NEW ORLEANS, La. – The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) announced their first checkpoint rankings of the outdoor track & field season on Tuesday, ranking teams as a whole and by events. The Black Hills State University women's pole vault squad found themselves as the No. 4 ranked squad in the country after seeing three student-athletes crack the Black Hills State All-Time Performance List last weekend at the Jack Christiansen Invitational.
 
In the meet at Fort Collins, the Yellow Jackets top four performers totaled a height of 14.60m between the quartet, averaging 3.65m on the day. Leading the way, Lauryn Bennett posted an NCAA Provisional mark of 3.80m (12' 5.5"), a career-best that ranks fifth in school history and is currently 16^th in NCAA Division II. Next it was both Erin Weibel and Gretchen Adamski who cleared 3.65m (11' 11.75"), the 33^rd best mark in DII. For Weibel, who already ranks seventh all-time in program history, the mark was just shy of a career-high, but for Adamski the new career-high put her ninth in the school record book. Rounding out the four Yellow Jacket vaulters, Brekkan Lockhart cleared a career-best 3.50m (11' 5.75") for tenth in school history and 62^nd nationally. In the RMAC, the Yellow Jacket pole vaulters currently rank first, fifth, fifth, and eighth respectively, while Hope Bryant also ranks tenth in the conference.