SMSU Athletics

February 16, 2012 – Hoof Prints Article

Hello Mustang Fans!

We are one week away from the mid-winter social event of the year. The Mustang Booster Club will be hosting the Gold Rush Raffle on Friday, February 24 in the SMSU Conference Center. The raffle tickets are almost sold out with very few tickets available to anyone who has not talked with one of our Mustang Booster Club members or SMSU Athletic Department Staff members.

We sell 600 raffle tickets each year. Each Gold Rush Raffle Ticket ($50) will get the holder of the ticket entry into the February 24 evening event where they will enjoy beverages, appetizers, games, silent and live auctions, a great atmosphere and the chance to win $5,000. The Gold Rush Raffle Committee as well as the SMSU Athletic Department staff is looking forward to hosting a great evening of fun and socializing in support of scholarships for our SMSU student-athletes.

Tonight, the SMSU Baseball program will host its 4th Annual Wild Game Feed in the Upper Level of the SMSU Conference Center. The social hour begins at 6:00 pm followed by a 7:00 pm dinner buffet.  Tickets will be $20 for adults and $10 for children under the age of 12.  Tickets are available for sale in the Athletic Office (FH 323) and may also be purchased at the gate the night of the dinner. The SMSU Student Hospitality Organization will be preparing the dinner buffet for the evening.  Dinner will include appetizers, multiple entrees, side dishes and refreshments.

This is a great opportunity to bring the family out and support the SMSU baseball team and Student Hospitality Organization while dining on some “upscale” wild game entrees.  Any questions can be forwarded to either assistant coach Blake Eller or head coach Paul Blanchard at 507-537-7398 (Office) or email Blake.eller@smsu.edu for all your Wild Game Feed information.

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

Upcoming Schedule of Events for Mustang Athletics:

The SMSU Athletics Department along with Affiliated Community Medical Center (ACMC) will be hosting the annual “Pink Zone” this Saturday at the R/A Facility. The event raises awareness and focuses on women's health.

Each February during the “Pink Zone” event, the R/A Facility is decorated in pink to show support for breast cancer awareness.  The day will be filled with a number of activities, including a prize giveaway along with a QR code scavenger hunt.  Several SMSU student-athlete and coaches will also be donating hair to Locks of Love and Aramark dining services will also be giving away delicious strawberry ice cream. Come out on Saturday dressed in pink to show your support of breast cancer awareness while cheering on our Mustang Basketball teams to victory.

The SMSU Women’s and Men’s Basketball teams are both home this weekend for a pair of key NSIC games. The SMSU Women’s Basketball team (5-18, 4-15 NSIC) will return to the R/A Facility this weekend looking to snap an 11-game losing streak. SMSU welcomes Bemidji State (8-15, 6-12 NSIC) on Friday with the contest starting at 6:00 pm. The Mustangs will then celebrate “Senior Day” on Saturday, hosting Minnesota Duluth (14-8, 11-7 NSIC) with tip-off set for 4:00 pm.

The Mustang Men’s Basketball team (14-9, 13-6 NSIC), currently in fourth place in the NSIC standings, one-half game out of third place and one-game behind second place, will battle Bemidji State University (17-7, 12-6 NSIC) on Friday with tip-off slated for 8:00 pm.  SMSU concludes the weekend on Saturday when they face the University of Minnesota Duluth (13-9, 10-8 NSIC) on “Senior Night” with tip-off slated for 6:00 pm.

The SMSU Men’s Basketball team received some good news yesterday when the NCAA national committee announced the Mustangs were ranked sixth in the first NCAA Division II Central Region rankings. SMSU has a 14-7 record versus NCAA Division II teams.

SMSU is one of seven NSIC schools to appear in the regional rankings with No. 1 Winona State, No. 4 St. Cloud State, No. 5 MSU Moorhead, No. 8 Bemidji State, No. 9 Augustana and No. 10 Minnesota Duluth.  The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference has three teams ranked this week with No. 2 Colorado School of Mines, No. 3 Metro State (Colo.) and No. 7 Adams State (Colo.).

The top eight teams in the 28-team region will advance to the NCAA region tournament on March 10-13.  Automatic bids are granted to the winners of the NSIC and RMAC postseason tournaments, with the remaining six spots awarded on an at-large basis. The Mustangs last appeared in the NCAA region rankings on February 3, 2010.

The SMSU Wrestling team will put an end to the 2011-12 regular season this weekend with a pair of NSIC duals. The Mustangs will travel to Moorhead, MN to take on MSU Moorhead at 7:00 pm on Friday night before returning home to celebrate “Senior Day” on Saturday night hosting Minnesota State, Mankato at 7:00 pm at the PE Gym.

The Mustangs are 9-5 on the season, including 2-3 in the NSIC, which currently sits the Mustangs in fourth-place in the eight-team conference. With its win over Concordia-Moorhead last Friday, SMSU achieved its highest win total since the 2002-03 season. The Mustangs also improved to 6-0 in dual meets at the PE Gym on the season, its highest home win total since the 1968-69 season when the Mustangs went 9-1.

The SMSU Wheelchair Basketball team  went 1-3 on its final weekend of regular season play. The Mustangs opened the weekend with an 84-47 loss to Alabama on Friday night. Southwest played three games on Saturday starting with a 73-49 loss to host Wisconsin-Whitewater before defeating Edinboro (Pa.) 78-46 and dropping its final contest 72-48 against Missouri.

Jake Williams led the Mustangs in scoring over the weekend averaging 23.5 points per game while Kyle Timmerman added 12.8 ppg and Raymone Brown added 9.5 ppg for SMSU.  The Mustangs will return to action on March 7-10 at the NIWBT Championships in Champaign, IL.

The SMSU Tennis team (0-3) will begin NSIC action this weekend traveling to Bismarck, N.D. for three matches. The Mustangs opened their season last weekend going 0-3 in non-conference matches against St. Thomas, St. Catherine’s and Macalester College.

The Mustangs will compete this weekend in conference play against Augustana (2-1) on Saturday at 1:00 pm before taking on Montana State-Billings (0-5) in a non-conference dual at 4:00 pm. SMSU returns to conference play on Sunday against the University of Mary (0-3, 0-3 NSIC) at 9:00 am.

Good luck to all of our teams this week and Believe in Brown!

Congratulations to David Krull who provided the correct answer to last week’s Mustang Hoofprint’s Question: What former Mustang Baseball player and coach came up with the idea to host the SMSU Baseball Wild Game Feed? Former Mustang, Bryan Nikkel, started the Wild Game Feed four years ago as a fund raising event for the SMSU Baseball team.

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

Who was the last Mustang Women’s Tennis player to be inducted into the SMSU Hall of Honor?

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