While students head home or to the beaches next week, Bison athletes will still be in action. Here is a quick look at what the Herd will be up to during the break.
Track and field
While one season ends, another one begins for the track teams.
The indoor season will come to a close this weekend in College Station, Texas, for the NCAA Indoor Championships.
The Bison sent a pair of athletes to the meet, which features just the top-16 athletes in each event. For the men, Alex Renner will take part in the shot put. Rose Jackson is the women’s entry, taking part in the pentathlon.
Jackson enters the meet rank No. 15 in the nation. She won the Summit League Championships with a school record 4,077 points. She also took home another three wins at the meet, in the long jump, 200m and 4×400 relay.
Jackson enters in good form, having personal best in four of the five pentathlon events in the past month.
Jackson is just the fifth woman to compete for the Bison at the Division I Indoor Championships individually. She joins elite company with Laura Hermanson, Whitney Carlson, Leslie Brost and Erin Teschuk.
Renner is the third man to make the meet, joining Matt Bishoff and Andy Lillejord, both in the heptathlon.
He enters the meet No. 12 in the nation while holding the NDSU record at 63-00.25
Not only does he hold the top mark in school indoor history, but marks 2-23 also have his name on them.
Renner finished second-team All-American at the NCAA Outdoor Championships last year and looks to make the top-8 to finish on the first-team this time out.
The rest of the team will start the outdoor season at Arizona State next week. The Baldy Castillo Invitational in Tempe, Arizona, will take place March 17.
Baseball
The Bison baseball team will escape the winds of Fargo over the break. Their week includes five games down in Florida for the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational.
The 6-6 team looks to go over .500 starting with a three-game set against St. Bonaventure this weekend. The games will be played in Winter Haven and Lakeland.
NDSU will stay in Winter Haven for a game against UMass on Tuesday before heading to Lake Wales to face Lehigh.
The end of the break marks the start of the Summit League Season with a three-game series in Tulsa, Oklahoma, against Oral Roberts. The Golden Eagles are the defending conference champions.
Softball
It will be a busy week for the NDSU softball team, who will also set up camp in Florida at the Stetson University Westin Invitational.
The Bison will play five games in three days on the first weekend. They will face hosts Stetson, Columbia, Colgate and twice against Manhattan College.
After a two-day break, they will visit the Swamp to take on the No. 3 Florida Gators in Gainesville.
The break will wrap up at the USF Michele Smith-Clearwater Parks & Rec Spring Tournament in Clearwater, Florida.
It will be another five games in three days and features stiff opposition. Opponents include No. 2 Auburn, USF, Missouri, Ohio State and Rutgers.
Golf
Both the men’s and women’s golf teams will take part in the second event of their spring season at the Jackrabbit Invitational in Las Vegas.
The women began the spring with an eighth-place finish at the Texas State Invitational last month. Natale Roth looks to keep momentum after her fifth top 10 performance this school year.
For the men, they look to build off a 14th place finish at the John Burns Intercollegiate last month. The bright spot for the Bison was freshman Andrew Israelson, who shot a 69 in the second round as he finished with a score one-under par for the tournament.