Re: Big Indoor Meet

42 teams represented...somewhere north of 1500 participants...about more than a 1000 spectators: it was something to see. There are very few indoor facilities that could handle this meet.

[zooropa]

Re: Big Indoor Meet

42 teams represented...somewhere north of 1500 participants...about more than a 1000 spectators: it was something to see. There are very few indoor facilities that could handle this meet.

Attendance was over 2100.

Pretty sure the Jacks will have no difficulty drawing in major conference programs in future years.

[RochJack69]

Re: Big Indoor Meet

SDSU is hosting a huge indoor track and field meet this weekend. Today, 1/13/15, more than 1500 athletes representing 42 schools took advantage of one of the best indoor facilities in the country. Very few facilities can handle that kind of a crowd and do so with plenty of room for the athletes and spectators. The meet continues tomorrow starting at 9:30 am.

I've had the pleasure of working at the meet. From time to time I've asked athletes from visiting schools what they thought of the new SJAC and the comments are uniformly "wow", "awesome" "great track" "great facility" and related.

Schools traveled from Winnipeg, Canada; Billings, Mt; Gillette, WY; Duluth, MN; Valley City and Dickinson, ND; Des Moines, IA. The defending national Junior College champs, Iowa Lakes, is back for the second meet of the season in the SJAC. Summit colleagues include NDSU; USD and Omaha. UND out of the Big Sky Conference is there. Local schools Augustana and U of Sioux Falls were there with their top-notch distance runners and USF's amazing pole vaulters (winning vault of 17 ft 1.75 inches). Minnesota State-Mankato and NSIC compatriots Northern State, Minot, St. Cloud State had some strong performances. Black Hills State from the Rocky Mountain Conference brought some strong competitors. All the smaller schools in South Dakota were there including Mt. Marty; Dakota State; Dakota Wesleyan.

If you're planning on going to Brookings for the NDSU basketball game, stop in at the track meet and see the facility in action. Make sure you stay for the wrestling match against Stanford! Big day in Brookings!

Probably a far cry from the indoor track facilities of the 60's!!

[JackJD]

Re: Big Indoor Meet

Attendance was over 2100.

I was just guestimating...seems like at any one time there were around 1100-1200 sitting in the stands. Counting both Friday and Saturday crowds, I agree it had to be well over 2100.

[JackJD]

Re: Big Indoor Meet

Here's a ling to the story on GoJacks.com --- results in pdf are linked with the story.

Impressive performances including three races by freshman (Eden Prairie, MN) mid-distance ace Cal Lawton which earned him a share of the Summit League Athlete of the Week for Indoor Track. This week's award will be one of many Summit League honors he'll receive in his career. Lawton ran a 1:52.82 800 meters, good for sixth in that event. Another Jackrabbit Freshman, also from Eden Prairie High School, Ayub Kassim, ran 1:52.86 and finished seventh. Those are outstanding times for freshmen, particularly considering this is early in the season. Both now have Top 10 spots on the "all-time" list at SDSU for 800 meters.