The Northern State men’s track squad capped off an impressive showing at the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Outdoor Track Championships last weekend in Mankato, Minn.
Northern placed third in the team race, its best finish since 2009.
Carson Barnett won the javelin with a throw of 62.75 meters. Teammate Levi Reis took second with a toss of 62.07 meters.
Birnir Vagn Finnsson finished second in the decathlon with 6,515 points in the 10-event competition.
Seth Martens and Drew Salfrank finished fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 400-meter dash. Chris Weber was fourth in the 100-meter dash, crossing the line in 10.56, and helped the 400-meter relay team to a third-place finish.
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In the women’s division, the Wolves placed seventh.
Renea Taylor took third in the 300-meter hurdles, while finishing eighth in both the 100-meter hurdles and 100-meter dash. Cassidy Gough won the hammer throw with a toss of 54.33 meters. Megan Pickering had a third-place finish in the 10,000-meter run.
Barnett, Reis and Taylor earned places on the all-conference team.
Minnesota State, Mankato won both of the team titles.
Two Northern State baseball players earn all-conference honors
Two Northern State baseball players were named to the 2024 NSIC all-conference team.
Junior Brennan Phillips was named to the second team, while redshirt senior Karson Hesser was named to the defensive team.
Phillips, a catcher, led the Northern offense batting .371 with 65 hits, 15 doubles, two triples, three home runs, 25 runs batted in and 48 runs scored. He had a .531 slugging percentage and .458 on-base percentage. Defensively, Phillips recorded a .989 fielding percentage with 249 putouts, 25 assists and only three errors.
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Hesser, an outfielder, finished with a .992 fielding percentage and 247 putouts, 16 assists and just two errors. The senior was no slouch offensively, sitting second on the team with a .347 average, 60 hits, 16 doubles, three home runs, 42 RBI and 34 runs scored.
Northern finished the year with an 18-31 overall record and a 13-26 mark in the NSIC.
Masten hired to work in Northern State Athletics Department
Sam Masten has been hired as coordinator of marketing and events for the Northern State Athletics Department.
Masten, who played basketball for the Wolves before playing professionally in England, started his job Monday, May 13.
His duties will focus primarily on the coordination of all game operations and assisting with various athletics-related special events, according to a news release from Northern. He will also work with marketing and sponsorship agreements, assist with ticket sales and customer service initiatives and work to increase student and overall fan attendance at sporting events.
“My experiences at NSU as a student-athlete were second to none. I can’t wait to get to work and help create those same experiences for the current athletic programs,” Masten said in the release.
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He played two seasons with the Wolves, scoring 1,010 points. He was named NSIC North player of the year in 2023 and was an NCAA Division II all-American.
Masten graduated from Northern in 2023 with a degree in sports management.
In one season with the Derby Trailblazers of the National Basketball League in England, Maston was named Division I most valuable player. He averaged 19.4 points and 6.4 assists per game. He was also head coach for the University of Derby men’s basketball team.