Catching Up: A Look at Former Area Athletes

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By TRAVIS MESTER

The Daily Republic

Gregory native Alexa Duling will represent the University of South Dakota women’s track and field team at the NCAA West Preliminaries beginning today.

The event will be hosted by the University of Oregon and will run through Saturday.

Duling, a sophomore for the Coyotes, will compete in the 400-meter dash. The first round of competition for Duling is set for 7:50 p.m. today. She won the 400 at the Great West Outdoor Championships, which were held May 14-16 in Orem, Utah.

Duling ran a personal-best time of 54.52 seconds at the Great West Outdoor Championships.

USD has seven athletes qualified for the West Preliminary Round of the NCAA Outdoor Championships. This is the first year the Coyotes are eligible for the Division I postseason.

n The NAIA National Outdoor Track and Field Meet begins today and runs through Saturday in Marion, Ind.

The University of Sioux Falls track and field team has a trio of former area prep athletes that will be in competition.

Brigitte Gross, a sophomore for the Cougars, is an Alexandria native. She won the NAIA Indoor Pole Vault crown and finished second at the Great Plains Athletic Conference Outdoor Meet in the event. She enters nationals with the top qualifying height of 13-feet-3½ inches.

Mitchell native Kendra Knight and Kimball native Mel Kroupa will each run a leg in the Cougars’ 1,600-meter relay. The relay was the final event of the GPAC Championships and clinched the team title for USF. Knight and Kroupa helped the relay finish in a time of 3 minutes, 48.55 seconds, which is the sixth-fastest time in the event entering the NAIA national meet.

Knight also won the 400-meter dash at the GPAC meet. She ran the race in a time of 55.80 seconds, which will seed her seventh going into nationals. Knight also will be part of the Cougars 400-meter relay team, which has the 12th-fastest qualifying time.

n South Dakota State University’s Kelli Fiegen, a Parkston native, is training with USA Volleyball’s A2 team this week in Dallas, Texas.

Fiegen is the defending Summit League Volleyball Player of the Year. The A2 team is the second-level team of USA Volleyball and is comprised of athletes with college eligibility remaining.

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