Nicole Court-Menendez

MITCHELL, S.D. The Dakota Wesleyan University men s and women s indoor track and field season gets underway at the Myrle Hanson Memorial Open at 1 p.m. Saturday at Black Hills State University Saturday in Spearfish, S.D.

Under interim head coach Derik Fossum, the Tigers are ready for another successful season with several key performers returning and a number of fresh faces ready to make an impact.

We have a very young team, which is exciting,” Fossum said. We expect to see consistent effort and dedication, positive attitudes, and attention to detail by each of our student-athletes. If we create those habits, the positive results will come. Our success will be defined by us knowing at the end of the season we did everything we could to improve each and every day, student-athletes and coaches alike.”

Top returners on the women s side include All-GPAC performer sophomore Skylar Forgey (Colome, S.D.), who will be a strong factor for the Tigers in the middle distance events.

Junior Nicole Court-Menendez comes into the 2015 indoor track season after going 4-for-4 in the All-American honors department through her first two years at DWU. Court-Menendez has taken eighth place in the 3,000-meter race walk each of the last two years at the NAIA Indoor National Championships. She is one of just two Tiger athletes to ever earn four or more All-American honors while at DWU, joining Jamey Sperle who accomplished the feat seven times for the track team.

Our expectations for Nicole is to continue to be really competitive at the national level,” Fossum said. She has another chance to make history at DWU this year in continuing to break her own school records and to achieve her fifth and sixth All-American honors in three years at the school.”

On the men s side, junior Daniel Porter (Plattsmouth, Neb.) is set for a strong year for the Tigers in the triple jump. He has come close in his first two season to finishing in the top eight at the Great Plains Athletic Conference Championships. Porter is also the kicker and punter for the DWU football team.

The Tigers have two seniors, including Abby Fossum (Canton, S.D.) who looks to be a factor in the jumps for the women s team. Senior Ryan Antaya (Plankinton, S.D.) is back to compete in the throws for the Tigers for his senior season with the men.

Fossum said he has a positive outlook for the newcomers on the both the men s and women s teams.

We have a fantastic group of freshmen who have already made a big impact on our team,” Fossum said. John Dosch, Tyson Allen, Jeremiah Panec, Lane Tibbs, Morgan Aughenbaugh, Shailhyn Schweigert, Tyra Patzlaff, and Courtney Albers show up every day with a positive attitude and they work very hard. We expect a few of them to be very competitive this year as freshmen, which is tough to do in our conference.”