SDSU’s DeHaven, Burdick earn Yearly Indoor Awards

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SIOUX FALLS – South Dakota State’s head coach Rod DeHaven and senior distance runner Kyle Burdick were named as The Summit League’s men’s coach and track athlete of the year on Wednesday.

It is DeHaven’s second career honor in the indoor track and field season, 10th overall (seven from men’s cross country, one from women’s cross country). He is one of four men’s coaches in the league to win both the men’s cross country and indoor track and field coach of the year honors.

Coach DeHaven helped the Jackrabbits win their first Summit League title since being in the league (2008) and the first men’s team title since 1991 (won four as a member of the North Central Conference, DII).

Helping score 30 points in the indoor league championships was Burdick, winning the mile, 3,000m, and 5,000m en route to the school’s second-ever track championships MVP. He had two record-breaking performances - in the mile (4:06.06), he reset the 32-year old league championship record while in the 5,000m he reset Joel Reichow’s (‘17) 2017 meet-record performance (14:21.45).

Burdick finished the indoor campaign by leading the league in all three events and winning seven of the eight competitions throughout the season. The Rapid City native noted an undefeated indoor 3,000m career, including three league crowns, and back-to-back championships in the mile.

His championship 5,000-meter performance is No. 4 all-time mark at SDSU while setting the No. 2 all-time mark in the mile earlier in the season, behind DeHaven.

Burdick is the second SDSU runner to claim the indoor track athlete of the year accolade behind Reichow, who also won both the championship MVP and yearly honor in 2017. However, throughout his career, Burdick has claimed two more outdoor championship MVP’s (2017, 2018) and another track athlete of the year crown outdoors (2017) while hoisting the first most outstanding performer last year indoors (2018).

Last week, Burdick was one of five Jackrabbits on The Summit League’s Academic All-League teams, earning his second indoor nomination (2017, 2019) and sixth overall (2017, 2018 cross country, 2017, 2018 outdoor).

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The Summit League outdoor preseason poll was released last Friday (March 8) with the men selected as runner-up and the women fourth. King and Burdick, along with fellow senior Kasie Vollmer and sophomore Trent Francom were nominated as preseason athletes to watch (Full Release).

The Jackrabbits will open up their outdoor campaign in the last weekend of March (29-30). The teams plan to split across the country at four meets - the San Francisco State Distance Carnival, Stanford Invitational, Drake Invitational, and ORU Invitational.