NDSU Track: Former West Fargo Packer Alex Talley Takes Bison Open Shotput Title

Talley PR'd With A Throw of 63 Feet 5 Inches

FARGO, N.D. — (NDSU Athletics) The North Dakota State men’s track & field team improved several nationally ranked performances and won seven more events to close out the Bison Open on Saturday afternoon.

While world leader Payton Otterdahl didn’t compete in the shot put, the NDSU men still had an extremely impressive showing with five Bison men registering personal-best throws. Sophomore Alex Talley threw 63-05.00 (19.33m) for the win, surpassing All-American Alex Renner for No. 2 all-time at NDSU and No. 15 on the national leaderboard this year.

Freshman Kristoffer Thomsen hit a season-best 62-00.25 (18.90m) to rank 24th in the NCAA this season, junior Michael Keogan threw 59-02.75 (18.05m) for 48th in the nation, and sophomore Trevor Otterdahl reached 56-06.00 (17.22m). The trio rank fourth, sixth and ninth, respectively on the NDSU all-time lists.

Bison senior Ryan Enerson won the heptathlon with a score of 5,111 points, and junior Ben Klimpke was the runner-up with a personal-best 5,043 to rank ninth in NDSU history.

Senior J.T. Butler won the 200m dash in 22.17, and sophomore Tim Heikkila won the 3000m in 8:53.51.

Freshman Josh Samyn (Winnipeg, Manitoba) won the 800m in 1:55.52 and led a Bison sweep of the top four places in the event. Jacob Rodin was second in 1:55.62, Keiser Freetly took third in 1:56.00, and Kurt TeBeest finished fourth in 1:56.23.

Junior Evan Kottsick won the mile in a personal-best 4:16.56. Connor Schank was the runner-up in 4:18.80.

Sophomore Noah Shafer won the pole vault, clearing 15-06.50 (4.74m).

Bison senior Kelle’Mon Hinton finished second in the triple jump at 48-10.25 (14.89m). Sophomore Brandon Lewis placed third in the long jump with a mark of 23-11.75 (7.31m), and sophomore Marcus Walton took third in the high jump, clearing 6-09.50 (2.07m).