By: Eric Zahn

For Immediate Release
Friday, March 10, 2017
Results

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – One of the most special seasons in University of Sioux Falls Track & Field culminated in their third individual national championship as Courtney Crandall cruised to the women's pole vault national title on Friday at the NCAA Championships. On top of winning the title, Crandall broke the NCAA Championship meet record while tying her own USF record.
 
A redshirt senior from Rapid City, S.D., Crandall entered Friday's competition as the top seed and was coming off a record-setting conference championship. With the pressure of defending her top seed mark, Crandall lived up to her billing with a flawless victory. She cleared her first three bars with ease on the first attempt and that was all she needed as no other vaulter was able to clear 4.12 meters (13 feet-6.25 inches) while Crandall did so in her first effort.
 
In addition to her national title, Crandall tied her USF record and her mark that stands as the fourth-highest pole vault mark in NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field history. She earned her third All-American honor, adding to her 2015 indoor honor, which was achieved in the same building as her national title was on Friday, and her 2016 outdoor fifth-place All-American finish. Crandall becomes the third pole vaulter and overall athlete to win an individual national title for USF, joining Brigitte Gross, who won the NCAA Indoor women's pole vault title in 2014, and Jagger Gran, who captured the 2015 NCAA Indoor men's pole vault title. Since joining NCAA Division II, Crandall's title is USF's second indoor women's pole vault national title, the most for any Division II program over that span.

In other action on Friday, Augustana’s Olivia Montez Brown earned All-American honors in the pentathlon after finishing in fourth with a personal best 3,863 points on Friday. Montez Brown earned All-American honors in the long jump on Thursday. Concordia-St. Paul’s Wakpor Ighovojah  fell four points shy of breaking her own school record in the heptathlon with 3580 points to finish inside the top-12 to earn All-America Second Team honors. Ighovojah's All-America honors are the first ever for the women's track and field.

For the second straight year the University of Minnesota Duluth's distance medley relay team came up just short of the gold ring at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships. On Friday night in Birmingham, Ala., the Bulldogs went neck-and-neck with Adams State University down the stretch but settled for a second consecutive runner up finish. The quartet of senior Breanna Colbenson (1,200-meter leg), freshmen Paige Du Bois (400 meters) and Elizabeth Kyes (800 meters) and senior Emi Trost (1,200 meters) finished in a time of 11:16.90 -- nearly 10 seconds better than the school record (11:26.86) set at the 2016 NCAA II indoor nationals in Pittsburg, Kan. Adams State clocked in at 11:15.28 to take top honors while Cedarville University was third in 11:19.55