INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) announced the qualifiers for the 2025 Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Tuesday afternoon. Representing the Black Hills State University men's program will be Braden Anderson, who is set to compete in the 800m run at the CSU Pueblo ThunderBowl in Pueblo, Colorado. He will run in the prelims at 6:15 p.m. on Friday, May 23, and will look to advance to the finals at 7:10 p.m. on Saturday, May 24.
 
It will be the second consecutive year and the ninth time in the last 11 DII championships that a Yellow Jacket men's track & field athlete has qualified for the outdoor national meet. Additionally, Anderson becomes just the second BHSU athlete to qualify for the 800m run at the outdoor nationals during the Green & Gold's DII era, joining Justin Thorstad who competed in the event in 2018.
 
The Haxtun, Colorado, native has done nothing but re-write the Black Hills State record book all season long, re-breaking his school record in the indoor 800m run once during the winter and breaking the outdoor 800m run record twice this spring. After originally claiming the indoor record in February of 2024, he re-broke his record just over a year later in Grand Forks, North Dakota, running to a time of 1:50.93 at the UND Tune-Up. Then just a week later he earned First Team All-RMAC honors in the event with a third place finish at the indoor conference championships in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with a time of 1:55.03.
 
Turning the page to the outdoor season, Anderson started the second half of the year with the fourth-fastest time in program history, but it did not take long for him to capture the school record and an NCAA Provisional time. At the Chuck Haering Invitational, hosted at the site of the DII Championships at the CSU Pueblo ThunderBowl, he became the first Yellow Jacket to ever clock a sub-1:50 time in the event with a time of 1:49.96, securing the time needed for the NCAA standard. During the outdoor season he ran a total of five sub-1:51 times in the 800m run, all of which would rank first in program history. He added a second all-conference honor this season, running to a fourth place finish at the outdoor conference championships with a time of 1:50.11 for Second Team All-RMAC in Golden, Colorado. He gave himself a full head of steam and a momentum boost entering the national championships next week, re-breaking his school record which he set just over a month ago with his second-ever sub-1:50 time with a career-best 1:49.82 at the Concordia Twilight this past Saturday.