SMSU Athletics

November 28, 2013 – Hoof Prints Article

Happy Thanksgiving Mustang Fans!

The SMSU Department of Athletics has much to be thankful for this holiday season!

Congratulations to Mustang Head Men’s Basketball Coach, Brad Bigler, and his wife, Heather, as they welcomed a beautiful baby girl, Tatum Diane Bigler, into the world on Monday, November 25, 2013. We welcome Tatum to our Mustang Family!

We are very thankful for the hard work and dedication of our coaches, student-athletes and staff members throughout the year. The effort and focus put forth by this group has helped to elevate all aspects of the SMSU Department of Athletics. We appreciate all the excitement and success you have brought to SMSU and the Marshall Community.

We are also very thankful to have supportive administrators, faculty and staff members who work with our student-athletes and athletic department staff members to create a great collegiate experience for our student-athletes. At times, our competition schedule in athletics can be spontaneous, especially when we get to post-season play. The SMSU Campus Community has worked hard to assist our student-athletes in successfully managing their coursework and missed class time. We appreciate your willingness to support the academic success of our student-athletes as they balance their academic and athletic experiences.

We are also very thankful to the Marshall community for their support of Mustang Athletics. The Department of Athletics values the business and community partnerships that have been forged over the years. We are a proud member of the Marshall community and look forward to building new relationships and strengthening existing partnerships to aid in the economic development and civic engagement activities of the region. Mustang Athletics has seventy-three corporate sponsors and over two hundred and fifty Mustang Booster Club members who help to make the SMSU student-athlete experience a great one. We are very appreciative of the Marshall community and its engagement in the lives of our student-athletes and staff members, special events, civic engagement opportunities, Mustang Booster Club events and the athletic competitions we host. Thank you for all your support of SMSU Athletics.

I wish everyone a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving!

For all the latest information on Mustang Athletics go to SMSUmustangs.com.

This Week in SMSU Athletics

Congratulations to the SMSU Volleyball team who earned their 10th straight trip to the NCAA Central Region Volleyball Tournament. The Mustangs are the #5 seed in the tournament and will travel to the University of Minnesota Duluth for their first round match-up with the # 4 seed Washburn at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 5. The Mustangs finished the season with a 23-7 overall record, and 17-3 in the NSIC.

With a victory next Thursday, SMSU would face the winner of #8 Arkansas Teck and #1 UMD on Friday. On the other side of the Central Region Bracket is #2 Central Missouri who will play #7 Nebraska Kearney and #3 Concordia St. Paul who is matched up with #6 Northern State.  Southwest is coming off a home NSIC Tournament loss to Wayne State College last Wednesday. Good luck to the SMSU Volleyball team as they continue post-season play.

Congratulations to Tyler Tonderum, junior running back, who has been selected as one of nine national finalists for the Harlon Hill Award, which is given annually to the top player in Division II football. The announcement was made earlier this week by the Harlon Hill national committee.

The top two players from each of Division II's Super Regions advanced to the national ballot, with the exception of Super Region 3 where three players advanced due to a tie in the voting. The list of 2013 finalists is comprised of five quarterbacks and four running backs. Tyler, a native of Armstrong, Iowa, is the first SMSU student-athlete to be named a Harlon Hill regional finalist.

The SMSU Department of Athletics and Alumni Association are planning a fan bus for the SMSU football game at the Mineral Water Bowl in Excelsior Springs, MO, on Saturday, December. 7, with kickoff set for 12:00 p.m. The cost is $40 for community members and alumni and $10 for SMSU students with a valid SMSU ID. Game ticket is included in the price. The bus will leave at 4:15 a.m. on Saturday and will return to Marshall following the game with a return time at approximately 10:00 p.m. To reserve your spot on the bus, call the SMSU Athletics Department at 507-537-7271. The best time to call is from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. If no one answers, please leave a message.

Mustang Football (7-4) will be making its first appearance in the Mineral Water Bowl and will take on Pittsburg State University (Kan.) (9-2). This is a great honor for our football program and the result of much hard work by our coaching staff, student-athletes and staff members this fall.

The SMSU Men’s Basketball team (2-3, 0-0 NSIC) will open their twenty-two game NSIC schedule this Saturday has they head to the University of Sioux Falls (3-1, 0-0 NSIC) to compete at the Stewart Center with game time set for 6:00 p.m. The Mustangs are coming off a trip to Michigan where they went 1-1 beating Northern Michigan 68-53 in game one before falling to a very tough Michigan Tech team 64-86.

The SMSU Women’s Basketball team (2-2, 0-0 NSIC) will also kick off the 2013-14 NSIC schedule this Saturday in Sioux Falls, S.D. taking on the University of Sioux Falls Cougars (3-0, 0-0 NSIC) with the game scheduled to begin at 4:00 p.m. The Mustangs opened the season 2-0 before a couple of losses to Cal State Monterey Bay and South Dakota School of Mines & Technology earlier this week. Following Saturday's games, the Mustangs Women’s and Men’s Basketball teams will return home to play Augustana (December 6) and Wayne State (December 7).

The SMSU Wrestling team competed in the Jimmie Open last Saturday in Jamestown, ND. The Mustangs had three wrestlers take first place in their respective weight classes; Justin Reinsma (133), Travis Peralta (184) and Micah Larson (197). The Mustangs will be in action next on December 7 at the Wisconsin-LaCrosse Duals competing against Waldorf College (IA), Wisconsin-LaCrosse and Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

The SMSU Wheelchair Basketball team went 0-4 last weekend in Whitewater, WI. Last Friday, the Mustangs lost to Edinboro (PA) in game one 50-33 and UT-Arlington in game two 80-34. Saturday, SMSU opened with the host school Whitewater and lost 67-36 before taking on Missouri who won the contest 61-39. SMSU will be back in action on December 6-7 at the University of Missouri Tournament held in Columbia, MO. The Mustangs will play UT-Arlington, Illinois, Missouri and Whitewater at the tournament.

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

Go Mustangs!

No one was able to provide the correct answer to last week’s Mustang Hoofprint’s Trivia Question: Who is the last starting quarterback for the Mustang Football team to be a native of Minnesota? Rob Fagnan (2000-03), from Columbia Heights, was the last quarterback from Minnesota to start for the Mustangs before Charlie Kern took the helm this season.

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

Head Mustang Volleyball Coach, Terry Culhane, has accumulated a 256-69 overall record equaling a .787 winning percentage in his 10 years at SMSU. What former Mustang Head Volleyball Coach has the second highest winning percentage in the school’s history?

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