SMSU Athletics

October 18, 2013 – Hoof Prints Article

Hello Mustang Fans!

Every week seems to be a big week for our fall sports. This is just a great example of the talented student-athletes and teams we have in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC). The NSIC is located in the NCAA Division II Central region which includes the Great American Conference (11 institutions) and the Midwest Intercollegiate Athletic Association (14 institutions).

In the next couple of weeks, we will begin to see the NCAA Division II Regional Rankings in the news. The first ranking for soccer will be announced on October 22. Football will have their first ranking on October 28, and Volleyball will have their first ranking announced on November 8. Each sport has an NCAA Regional Advisory Committee made up of athletic administrators, head coaches and/or staff members of the institutions within the region.

When you talk about rankings, this evening, the Mustang Football team will host the #1 team in the country in NCAA Division II Football, Minnesota State University, Mankato. This will be the first time in SMSU Football history that Southwest will have hosted the #1 team in the country. It should be an exciting game, and I would like to invite you and your family out to SMSU’s Mattke Field at the Schwan Regional Event Center tonight at 6:00 pm to cheer on the Mustangs.

The SMSU Women’s and Men’s Basketball teams began practice on Tuesday. On Thursday, all three of our basketball teams took the floor for the annual SMSU Late Night Show. Each team displayed their talent in a short scrimmage. The always competitive three-point contest was exciting with Bree Holleman and Nick Smith each making 17 three-pointers ending the contest in a tie. To conclude the evening, the men’s basketball team put on quite a dunking exhibition with Will Giddings taking home the dunk contest honors in an impressive fashion.

The fans were treated to great prizes. The dance team and cheerleaders both performed at the event. We also saw two honorary coaches for the SMSU Women’s Basketball take the bench during the scrimmage. SMSU President, Dr. Connie J. Gores coached the brown squad, while Dr. Jan Loft, Dean of Arts, Letters and Sciences, coached the white team. Our SMSU Students and community members came out in full force to support the Mustang Basketball teams. Thank you to all who attended.

For all the latest information on the SMSU Department of Athletics go to SMSUmustangs.com.

This Week in SMSU Athletics

The SMSU Soccer team (11-1, 7-1 NSIC) went 1-1 last weekend beating Upper Iowa on Saturday before suffering their first loss of the season to Winona State 0-1 is a very intense match Sunday. The Mustangs are currently in 2nd place in the NSIC heading into conference play this weekend on the road. MSU Mankato is 9-0 in the conference and currently in 1st place in the NSIC.

Today, Southwest will play MSU Moorhead (0-11, NSIC 0-9) at 1:00 p.m. in Moorhead, MN before traveling to Aberdeen, SD, on Sunday to compete against Northern State (6-5-1, NSIC 3-5-1) also starting at 1:00 p.m.

The #6 SMSU Volleyball team (14-3, 9-0 NSIC) had a pair of NSIC wins last weekend beating Winona State and
Upper Iowa. The Mustangs played at MSU Mankato (8-8, NSIC 4-5) last night and will battle the #1 team in the
country, Concordia, St. Paul. After this weekend’s matches, one team will sit atop the NSIC in
volleyball, Concordia, St. Paul or SMSU.

The SMSU Football team (3-3 NSIC, 1-1 NSIC South) is at home today playing host to #1 Minnesota State University (6-0, NSIC, 2-0 NSIC South) at Mattke Field at the Schwan Regional Event with kickoff scheduled for 6:00 p.m. The Mustangs are looking to grab the program's first-ever victory over MSU. Last year, Southwest led the Mavericks into the fourth quarter before MSU tied the contest in regulation and eventually won in double overtime.

The SMSU Women's and Men's Cross Country teams are coming off their best performance of the fall with the men’s team placing fifth out of 12 teams at the Briar Cliff Invite last week. The SMSU women's team finished sixth out of nine teams. The invite was held at Adams Homestead and Nature Preserve in McCook Lake, S.D.

The University of Sioux Falls won the men's team title with 31 points, while the USF women's team won the team crown with 45 points. The SMSU men finished with 137 points, while the SMSU women earned 168 points.

Trent Smith paced the SMSU men with an 11th place finish out of 133 runners with a time of 26:00 in the 8,000-meter race. Alejandro Sanchez came in right behind Smith with a time of 26:07 to record 13th place. On the women's side, Amanda Grengs led the Mustangs in the 5,000-meter race with a time of 19:23 to finish 19th out of 94 runners. Paige Yi was 22nd with a 19:27.

Both SMSU squads will compete at the NSIC Championship on October 26 at Yankton Trails Park in Sioux Falls, S.D.

I would like to wish all of our teams the best of luck this weekend!

Go Mustangs!

Congratulations to Rick Haberman, who provided the correct answer to last week’s Mustang Hoofprint’s Trivia Question: Who won last year’s Slam Dunk Contest at the SMSU Late Night Show? Lavione West has won the SMSU Late Night Show Slam Dunk Contest each of the last five years.

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

Who was the last ranked opponent the SMSU Football team beat, and in what year?

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