INDIANAPOLIS - MSUB senior Robert Peterson has officially qualified for the NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships set for Mar. 11-12, the NCAA announced today.

Peterson, a native of Billings, Mont., will compete in the men's mile at the NCAA Championships for the second straight season. Peterson is seeded 12^th in the race with a time of 4:07.67, which he ran last week at the Seattle Pacific Final Qualifier. The senior placed third in the race and topped his previous MSUB indoor record of 4:10.76 which he ran in 2014.

Last year at the national championships, Peterson finished 10^th with a time of 4:11.29. He finished seventh in his heat with the seventh fastest time overall, but at the championships two heats are run with the top-3 from each advancing to the finals along with the next three fastest times.

Peterson became the first track and field All-American for MSU Billings last year with his trip to the national meet. This season he reclaimed his Great Northwest Athletic Conference title in the mile (which he won in 2014) with a photo-finish at the line in 4:10.13.

A total of 540 participants, 270 men and 270 women, will compete in the championships. Student-athletes qualified for the championships by reaching the automatic and provisional standards established for each event. The complete list of qualifiers is available at here. Heat sheets will be available at this same website on Monday, March 7.

The championships will be held Mar. 11 and 12 in Pittsburg, Kansas at the Robert W. Plaster Center on Pittsburg State University's campus. Pittsburg State University and the Crawford County Convention & Visitors Bureau will serve as co-hosts of the championships. Portions of the championships will be streamed live on NCAA.com.

Men's mile

Seed	Name	Year	School	Seed Time
1	Oliver Aitchison	JR	Adams State	3:58.59
2	Alec Baldwin	SR	Black Hills St.	4:00.49
3	Brian Baum	SR	Adams State	4:04.00
4	Brady Speicher	JR	MSU-Moorhead	4:04.81
5	Chase Rathke		Tarleton State	4:05.08
6	David Ribich	SO	Western Oregon	4:05.21
7	Jackson Sayler	SO	Adams State	4:05.98
8	Chandler Reid	SO	Adams State	4:06.68
9	Grayson Haws	JR	Southern Nazarene	4:06.75
10	Valentin Pepiot	SR	Academy of Art	4:06.85
11	Jeremy Antivo	SR	American Int'l	4:07.56
12	Robert Peterson	SR	MSU-Billings	4:07.67
13	Josh Hoskinson	SO	Colorado Mines	4:07.77
14	John Cusick	JR	Colorado Mesa	4:08.60
15	Ben Vaughan	SO	CSU-Pueblo	4:08.61
16	Andrew Smith	SO	Flagler	4:09.13
17	Sam Naffziger	SR	Western Oregon	4:09.20