BURNSVILLE, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's track and field team was picked to finished seventh in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Outdoor Track and Field Preseason Coaches' Poll, it was announced by the conference office on Friday morning.

The Golden Bears received 49 points in the poll, putting them 11 points ahead of eighth-place Minnesota Duluth and just seven points behind sixth-place Sioux Falls.

Minnesota State was picked to win the conference with a total of 98 points, receiving nine of the 11 first-place votes. Augustana was picked as the conference runner-up with 91 points and two first-place votes.

This marks the second straight year that the men's squad was tabbed to finish seventh in the outdoor preseason poll. Last season, the Golden Bears placed sixth at the NSIC Outdoor Championships.

When asked about the upcoming outdoor season, Head Coach Sam Johnson stated, "As we move to the outdoor season, there is a feeling of motivation and excitement after an indoor season which saw some great things achieved but ultimately fell short of overall team expectations. The guys are itching to train and determined to outperform their finish from the indoor conference meet."

Freshman sprinter Del Johnson was picked as CSP's track athlete to watch while senior decathlete Calder Erick was chosen as CSP's field athlete to watch.

Looking ahead to Johnson's outdoor season, Johnson said, "Del stormed onto the scene this winter as a multi-threat sprinter finishing the season ranked in the top 10 on the NSIC performance list in the 60m, 200m (NCAA provisional and school record), and 400m (NCAA provisional and NSIC champion) which earned him the NSIC Newcomer of the Year award. What is special about Del is his fearlessness when he races. No matter who he is racing, he believes he will win., And we saw during the indoor season that more often than not, he does!"

On Erick, Johnson added, "Calder is coming of an indoor season to remember which culminated in his first NSIC indoor heptathlon championship and a trip to the NCAA indoor national meet. He returns this spring as the defending NSIC Decathlon champion with his sights set on making it two for two in qualifying for national meets this year."

The Golden Bears will open the outdoor campaign at the Hamline Invite on Saturday, April 5 in St. Paul, Minn.