April 21, 2026

HELENA, Mont. – Dakota State (S.D.) and Carroll (Mont.) received the fifth edition of the 2026 Erck Hotels/Frontier Conference Women’s Outdoor Track & Field weekly honors, announced by the conference office Tuesday.

Women’s Outdoor Field Athlete-of-the-Week: Oliviyah Thornton, Dakota State (S.D.) Thornton, a junior from Garretson, S.D., was selected as the Field Athlete-of-the-Week.

Thornton continues to throw NAIA qualifying marks, producing two personal records in the Northwestern (Iowa) Red Raider Open.  She threw all three NAIA national qualifying standards in the meet. 

Thornton improved her personal record and school record shot put mark with an 'A' automatic mark of 14.68 meters (48 feet, 2 inches), where she won the title. Her shot-put mark ranks third in the NAIA.

She added the NAIA 'B' standard mark and career best 45.22 meters (148 feet, 4 inches) in the discus. Her discus is the second best in the school record book and ranks No. 15 in the NAIA. Thornton added the NAIA 'B' mark of 53.09 meters (174 feet, 2 inches) to finish fourth in the event.

This is Thornton’s second career Erck Hotels/Frontier Conference Women’s Outdoor Track & Field weekly honor.

Women’s Outdoor Track Athlete-of-the-Week: Chloe Raats, Carroll (Mont.) Raats, a senior from Bigfork, Mont., was chosen as the Track Athlete-of-the-Week. 

Raats set personal records in both running events for Carroll (Mont.) at the Trudnowski Open.  She also won both titles, winning the 200-meter dash in 26.32 seconds and the 400-meter dash in 59.00 seconds. 

She moved into 10^th on Carroll’s all-time list in the 200-meter dash. 

Raats also ran on winning 4 x 100-meter relay team with a team season best time of 48.09 seconds, accumulating three victories in the meet.

This is Raats’ first career Erck Hotels/Frontier Conference Women’s Outdoor Track & Field weekly honor.
 

WEEK	FIELD	TRACK
5	Oliviyah Thornton, Dakota State (S.D.)	Chloe Raats, Carroll (Mont.)
4	Chole Gunderson, Dickinson State (N.D.)	Priviledge Bower, Bismarck State (N.D.)
3	Oliviyah Thornton, Dakota State (S.D.)	Claire Bucklin, Bellevue (Neb.)
2	Adarra Hagelund, Dickinson State (N.D.)	Grace Steinmetz, Bellevue (Neb.)
1	Chloe Gunderson, Dickinson State (N.D.)	Amelie Steins, Dakota State (S.D.)

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