CHADRON, Neb. – Chadron State outdoor track and field is set to battle at Grubby's Easter Classic, hosted by South Dakota Mines in Rapid City this Saturday.

A crew of approximately 30 athletes will make the trip north for Saturday's competition, which will have a compact schedule due to weather forecasts. Field events will start at 12 p.m. while the running events will kick off at 1 p.m. A full meet schedule is available here.

Long Distance
All it took was not facing any RMAC competition for the Chadron State distance program to emerge as one of the stars of Chadron State's most recent competition, the Central Nebraska Challenge in Kearney on March 29. 

CSC's two event wins at the meet were both in the 5,000 meters. The Eagles went 1-2 on the men's side with senior Blaine Johnson winning the event in 15:41.58, three seconds ahead of freshman teammate Kaden Boltz. Samantha Rodewald won the women's event with a time of 19:16.01. 

Other CSC distance runners excelled despite not quite finding the top step. Chadron State had two of the top four finishers in the women's steeplechase with Kyndall Carnahan placing third in 12:03.60 and Katelyn Beshara placing fourth in the race. 

In the 1500, Nate Mann sealed a career-best performance as a senior, finishing fifth out of 48 entries in 4:06.72.

Highly Decorated
While he did not compete at the Kearney meet and is not slated to compete this Saturday, Chayton Bynes still found plenty of ways to stay in the news last week. 

On back-to-back days (March 25-26), Bynes was named the RMAC Outdoor Field Athlete of the Week and Indoor Field Athlete of the Year. 

STORY: Bynes Named RMAC Outdoor Field Athlete of the Week
STORY: Bynes Leads All-RMAC Nods as Indoor Field Athlete of the Year

In his outdoor debut, Bynes set a new school record and CSC facility record with a triple jump of 15.73 meters (51 feet, 7.25 inches) at the Con Marshall Early Bird meet. The mark still leads Division II in the 2025-26 outdoor season. 

Bynes's yearly accolade came after an indoor season where the Chadron native set an indoor triple jump school record, set an RMAC meet record while winning the conference title at that event and placed third at nationals after entering with the joint-best Division II mark. 

Performance Lists
Entering the month of April, Chadron State has secured two NCAA provisional qualifying marks – Bynes's division-leading triple jump and the Eagles 4x100 relay, as the team of Augustin Chiang, Esosa Iyengunmwena, Ryan Clapper and Joshua St. Jean currently ranks ninth in Division II with their best time of 40.47 seconds.

On the RMAC performance lists – two Eagle women's athletes are within the top five of their respective events, both in the throws. Shelby Ekwall ranks second in the RMAC with a shot put heave of 13.47m (44-2.5) in Chadron while Ashlyn Tapio is fourth in the discus after throwing it 43.41 meters (142-5) during the Kearney meet.

Chadron State has two men's relays in conference contention. CSC's 4x100 time that ranks ninth in Division II is good for second in the RMAC, while the 4x400 team of Ayden Hartzell, Hunter Lund, Diego Perez and Emmanuel Wani currently has the third-fastest time in the conference at 3:18.34. Of that quartet, only Hartzell is on Chadron State's projected "A" 4x400 relay. 

Individually for the men, Bynes leads the conference in the triple jump while two other throwers are within the top five – senior Tavion Leatherdale in the discus (3^rd, 48.09m/157-9) and sophomore Casey Miller in the shot put (4^th, 15.61m/51-2.75). 

The Eagles also have sprinters within the conference's top five in both the 200 and 400 for the men. Ryan Clapper ranks fourth in the conference at the moment with his season-best time of 21.20 while Hartzell is fifth in the 400 at 47.84 seconds, just ahead of teammate Christopher Cormier in sixth.