SMSU Athletics

November 24, 2011 – Hoof Prints Article

Happy Thanksgiving Mustang Fans!

I would like to start off this Thanksgiving Day article by congratulating the SMSU Volleyball team for playing in the NCAA Central Region Championship game for the first time in school history. This was a great accomplishment for the Mustang Volleyball program and our University.

The Mustangs could not put an end to the No. 3 Concordia-St. Paul streak of five consecutive Central Region Championships. The Golden Bears are four-time defending national champion seeded second in the region, earned a 25-17, 26-24, 25-13 win over our fifth seeded Mustangs last Saturday evening in Kearney, NE.

SMSU finishes the season with an overall record of 25-7, marking SMSU’s ninth straight 20 win season and the eighth straight NCAA Central Regional appearance. Brooke Burmeister, Mary Groth and Cara Carson were all named to the NCAA Central Region All-Tournament team.  Congratulations once again to Coach Culhane, our assistant coaches and student-athletes for a great effort this season!

For all your news and information on SMSU Athletics, go to SMSUmustangs.com.

Believe in Brown!

This Week in Mustang Athletics:

The SMSU Women’s Basketball team (1-1) earned a 72-60 victory last Thursday on the road at Minot State in a non-conference match-up. The Mustangs will be hitting the road again this weekend as they travel south for Thanksgiving to Florida to compete in the Nova Southeastern (Fla.) Classic in Fort Lauderdale.  SMSU will open play on Friday versus Palm Beach Atlantic University (Fla.) at 1:00 pm CST followed by playing the host team, Nova Southeastern at 3:00 pm CST on Saturday.

The SMSU Wheelchair Basketball team went 2-3 competing in the Turkey Shootout in Salt Lake City, Utah last weekend. The Mustang lost two games last Friday to the Utah Wheelin’ Jazz before winning one game over L.A. Clippers and two over Las Vegas. SMSU Wheelchair Basketball is now 4-3 on the season and will play next on December 2-3 in Columbia, MO against Texas-Arlington, University of Illinois, University of Missouri and Wisconsin-Whitewater.

The SMSU Men’s Basketball team heads north this holiday weekend to continue non-conference action this Friday when the Mustangs (0-1) take on Michigan Tech University (1-1) at the InnKeepers Beaver Classic hosted by Bemidji State University. This tip-off is scheduled for 5:00 pm at the BSU Gymnasium.

The Mustangs will conclude the two-day classic with another contest on Saturday matching up against future NSIC foe Minot State University (0-4) with that game also beginning at 5:00 pm. Following this weekend’s games, SMSU will open NSIC play on the road December 2-3 versus Augustana and Wayne State.

The SMSU wrestling team had an impressive outcome last weekend placing eight wrestlers, including a pair of individual champions at the Concordia-Moorhead Open in Moorhead, MN, last Saturday.

In the Gold Division (Upper Classmen), Jacob Begin won the 165 lbs. class with a 4-0 record, while in the Maroon Division (Freshman) Terrance Maier went 3-0 at 174 lbs. to capture the title. Justin Reinsma (133), Travis Peralta (184), Martin Hagen (197) and Todd Klemz (285) all placed in the top six of the Gold Division with Hagen earning a second place finish. In the Maroon Division, Beau Buysse (141) and Blaine Miller (157) both placed, with Buysse earning second place.

The Mustangs will open its dual match season on November 30, hosting St. Olaf College at 7:00 pm in the PE Gym.

Good luck to all of our teams this week!

Congratulations to Paul Muecke, former student-athlete for the Mustang Football program, who provided the correct answer to last week’s Mustang Hoofprints Question: What Mustang Wrestlers hold the career record for most matches won while wearing the Brown & Gold? Randy Dorn (1987-91) had a record of 123 wins in his four years wrestling for SMSU. Link Steffen (1994-98) is second all-time with 114 wins followed by Bill McDonald (1985-88) who posted 112 wins in his career for the Mustangs.

Hoofprints Trivia Question (please put this in a box with the title on top)

How many times has the SMSU Department of Athletics received the NCAA Division II Community Engagement Award of Excellence in the five-year history of the honor?

The first person to email me at MustangHoofPrints@SMSU.edu with the correct answer to this question will receive an SMSU t-shirt.