The Bemidji State track and field teams will be at the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Track and Field Indoor Championships this weekend on the campus of Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Field events and track preliminaries begin Friday at noon and start against Saturday at 10 a.m.
Kristi Buerkle, Zac Preble and Brian Leonhardt lead the teams into the championships.
Preble, a senior, is the top-ranked multi-event athlete after school and NSIC-record performance at the NSIC multi championships.
Burkle, a junior, has been steadily improving each meet this winter after setting school records in the 200, 300, 400 and 800 this season. The 300-meter dash will not be held in Mankato, but Buerkle remains a contender for the 200, 400 and 800 titles.
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Bemidji State sophomore football player Brian Leonhardt has bursted onto the scene this winter for the Beavers field team. The tight end has provisionally qualified for the national meet and is on the fringes of making the field in the shot put event.
The NSIC Championships wrap up the indoor season for the Beavers who do not make it to the national tournament.
Bemidji State's Dan Bauer, a junior from Bemidji, has been named Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference baseball player of the week.
Bauer, a middle infielder and pitcher, helped the Beavers sweep four games from Northern State last weekend at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.
Bauer went 9-for-15, a .600 batting average, aiding the Beavers' wins by scores of 10-2, 17-4, 4-2 and 4-3 in eight innings.
Two of those nine hits were game-winners, both coming in Monday's doubleheader with the game tied, two outs and in the late innings.
Bauer had a team high in hits for the four games and tied a team high in runs batted in with seven. He added three runs, hit his first home run of the season and also had a double. He stole one base, recorded 11 assists and six putouts playing second base, going all four games without an error.
Bauer also earned a win on the mound in the 4-2 victory, pitching two innings, allowing two hits and striking out two batters.
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Bemidji State is off to a 6-2 start this season. The Beavers and St. Cloud State University will battle in the Metrodome Friday and Saturday in nonconference games.
