Matt Bye, Josie Herrmann and Jesse Middendorf were all named Indoor All-Americans by the NCAA as a result of their national qualifying marks in March.
Matt Bye, Josie Herrmann and Jesse Middendorf were all named Indoor All-Americans by the NCAA as a result of their national qualifying marks in March.
Posted: May 20, 2020

A Trio Of All-Americans

MOORHEAD, Minn. (5/19/20)--- Concordia indoor track and field standouts Matt Bye, Josie Herrmann and Jesse Middendorf received good news on Tuesday as all three were honored with All-American awards for the 2020 indoor season  because of their national qualifying marks for the NCAA National Indoor Meet which was supposed to be held on Mar. 13-14 but was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) announced that the NCAA Division III Executive Committee will recognize all 2020 National Indoor Meet qualifiers as All-Americans. All-American honors are usually warded to student/athletes who finish in the Top 8 of an individual event, or as a member of a Top 8 placing relay event, at the NCAA Championships.

Bye had qualified in the heptathlon while both Herrmann and Middendorf both posted a qualifying time in the 800 meters.

Bye and Middendorf become the first Cobber men's indoor All-American since 1996 when Aaron Banks won tha shot put. The two are only the third and fourth Concordia men's athletes in the history of the program to garner indoot All-American honors.   

Herrmann becomes the fourth Cobber women's athlete to earn All-American honors at the NCAA Indoor Championship Meet since 2010. Emma Peterson was the last Cobber athlete to earn indoor All-American honors when she tied for fourth in the high jump at the 2017 national meet. 

In the USTFCCCA release, the NCAA Executive Committee stated; based on the selected participants for the national championships initially announced by the NCAA on Sunday, Mar. 8, the following will be recognized as All-America for the 2020 Indoor Track & Field season:
- Individual events: ALL student-athletes declared and initially accepted into their event.
- Relay events: Members of ALL relays who produced the performance that was declared and initially accepted into their event.

A total of 675 athletes from 161 different institutions were honored on Tuesday.   

Bye earns his second straight All-American honor after finishing eighth in the decathlon at the 2019 NCAA National Outdoor Meet.

Bye qualified for the 2020 National Indoor Meet by scoring 4,779 points at the NDSU Bison Open on Feb. 7. Bye went on to win the heptathlon at the MIAC Indoor Championship Meet with a total of 4,689 points which won the event by 94 points. It marked his second straight indoor heptathlon. He was only the fourth Cobber athlete to win back-to-back conference heptathlon championships in program history.

Herrmann earns the first All-American honor of her collegiate career. She qualified for the national meet, and her subsequent All-American award, by posting a time of 2:15.55 at the MIAC Indoor Championship Meet. Her finishing time earned her the 17th spot in a field of 20 at the national indoor meet. Herrmann won the 1000 meters at the conference indoor meet and also earned All-MIAC in the 600.
 
Middendorf was the No.16 qualifier for the national meet in the 800 meters. He earned his All-American honor in the last indoor meet of the season at the Wartburg qualifier on Mar. 6. His qualifying time of 1:53.56 also broke the Cobber school record which was set in 1993. Middendorf won both the 600 and 800 meters at the MIAC Championship Meet and set a new school record in the 600 meters.