South Dakota State’s Daniel Burkhalter and Hunter Wallster were named Men’s Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-Americans on Wednesday by College Sports Communicators. The honor recognizes student-athletes for outstanding performances in the classroom and in competition.

Both Burkhalter and Wallster were named to the Academic All-America Second Team. Burkhalter is a repeat selection as he was named to the Third Team last season. This is the first time the program has had two Academic All-America Selections in the same year since 2004. Wednesday’s announcement brings SDSU’s Academic All-American total to five student-athletes for the 2023-24 season and 110 all-time.

• Daniel Burkhalter: Graduate, Prairie City, South Dakota — 3.95 undergraduate GPA in statistics, 4.0 graduate GPA in data science
• Hunter Wallster: Senior, Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada — 4.0 undergraduate GPA in mechanical engineering, 4.0 graduate GPA in mechanical engineering

Burkhalter placed sixth at the Summit League Cross Country Championship this past fall, helping the Jackrabbits to their eighth consecutive league team title. He was 22nd at the Midwest Regional, which helped the Jacks place fifth as a team. On the track, Burkhalter is top-five in program history in four events and ranks 10th all-time in the indoor 800 meters.

Wallster was the Summit League outdoor hammer throw champion this past spring and was the weight throw runner-up for indoor. He earned all-conference honors for both the indoor and outdoor seasons. Wallster is SDSU’s all-time record holder for the hammer throw and is third all-time in the weight throw.