YANKTON, S.D. (AP) - Randy Fischer can’t hide his excitement.
The head track & field coach at Mount Marty University has waited a long time - he is in his 14th season - for his program to have its own facility.
Since the school unveiled the new Ruth Donohoe First Dakota Fieldhouse last fall, Fischer and his colleagues at Mount Marty were not shy about their goals for the new building.
They wanted to hopefully someday bring in a major track meet.
That goal will be accomplished in year one.
In a joint announcement last month, the NAIA, Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) and Mount Marty revealed that the 2021 NAIA Indoor Track & Field Championships will be moved from Brookings to Yankton, on March 3-6.
“We’re really blessed. It’s been an amazing venture,” Fischer said. “The facility turned out to be as good as it could be. We’re just excited to be able to host such an event. It’ll be a game-changer for Mount Marty.”
Originally, the national meet was scheduled to be held at the Sanford Jackrabbit Athletic Complex in Brookings, but that facility was no longer able to host the event due to COVID-19 restrictions.
That began a series of discussions that ultimately led to Mount Marty expressing interest in bringing the meet to Yankton, according to GPAC commissioner Corey Westra.
Seven months after the $15 million, 100,000-square foot fieldhouse opened, it will host a national meet.
”We’ve made some really large investments in academic facilities, athletic facilities and housing facilities in the last couple of years, and these type of events are what we designed these facilities for,” MMU athletic director Chris Kassin said. “It’s a wonderful opportunity.”
Dakota State University (Madison) will remain as the host school for the event, which will now be a four-day meet - it has previously been a three-day event - to limit the number of participants and other people inside the fieldhouse.
“We are extremely happy that we could come up with an alternative when we lost the facility at South Dakota State,” said Dakota State athletic director Jeff Dittman.
Westra said he was provided a tour of the new fieldhouse by Fischer during this fall’s GPAC cross country championships held in Yankton.
“My initial reaction was, ‘Wow, what a beautiful facility,’” Westra said. “It is big. It doesn’t look that big on the outside, but when you get in there, there is a lot of space.”
The amount of space, specifically on the ends of the track, will come in handy when officials will want to spread athletes out for safety reasons, Westra added.
Ultimately, officials wanted to provide student-athletes with an opportunity to compete during the pandemic.
“It’s a tough year for everyone, and I think this will really lift some spirits,” said Courtney Fegter, the NAIA championship sport manager for indoor track & field.
There will also be a significant economic boost to the city of Yankton and the surrounding communities, according to Westra.
According to the NAIA, last year’s national indoor meet in Brookings produced $1.9 million to the local economy, and brought in 1,415 athletes from 31 states to Brookings. There was also an average stay of four nights with approximately 650 hotel rooms used per day.
Yankton will now have the opportunity to bring those visitors to town.
“Yankton has a rich track tradition,” Westra said. “Many great meets have been contested there.”
Mount Marty has twice hosted the GPAC outdoor track & field meet since the opening of Williams Field, mostly recently in 2019 - the last outdoor meet in the conference.
“Yankton will do a great job of hosting this and so will the community of Yankton,” Westra added.
While the rest of the country will see Mount Marty’s new fieldhouse for the first time, the impact of the new facility is already being felt by the current Lancer athletes, according to Fischer. And it will have a continued impact on future recruits, he added.
“It’ll be huge, especially when you have a national meet,” Fischer said. “Our recruitment should improve quite a bit. We’ve never had something like this to recruit to and train on.
“All of those things will be huge for our program.”
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