inside Sports | March 13, 2025 by Mitchell Republic

HEADED TO STATE

Top teams on their way to state girls basketball tourneys

JACKRABBIT WOMEN DOMINANT AGAIN IN SUMMIT

WAGNER PRODUCTS POWER DWU WOMEN

RUSHMORE HOCKEY STANDOUT RELISHES FAMILY HISTORY

the team

EDITOR

MARCUS TRAXLER

mtraxler@mitchellrepublic.com

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

SARA LEITHEISER

CONTRIBUTERS

MATT ZIMMER

ADAM THURY

TRENT SINGER

BLAKE DURHAM

LANDON DIERKS

NATHAN SWAFFAR

JUSTIN WICKERSHAM

meet the contributors

MARCUS TRAXLER

Marcus Traxler is the assistant editor and sports editor for the Mitchell Republic. A past winner of the state’s Outstanding Young Journalist award and the 2023 South Dakota Sportswriter of the Year, he’s worked for the newspaper since 2014 and covers a wide variety of topics.

MATT ZIMMER

Matt Zimmer is a Sioux Falls native and longtime sports writer. He graduated from Washington High School where he played football, legion baseball and developed his lifelong love of the Minnesota Twins and Vikings. After graduating from St. Cloud State University, he returned to Sioux Falls, and began a long career in amateur baseball and sports reporting.

LANDON DIERKS

Dierks covers prep and collegiate athletics across the Mitchell Republic’s coverage region area. He is a Mitchell native who graduated from South Dakota State University with his bachelor’s degree in journalism in May 2020. Dierks joined the Mitchell Republic sports staff in August 2021.

BLAKE DURHAM

Blake Durham is a Sports Reporter for the Mitchell Republic, having joined the newspaper in October of 2023. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in December of 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in Communications. Durham can be found covering a variety of prep and collegiate sports in the area.

TRENT SINGER

An Iowa native who grew up in the south, Singer is a 2012 graduate of Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, where he received his bachelor of arts degree in photography with a minor in journalism. Singer was most previously the editor of high school sports at Just Women's Sports and, before that, was a sports reporter and editor at the Southeast Missourian and the Kentucky New Era, respectively.

O’Gorman’s Ruby Moore attempts to make a dribble with the ball while Mitchell’s Matteah Graves defends in a girls basketball game on Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, at the Corn Palace. Adam Thury / Mitchell Republic

BUILT FOR THE SDSU WOMEN

big dance

RIGHT: South Dakota State’s Brooklyn Meyer and Paige Meyer share a hug at the end of the Jacks’ 84-68 win over Oral Roberts in the Summit League women’s basketball tournament championship game on Sunday, March 9, 2025 at the Premier Center in Sioux Falls.

BORDEWYK / S.D.

Jackrabbits’ depth and resilience shine in another historic run to March Madness

SIOUX FALLS — Everything the South Dakota State women’s basketball team accomplished this season — 29 wins, a 19-0 record against the Summit League for a third consecutive undefeated conference season, and then this weekend, another Summit League tournament title — felt preordained.

Last year’s Jackrabbits went 27-6, swept through the Summit League untouched and qualified for SDSU’s 12th NCAA tournament, all despite playing with essentially a seven-woman rotation due to a litany of injuries that probably would’ve derailed most other teams. They literally had to pull two players out of the general student body to complete a roster.

This year, the injured players returned, as did most of the Jackrabbits’ top contributors, plus a class of freshmen that ranked among the most impressive group of recruits coach Aaron Johnston had ever assembled in a single year.

ABOVE: The South Dakota State women’s basketball team celebrates its championship victory following the Summit League women’s basketball tournament championship game on Sunday, March 9, 2025 at the Premier Center in Sioux Falls. LANDON DIERKS / MITCHELL REPUBLIC

MATT ZIMMER Sioux Falls Live

dance

As such, fans and observers of the Jackrabbits were not going to give this team a lot of leeway.

You cruised to a Summit League title with an injury-ravaged roster? You’d better do that and more with a loaded one.

That was the backdrop on this season for the Jacks, in a year where their schedule included home games against Duke, Creighton and Wisconsin, neutral site challenges against Georgia Tech and Oregon and a trip to Austin to face the Texas Longhorns.

And all they did was answer the bell, time and again. Accept every challenge. Meet expectations.

With Sunday’s 84-68 win over 2nd-seeded Oral Roberts, the Jacks completed the task. They’re going to the Big Dance for the 13th time since

2009, bringing with them a 29-3 record, a 19-game winning streak and a roster of players who are battle-tested, confident they can do damage in the NCAA tournament, and, if we’re being honest, a little relieved the path to get there is over.

“It was hard — in a different way,” said senior forward Kallie Theisen, one of the returners who missed last year due to injury. “There was pressure. All year people would say, ‘oh, you have everyone back, you have all these freshmen coming in’ — which is all true, but it’s still hard. You still have to grind it out when you’re getting everyone else’s best every game, so to get it done is really rewarding.”

While the Jacks’ added depth made them that much better this year, the rest of the conference was improved, too. The two North Dakota schools were solid, while St. Thomas took a clear step forward. So did UMKC. But Oral Roberts, in particular, looked like a for-real, yes-they’re-actually-tryingto-keep-up-with-SDSU contender, putting together a talented and confident roster under third-year coach Kelsi Musick.

The Golden Eagles routed their first two opponents in this weekend’s tournament, and while they acknowledged they were underdogs against 24thranked SDSU, they were clearly not afraid of the challenge. You can tell which women’s teams that take on SDSU in the big house that is the Premier Center are beaten before the game tips off, but ORU couldn’t wait to take their shot.

They fell behind 11-2 and fought back to take a 23-21 lead. They trailed at halftime by 10 and moments into the third were down 16, only to fight back to within five. It was enough to earn the respect of the near-record crowd of 8,417, but it wasn’t enough to win.

That was in large part due to the heroics of Jacks point guard Paige Meyer, who was one of the easiest choices ever for tournament MVP.

The senior point guard was brilliant in SDSU’s first two wins of the weekend, then took it up another notch on Sunday. Meyer had a game-high 26 points, making 4-of-6 3-pointers and all six of

her free throws while adding nine assists and five rebounds in 37 minutes.

The Eagles focused much of their attention on star center Brooklyn Meyer (who still finished with 10 points and 15 boards), but Paige Meyer shrugged and said, ‘OK, we’ll do it your way’ and directed a backcourt-focused attack that saw Haleigh Timmer go for 21 points and Madison Mathiowetz 20.

Paige averaged 18.3 points and 5.3 assists in the tournament, but the numbers barely even tell the story. She was so dynamic and so in control she looked like she’d come down from a higher league for the weekend.

“She was incredible,” said senior center Mesa Byom, who had 13 rebounds in the title game. “She’s such a floor general, and it’s so awesome to play with someone with skills like that. She makes everyone around her better.”

As good as she was, though, the Eagles might have been able to overcome Meyer with a lesser supporting cast. But Timmer, Mathiowetz, Byom, Theisen, Brooklyn Meyer and the rest — they just kept coming. All year they kept coming.

Are they the best team SDSU has ever had? Not necessarily. They’ll get their chance to weigh in on that soon enough. But what they did this year had to be as satisfying for Johnston as any other of the many memorable seasons this team has given him and its fans. They did everything that was asked of them.

“Every year is different,” the coach said. “Last year we had to manage that sense of ‘you’re not good enough’. How do you handle that? This year all you hear is ‘you’re just gonna win, you’re too good’. And neither one of those are true.

“You just have to be solid in the moment and take care of what you can control, take things as they come and not get too up or too down,” Johnston added. “I’m a big believer in that.”

And that belief keeps paying off. Game after game. Year after year.

The South Dakota State women’s basketball team celebrates its championship victory following the Summit League women’s basketball tournament championship game on Sunday, March 9, 2025 at the Premier Center in Sioux Falls. DAVID BORDEWYK / S.D. NEWSMEDIA ASSOCIATION

State girls basketball leaded with top teams, scorers

State tournaments

kick off Thursday in Rapid City, Spearfish and Huron

BY LANDON DIERKS AND MARCUS TRAXLER Mitchell Republic

State tournament time is here with the arrival of the South Dakota state high school girls basketball tournaments this weekend in three sites around the state. The top Class AA teams will gather at Summit Arena in Rapid City, while Class A will be up the road in Spearfish and the Class B’s best will be at the venerable Huron Arena once again to decide a state champion.

Twenty-four teams remain in pursuit for a state championship. Here’s what you should know about each state bracket, with the games set to tipoff on Thursday afternoon:

CLASS B

■ Three teams are back from last season’s Class B state tournament and those schools make up the top-three seeds in the 2025 bracket: Centerville, Harding County and Lyman.

■ Centerville is undefeated at 23-0 and carries a 35-game win streak into this year’s state tournament after winning its final 12 games in 2024, including a 62-44 win over Arlington in the championship game. The Tornadoes enter the state tournament with an 84-11 record over the past four seasons. If Centerville repeats as state champions, it would be the third Class B program in the last decade to do so, joining Sully Buttes (2016 and 2017) and Viborg-Hurley (2022 and 2023).

■ From last season’s all-state teams, Centerville brings back a pair of top performers in first-team honoree Althea Gust and secondteamer Emma Marshall. Sanborn Central/ Woonsocket also has a pair from the all-state lists in second-team standout Kaylie Robinson and honorable mention Alexa Goertz, both who came to the Blackhawks from 2024 state tournament qualifier James Valley Christian. Lyman’s Mak Scott, a second-team selection last season, rounds out the 2023-24 allstate players appearing in this year’s field.

■ Sanborn Central/Woonsocket star junior Liz Boschee leads the Class B field in scoring entering the tournament, posting 19.8 points per game. Other Class B scoring stalwarts include Lyman’s Mak Scott at 18.7 points per game, Centerville’s Izzie Eide at 17.8

points per game and Dell Rapids St. Mary’s Madala Hanson at 17.3 points per game.

■ Like 2024, Harding County is going to the Class B tournament undefeated for the second year in a row. The Ranchers are 21-0 this season and hold the No. 2 seed with a matchup against Dell Rapids St. Mary in the opening round. Harding County is 43-2 since the start of the 2023-24 season and posted a sixth-place finish last season, which included a quarterfinal loss to Lyman. Those two teams could meet in the semifinals this year if the top seeds hold in the quarterfinals.

■ Other qualifiers snapping state tournament droughts of more than a decade include No. 4 seed Parkston (2012), No. 5 Bennett County (2007) and No. 7 Dell Rapids St. Mary (2000). In the case of both the Trojans and the Warriors, one must go back even further to find the last Class B tournament berth, as both programs spent lengthy stints in Class A. Parkston’s only other Class B tournament came in 1981, while Bennett County’s last was in 1984.

■ The final game of the quarterfinal round is a rematch between No. 3-seeded Lyman and No. 6 Sanborn Central/Woonsocket in the same arena as the first time around. The Raiders won 57-46 over SCW at the Huron Holiday Classic on Dec. 28.

■ Aside from Rapid City Stevens in the Class AA bracket, no team is closer to their tournament site than the Blackhawks of Sanborn Central/Woonsocket, who are playing in the Class B state tournament for the first time since 2017. The Blackhawks made it to the state tournament five times in a six-year span leading up to 2017, and like this year, all of those tournaments were at the Huron Arena, a mere 25 miles from Woonsocket. The Hawks were state runner-up in 2014 and 2017.

■ The Class B state tournament is in Huron for the third time in the last five years and the fourth time since 2019. None of the qualifiers from the 2023 tournament, which culminated with Viborg-Hurley defeating Wall for the title, are back this year.

■ Deubrook Area is in the state tournament for the first time. With an 18-5 record, the Dolphins slot in as the No. 8 seed to play Centerville in the quarterfinals. Deubrook was the top qualifier out of Region 2B this year and earned the lone upset in the SoDak 16 round, coming in as the No. 10 seed and knocking off No. 7 Kadoka Area 53-50.

CLASS A

■ Third-seeded Mahpiya Luta has the No. 1 scoring offense at nearly 71 points per game and has posted a class-best 30 points per game in scoring defense. Mahpiya Luta enters the Class A state tournament with a 22-0 record for the second year in a row, and the squad from Pine Ridge has won 44 of its last 46 games, with a record of 88-9 over the last four seasons.

■ In the state tournament field, five of the topsix scoring offenses are headed to

Spearfish.

Wagner’s Ashlyn Koupal (24) goes up for a layup against Mount Vernon/Plankinton during a high school girls basketball game on Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, in Plankinton. ADAM THURY / MITCHELL REPUBLIC

O’Gorman’s Ruby Moore attempts to make a dribble with the ball while Mitchell’s Matteah Graves defends in a girls basketball game on Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, at the Corn Palace. ADAM THURY / MITCHELL REPUBLIC

■ The Young Center at Black Hills State University is the host site for a state girls basketball tournament for the first time since 2020, when the Class B tournament was canceled after the quarterfinals due to the COVID-19 outbreak. It’s the first Class A state tournament in the home of the Yellow Jackets since 2014, which was won by St. Thomas More, the first of five straight state championships in Class A. Since that streak, South Dakota has had five different state champions in Class A: Winner, Aberdeen Roncalli, St. Thomas More, Hamlin and Vermillion, with only the Chargers from Hayti representing the title-winning contingent in this year’s tournament.

trips. State champion Vermillion was knocked out in the region semifinals and state runner-up Tea Area moved up to Class AA.

■ Of the eight Class A qualifiers, only Sioux Valley (2014) and MobridgePollock (2011) are snapping tournament droughts of longer than three seasons.

Mahpiya Luta, Dakota Valley, MobridgePollock, Sioux Valley and Sioux Falls Christian are all in the state bracket, all averaging more than 60 points per game, while Hamlin is also in the field at 59.6 points per game.

■ One rematch from this season is in the cards for the Class A quarterfinals, with No. 2 Dakota Valley and No. 7 Sioux Valley. The Panthers won 73-65 in Volga on Feb. 4.

■ Of the state tournament field’s eight teams, seven of the teams have 18 wins or more, including No. 7 Sioux Valley and No. 8 Mount Vernon/Plankinton each at 19-4. Wagner, the No. 6 seed in the state bracket, checks in at 17-5.

■ Three teams are back from last year’s Class A tournament, with Sioux Falls Christian (fourth), Mahpiya Luta (sixth) and Mount Vernon/Plankinton (seventh) making repeat

■ The state tournament’s top-two scorers headed to Spearfish are both from Region 5A, with Wagner’s Ashlyn Koupal logging 22.2 points per game while shooting better than 57% from the field, while Mount Vernon/Plankinton’s Reagan Rus has posted 19.9 points per game, while shooting 50% from the field to lead the Titans back to the state tournament. Koupal, a top-50 recruit nationally for the class of 2026, is also averaging 10.4 rebounds, five rebounds and 3.3 blocks per game.

■ Koupal and Rus are two of eight 2024 all-state picks playing in the Class A bracket, joined by Hamlin’s Addison Neuendorf and Addalyn Steffensen (formerly with Arlington), Mahpiya Luta’s Ashlan Carlow-Blount and Jodene Big Crow-Hunter, Sioux Falls Christian’s Avery Reitz and Dakota Valley’s Ella Otten.

■ Top-seeded Sioux Falls Christian’s roster does not include a single double-figure scorer for the season. Maya Nelson leads the team at 9.3 points per game, with Ruth Dvoracek and Lezlei Setzer both averaging better than eight points per game.

CLASS AA

■ Top-seeded Sioux Falls O’Gorman’s comes into the Class AA state tournament as the defending state champions and carries a 47-game win streak. The streak dates back to the 2023 state tournament, in which the Knights finished fifth and then ripped off a 24-0 championship season in 2024 and have carried that into 2025. Of the 21 wins this season, only five of those games have been within a 20-point margin of victory.

■ The Knights are looking for their third state championship in four seasons, which would be the best four-season span in Class AA basketball since Roosevelt won five straight state championships from 1997 to 2001.

■ After O’Gorman, the longest win streak in Class AA basketball belongs to Spearfish at 12 wins in a row. After a 4-3 start, the fifth-seeded Spartans are 10-3 against

Class AA opponents, but Spearfish was also 7-1 against Class A foes during the season, easily playing the most non-Class AA teams of any state tournament teams.

■ Second-seeded Brandon Valley has won eight straight games by a margin of 25 points per game. They have won 19 games in a row against South Dakota competition, with the only South Dakota setback being a 53-43 season-opening loss to O’Gorman on Dec. 12 in Brandon. That was the only game O’Gorman has had this season that has had a margin of victory of 10 points or less.

■ There have been five-straight state champions from the Metro Conference, with two each from O’Gorman and Washington and the 2019 title won by Brandon Valley.

■ Playing in its own city, Rapid City Stevens has qualified for the Class AA state tournament for the 13th season in a row. Only O’Gorman has a longer streak of state tournament appearances.

■ Seven of the state tournament teams from last season are back. The only switch is Sioux Falls Washington returning to the fold in place of Harrisburg. The Warriors had been to six tournaments in a row and won championships in 2021 and 2023 before missing out last season.

■ Rapid City Stevens’ Taaliyah Porter leads all scorers in the Class AA state tournament by scoring 21.7 points per game. Porter broke the Stevens’ career scoring record earlier this season, passing Raiders’ great and current Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon.

■ Stevens’ Porter is one of four Class AA firstteam all-state players back in action at this year’s stat tournament, alongside Brandon Valley’s Alyvia Padgett, Washington’s Grace Peterson and Jefferson’s Brinley Altenburg. Also featured in the field among 2024 all-state picks are Pierre’s Lennix DuPris of the second team and honorable mentions in Spearfish’s Jozie Dana and Mitchell’s Addie Siemsen.

■ All four state quarterfinal contests are rematches from the regular season. O’Gorman beat Jefferson on Dec. 20 in a 63-50 road victory; Stevens had a 55-52 win at Spearfish on Dec. 28; Washington defeated Mitchell at home on Feb. 18 by a 64-48 margin; and Brandon Valley had a 59-43 win at Pierre on Jan. 23.

Mount Vernon/Plankinton’s Reagan Rus drives the ball to the basket in a game against Wessington Springs on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2024 in Plankinton. NATHAN SWAFFAR / MITCHELL REPUBLIC

Rapid City Stevens’ Taaliyah Porter drives inside against the Mitchell defense during the game between the Kernels and Raiders Friday, Dec. 15, 2023, at the Corn Palace. BLAKE DURHAM / MITCHELL REPUBLIC

Mahpiya Luta’s Ashlan Carlow-Blount (1) throws a chest pass in transition against Vermillion during a Hanson Classic high school girls basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025, at the Corn Palace. LANDON DIERKS / MITCHELL REPUBLIC

Centerville’s Althea Gust dribbles the basketball in the first half of the girls Class B state championship game between Centerville and Arlington on Saturday, March 9, 2024, at The Monument in Rapid City. MITCHELL REPUBLIC FILE PHOTO

From Wagner to Wesleyan: BUILT TO WIN DWU DUO

BY MARCUS TRAXLER | MITCHELL REPUBLIC

From childhood courts to college stars — Nagel and Yost fuel

There are times on the basketball court when Shalayne Nagel and Emma Yost make it look easy.

As teammates since they first started playing competitive basketball, there’s a lot of experience behind those passes and layups.

RIGHT: Dakota Wesleyan’s Emma Yost (24) shoots a left-handed hook shot over a Hastings defender during a Great Plains Athletic Conference women’s basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025, at the Corn Palace. LANDON DIERKS / MITCHELL REPUBLIC

Teammates from the youth levels through high school at Wagner, Nagel and Yost are both in their second seasons at Dakota Wesleyan University. The sophomores and Tiger starters are two of the reasons why the DWU women’s basketball team is in position for another national tournament

run, starting Friday in Langston, Oklahoma. The Tigers open play against The Master’s University (Calif.), at 8 p.m. Friday in the NAIA first round.

The teammates go back a long way, dating back to youth basketball in first or second grade, Yost said. At Wagner, the teammates were part of a 46-5 run in their final two seasons with the Red Raiders, and now in two seasons at DWU, they have won a total of 46 games. Yost has started all 63 games in her career, while Nagel has played since Day 1 and already has 54 starts to her name.

“That connection that we’ve built over the years, we see each other so well on the court and then obviously that spark that (Shalayne) brings and that energy she has, we just build off of each other,” Yost said.

DWU coach Jason Christensen said he remembers the pair from a camp that DWU put on when they were in the fifth grade in Avon. He said he remembered they were on a traveling team with some players from Yankton and saw that they exhibited some strong basketball talents at a young age.

“You can tell they’ve played together,” he said. “If anybody comes in and watches them play basketball, the way they can

LEFT: Dakota Wesleyan’s Shalayne Nagel drives to the basket in a women’s college basketball game on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025, at the Corn Palace. Adam Thury / Mitchell Republic

read each other, the high-low (plays) and the things we do, those two just do a really good job of playing off of each other.”

On the published roster, Yost is the only forward in the starting lineup, with Nagel one of four guards, but the 6-foot-1 Nagel frequently plays a forward role and there are numerous plays in a typical Tiger game that sees Nagel find Yost for two points, or Yost return the favor with a pass to Nagel. They are the two DWU players to play the most minutes this season, starting all 30 games, both averaging more than 29 minutes per game.

“When Emma catches it, one of us is cutting and or we’re passing it to each other and that’s just what we did in high school,” Nagel said. “It just transferred over here.”

“The cool thing is they don’t get into, ‘Who gets the credit for this, who gets the credit for that,’” Christensen said. “There’s times where I’m like, ‘Well, Emma, I’m going to pull you out to the perimeter because Shalayne, I know you can post this person up.’ They’re two really good kids to coach, fun kids to coach.”

Nagel was preceded in the DWU women’s basketball program by her older sister, Chesney and was a starter on the Tigers’

2018 national championship team as a senior. She said continuing to play with Yost in college was a special benefit of joining the Tigers.

“We always look for each other on the court,” Nagel said. “We know how to find each other and it just helps having somebody that you came in with and you know how to play off of, and you’re not completely blindsided by what you’re getting.”

Nagel has quickly become one of the Tigers’ most resourceful players, frequently guarding the opponent’s best player and often has a hand in every statistical category before the end of a game. Nagel has 8.6 points and 5.4 rebounds per game, shooting 49% on field goals, 39.5% on 3-pointers and 81% on free throws.

“She just has great confidence in everything she does,” Yost said of Nagel. “Defensively, she’s guarding a great player every game and then she sees the floor well, she rebounds, she’s shooting well. She’s a complete player.”

The 6-foot Yost has followed through on her freshman of the year season in the GPAC with a strong sophomore campaign. She is averaging a team-best 15.4 points per game, shooting 48% from the field and 81% on

free throws, with 5.3 rebounds per game. With 63 games played for her career, Yost goes to the national tournament already 39 points away from 1,000 in her DWU career. She’s also responsible for a major defensive shift when opponents face the Tigers.

“Emma’s the reason we’re seeing a lot of zone defenses,” Christensen said. “This is the most zone I’ve seen in the 15 years that I’ve been here. Night in and night out, we are just seeing zones, and part of that is because of Shalayne and Emma, both of them, and what they do inside for the team.”

“Her footwork has gotten so good,” Nagel said of Yost. “We go against each other a lot in practice and she always has a counter move. You can stop her first move but she’s always ready with her counter.”

Nagel said she enjoys this time of year with tournament basketball and that she’s eager to have the Tigers show they are among the nation’s best teams once again.

“This is what you play all year for,” she said. “We’re excited to get out on the court and show what we can do and we know if we execute like we know how, we’re going to have a chance to beat any team we face.”

Dakota Wesleyan’s Emma Yost goes to the bench and high-fives her teammates during a women’s college basketball game on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, at the Corn Palace.

ADAM THURY / MITCHELL REPUBLIC

Hot Hands, Big Win:

Guards drop 20-plus each in dominant title win over Oral Roberts

BY MARCUS TRAXLER Mitchell Republic

SIOUX FALLS — Madison Mathiowetz knew to be ready.

That’s the best approach on a loaded South Dakota State women’s basketball team.

It was her time to have a big day, on the season’s biggest stage so far, scoring 20 points and drilling four 3-pointers to match a season-best scoring total. She was flanked by 26 points from tournament MVP Paige Meyer and 21 points from Haleigh Timmer.

South Dakota State’s backcourt accounted for 67 of the Jacks’ points and all 11 3-pointers in an 84-68 win over Oral Roberts in the Summit League tournament championship on Sunday afternoon at the Premier Center for SDSU’s 12th Summit tournament title.

On Sunday, it was the starters who carried the load, scoring 79 of the 84 points to follow up a forwardheavy effort from the Jacks’ tallest players on Saturday in the semifinals.

The ways to win are emblematic of a team that has many scoring options being tough to stop for the 59th Summit League win in a row, counting regular season and tournament games. Now 29-3, SDSU will await the NCAA tournament after 19 straight wins.

“I think we just came out really wanting this championship, and as a team, we did our stuff and we did it well. We stuck to our plan, and when we do that, good things happen.” Mathiowetz said.

It was the three-pointers that got the Jacks going early in the game. Five of the Jacks’ first seven made shots were 3-pointers, including two each from Timmer and Mathiowetz, for a 19-7 lead in the first quarter. Later, after SDSU had missed seven 3-pointers in a row, Mathiowetz led the charge for the Jacks to make five of their next seven 3-pointers, driving the lead out to 52-36 early in the third quarter.

Mathiowetz summoned her all-tournament performance from 2024 in the title game after scoring a combined 18 points in the first two games in the 2025 edition. She is

South Dakota State’s Haleigh Timmer drives to the basket in the Summit League women’s basketballchampionshiptournament game on Sunday, March 9, 2025 at the Premier Center in Sioux Falls. Landon Dierks / RepublicMitchell

SDSU Claims Summit

one of six different Jacks this season to score at least 20 points in a single game.

“We just have so many threats on this team. It’s tough for teams to defend,” Mathiowetz said. “I mean, you guard one person, the next person steps up, and we just have incredible players from top to bottom.”

Much of the opportunities came because Brooklyn Meyer, SDSU’s star center inside, was drawing regular double-teams from the Oral Roberts’ defense. She only had four points through the first three quarters but the Golden Eagles couldn’t leave her unattended. There were also Paige Meyer drives that were collapsing the defense and leaving open opportunities on the outside.

“The start was really important, seeing our perimeter players knock down some threes,” said SDSU head coach Aaron Johnston. “We really thought Brooklyn was going to have a lot of attention today, and we saw that. It was a plan on their part, so being able to make some perimeter jump shots early really helped us settle in.”

For a team that consistently wins championships in the Summit League, SDSU had a bumpy road in 2024, even as the Jacks still ran the table in the conference despite being decimated by season-ending injuries to a number of key players. That included Timmer, the conference tournament MVP as a freshman from 2022.

“I think it’s a special experience, and nothing is given, and nothing is guaranteed,” she said. So, (it’s about) taking every day and making the most of it, and I think this team did a really good job of that.”

But even with a loaded roster coming together with last season’s returners and new faces added in, Mathiowetz called this title “super rewarding.”

“I would say it’s never easy to win championships, no matter what,” Mathiowetz said. “People talk all the time about really good teams and you maybe don’t always meet those goals. And it is just rewarding that we were

able to compete night in and night out, every single game, and we came out on top every time this season.”

After the game, Johnston said the victory was a great accomplishment in the context of the players’ seasons and their careers, and wanted them to relish it and celebrate it.

“It feels good about what we accomplished. It feels good about what we’re trying to do going forward. But it also just feels good on a human level,” Johnston said. “We have so many people that give a lot to be in those roles. … I think the bigger story for me is just that human element to how our team has been really just giving together and sacrificing to give minutes, to give roles, to give playing time to help our team succeed. That’s unique.”

Hockey Town:

Sioux Falls and Augustana make their mark

Once a dream, now a reality — Augustana

hockey cements Sioux Falls’ hockey roots

BY JARED RUBADO

For Sioux Falls Live

SIOUX FALLS — Before touring colleges in 2013, my list was down to three.

My top choice was Iowa State, one of the premier journalism schools in the Midwest. I loved the idea of going to school in Ames, but my bank account didn’t. Financial aid wasn’t on my side.

My second choice was Augustana. It was a little closer to home but it was smaller than my high school. To be honest, I didn’t know what Augustana was or where Sioux Falls was. Outside of a family trip to Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills when I was younger, I couldn’t dream of a reason to be in South Dakota.

The third choice was Wisconsin-River Falls. It was mostly on my list because it had a hockey team.

ABOVE: Augustana players celebrate after Owen Baumgartner scored a goal against Bemidji State in a CCHA playoff game Friday, March 7, 2025, at Midco Arena in Sioux Falls. TRAVIS GALLIPO / AUGUSTANA ATHLETICS

TOP: Midco Arena stands for the national anthem before Game 1 between Bemidji State and Augustana in the Mason Cup Playoffs quarterfinal on Friday, March 7, 2025, in Sioux Falls. TRAVIS GALLIPO / AUGUSTANA ATHLETICS

My mom and I began touring schools. River Falls was our first stop. Outside of the hockey rink, which was just your standard Division III barn, I wasn’t impressed. I knew my choice was down to two.

The next stop was Augustana, which was formerly a college when I toured before becoming a university in 2016. From the moment I stepped on campus, I was sold.

My trepidations of Augie’s enrollment being smaller than my high school’s went away when I got out of the car. My mom and I didn’t even tour Iowa State because my decision was made.

There was only one problem. Where’s the hockey?

" It’s pretty incredible what’s been done in such a short period of time, and we’re going to try and keep up with those guys on the ice. "

GARRETT RABOIN, AU HEAD COACH

Look, as a sports reporter, it’s certainly obvious I enjoy and appreciate competition of all kinds. I will watch and write about any sport and, most likely, have a killer time doing it.

But hockey is my passion. I got my first pair of skates when I was 2 years old. I spent 13 years playing organized hockey.

But when I got to Sioux Falls for my first semester in 2014, finding commonalities with my classmates was tough. Most of my friends weren’t from Minnesota. They hadn’t thought about hockey ever, much less used or owned skates.

Two or three times each year, Augustana would host student skating nights at the Scheels IcePlex. You could count on one hand how many kids played hockey growing up.

At the time, Augustana was anything but a hockey school, but Sioux Falls was already a hockey town.

During my second semester, the Sioux Falls Stampede won the Clark Cup. Sioux Falls youth programs were growing year after year, setting new participation records at the start of each cycle. NCAA regional tournaments were being hosted in Sioux Falls.

There was only one thing missing: the city’s own college hockey team.

Some time after I graduated in December 2018, Augustana announced its pursuit of becoming a Division I school. It also announced it was attempting to add a men’s hockey program.

Augie pushed past the collective skepticism and debuted the NCAA’s 64th D-I hockey team last season. I spent (and still spend) years answering questions.

Is Augustana D-I? Is Augustana actually getting hockey? Why is Augustana getting hockey? Do people care about hockey at Augustana? Is Augustana ever going to be good?

Yes. Yes. Because it’ll work. Yes. Yes.

The Vikings made the trip to the Sanford Center last season, which was surreal. It was hard to fathom how my school, which was so absolved from hockey while I was there, was playing against the team I cover.

In November, Bemidji State made its first trip to Sioux Falls, which was surreal again. I had seen the pictures and videos of Midco Arena, but seeing it in person 100 yards away from my freshman dorm was indescribable.

Then there was Friday.

When Bemidji State fell to the No. 7 seed in the CCHA standings, it hit me that I, an Augie grad (hard to believe, I know), would get the chance to cover the program’s first-ever postseason game.

On Friday morning, Augustana announced that each of the first two games in the Mason Cup Playoffs quarterfinal series were sold out. Finally, Sioux Falls got its collegiate hockey team to root for, and it showed up.

The Vikings pulled off a come-frombehind 3-1 win over the Beavers in Game 1, setting the stage for Augie to win its first postseason series in program history with one more win over the Beavers.

“It’s a great credit to so many people,” AU head coach Garrett Raboin said after the win. “You’ve got to think of the environment of tonight’s game. There’s a bigger group. We’re responsible for the on-ice product, the entertainment. Tom Slattery’s up in the Viking Club

entertaining so many folks up there, and I don’t know that he’d ever done that at a hockey venue before. There’s an athletic administration, an event coordinator and an ice tech. It’s all new for them, too. They’re all doing it at a really high level, and they deserve a lot of credit.

“We’re going to continue to try and grow, certainly as a hockey program with our players and our competitive level, but already in year two, I think that’s something bigger we’re celebrating because folks from Bemidji are coming here. You heard Coach [Tom] Serratore. It’s a hard place to play. It’s pretty incredible what’s been done in such a short period of time, and we’re going to try and keep up with those guys on the ice.”

Day by day, week by week, month by month, and now, year by year, Augustana has answered the call. From the players, to the coaching staff, to the administration, to the collection of hockey operations staff and — last but not least — to the passionate hockey fans in Sioux Falls, Friday night’s product was the result of effort to make something out of nothing.

Bemidji State rallied to claim the final two games of the series, giving the Vikings’ second season a sudden end in the CCHA playoffs.

But even then, Augustana’s emergence speaks to the growth of hockey, especially western hockey. Kids in the Sioux Falls area get the chance to not only look up to the Stampede, but also the Vikings.

It’s earned growth, and it’s here to stay.

FOLLOWING THE FAMILY TRADITION

Rapid City hockey standout Wyatt Reeder leads Rushmore into state tourney

BY JUSTIN WICKERSHAM

NewsCenter 1

RAPID CITY, S.D. — Wyatt Reeder entered this year’s boys hockey season with a bit of uncertainty after suffering a severe knee injury while playing baseball for Rapid City Post 22 last summer.

“The doctors were really surprised with how fast I was able to come back,” said Wyatt Reeder. “It was supposed to be around 9- to 10-month recovery, and I made it back in five and didn’t miss any practices. So it’s been, it’s been a good season.”

Not only did Wyatt make a full recovery, the Rushmore Thunder defenseman has been playing at a high level all season long.

Wyatt currently leads the state in scoring with 48 goals and 68 assists for a total of 116 points in 22 games. His Rushmore squad is 22-0 and the No. 1 seed for the state boys hockey tournament, which begins Thursday in Watertown.

“I think his vision is really good,” said Rushmore Thunder coach Konrad Reeder.

“He sees the ice well and then obviously, we’ve got a lot of really good hockey players. So when he passes the puck to them, they score goals. You know, and that’s how you get a lot of assists. So, you know, it’s a complete team game. He’s a good team hockey player. He’s gotten stronger and I think that’s helped too.”

The junior was exposed to hockey at a young age by his father, Konrad Reeder, who played four years at St. Cloud State and eight years at the professional level

before retiring with the Rapid City Rush in 2014.

“I followed him around everywhere,” said Wyatt Reeder. “He’s definitely my biggest role model. And yeah, I’ve learned so much from him. He’s taught me everything I know about the game.”

Not only is Wyatt following in his father’s footsteps, but they have a special relationship on the ice, as well.

Konrad is now the head coach for the Rushmore boys hockey team.

“We try to split it up a little bit,” said Wyatt Reeder. “I think around the rink, he’s my coach, and at home, he is obviously my dad. But yeah, I think we do a good job separating the two, and it’s been good.”

“Proud dad moment,” said Konrad Reeder. “I think it’s really neat to watch him grow from being a young man. Being in the rink all the time. He’s got some pretty cool experiences over in Europe, and then especially here in Rapid City. He was in the locker room. (Former Rush coach and general manager) Joe Ferras let him be in the locker room all the time.”

For now, Wyatt is focused on helping the Thunder win their first state title since 2018.

“It would mean everything to this group of guys, you know,” said Wyatt Reeder. “I think they deserve it. We’ve been clawing at the door, like I said, the last three years, and they work so hard. And I think we just got to go into Watertown and finish it this year.”

Rushmore Thunder hockey player Wyatt Reeder

JUSTIN WICKERSHAM / NEWSCENTER1