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COYOTES WIN SHOWDOWN SERIES; RESUME SUMMIT DOMINANCE Spring sports may have been stopped, but that didn’t prevent South Dakota from winning on the scoreboard against its Summit League foes.
SHOWDOWN SERIES
The Coyotes earned their most lopsided win in the South Dakota Showdown Series presented by South Dakota Corn. In addition, South Dakota was well on its way to a second consecutive Summit League Commissioner’s Cup and an unprecedented fifth consecutive Dr. Helen Smiley Women’s All-Sports Award when play was cancelled in March. The Showdown Series winner was mathematically decided before play came to a halt. The Coyotes topped South Dakota State 14.5-6.5 to bring the trophy back to Vermillion for the third time in the last four years. USD won 10 of 13 athletic competitions with SDSU and split a point with a tie in women’s soccer. Both programs scored the maximum three points allotted for academic achievement by compiling a student-athlete grade point average above 3.0. Five sports – men’s and women’s golf, softball and men’s and women’s outdoor track and field – could not factor into the scoring. On the Summit League side, South Dakota had amassed 60.5 points with 11 sports in the books and eight others still to conclude. That led all conference programs. South Dakota State was in second place with 56 points and North Dakota State was a distant third with 51 points. No other Summit team had more than 37 points.
South Dakota (14.5) 3 – cumulative GPA above 3.0 2 – football 2 – volleyball sweeps Summit series 2-0 2 – women’s basketball sweeps Summit series 2-0 1 – women’s cross country 1 – men’s basketball 1 – women’s swimming & diving 1 – men’s swimming & diving 1 – women’s indoor track & field 0.5 – women’s soccer South Dakota State (6.5) 3 – cumulative GPA above 3.0 1 – men’s cross country 1 – men’s basketball 1 – men’s indoor track & field 0.5 – women’s soccer Showdown Series History 2013 – SDSU wins 14-13 2014 – SDSU wins 18-9 2015 – USD wins 14-13 2016 – SDSU wins 16-11 2017 – USD wins 14-13 2018 – USD wins 14-13 2019 – SDSU wins 14.5-11.5 2020 – USD wins 14.5-6.5
COMMISSIONER’S CUP*
The lead was even greater on the women’s side with just four sports left to score. South Dakota’s 40.5 points were considerably more than South Dakota State’s 32.5 and North Dakota State’s 29.5. First-place finishes in volleyball and basketball in addition to silver medals for cross country, indoor track and field and swimming and diving led to the big lead.
1. South Dakota 60.5 2. South Dakota State 56 3. North Dakota State 51 4. Oral Roberts 37 5. Denver 36.5 6. North Dakota 34 t-7. Omaha 26 t-7. Western Illinois 26 9. Purdue Fort Wayne 21
Nine of South Dakota’s 10 programs that completed their conference season placed in the top three.
* Through winter sports season. -2-
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