SMSU Athletics

February 21, 2013

Hello Mustang Fans!

The Gold Rush Raffle is here. This Friday at 6:00 pm in the SMSU Conference the Mustang Booster Club will host the 10th Annual Gold Rush Raffle.  We have some great live and silent auction items planned for this year’s event. You can go to the “Events” tab at SMSUMustangs.com and click the Gold Rush Raffle tab to view the live auction items up for bid this year.

We have some new group trips and individual auction items for you to bid on including a two day golf trip for four people to a private Minnesota golf course including lodging, meals, gas and eight rounds of golf. We have also worked with Pepsi of Pipestone who donated a Pepsi machine decorated with Mustang graphics. The Mustang Pepsi machine would look great in a basement or workshop. These are just a couple of the new items we will have up for auction next Friday evening.
The Gold Rush Raffle Committee has set a goal of raising $50,000 this year with all the proceeds going to SMSU Athletic Scholarships. We look forward to an exciting evening of fun, great conversations and stewardship focused on enhancing the student-athlete experience at SMSU.  I look forward to seeing you there!

For more information on the Gold Rush Raffle and Mustang Athletics, please go to SMSUmustangs.com.
This Week in Mustang Athletics

The SMSU Wrestling team (13-6, 3-5 NSIC) will be back in action on Sunday at the NCAA Super Regionals held in Waterloo, Iowa with matches beginning at 10:00am. The Mustangs will be one of 13 teams to wrestle in the tournament. The top four qualifiers from the Super Regional will advance to NCAA Championships held in Birmingham, AL, March 8-9. SMSU finished 12th last year, while qualifying one wrestler (Justin Reinsma, 133) for the NCAA Championships. Good luck to our Mustang Wrestling team and wrestlers as they look to qualify for nationals.

The SMSU Men’s Basketball team (15-12, 12-8 NSIC) concludes the regular season this weekend with a pair of NSIC road games. SMSU faces the Concordia University -St. Paul (9-15, 7-13 NSIC) on Friday with tip-off slated for 8:00 pm. On Saturday, the Mustangs will battle #9 Minnesota State University, Mankato (20-4, 16-4 NSIC) on with the game scheduled to begin at 6:00 pm. SMSU begins the weekend fifth in the NSIC South Division standings and tied for sixth overall. CU currently sits in a tie for seventh in the NSIC South and tied for 12th overall, while MSU is tied for first in the NSIC South and tied for first overall.

The Mustangs were ranked ninth in the first NCAA Division II Central Region rankings released on Wednesday. SMSU has a 15-11 record versus NCAA Division II teams, including 13-10 versus teams in the region. The Mustangs are one of six NSIC schools to appear in the regional rankings with No. 1 Winona State, No. 2 Minnesota State, No. 3 Augustana, No. 4 St. Cloud State and No. 10 Upper Iowa. The Mid-American Athletic Association (MIAA) has two teams ranked this week with No. 6 Central Missouri and No. 8 Fort Hays State (Kan.), while the Great American Conference (GAC) has two teams with No. 5 Harding (Ark.) and No. 7 Arkansas Tech.

The top eight teams in the 42-team region will advance to the NCAA region tournament on Mar. 16-19. Automatic bids are granted to the winners of the NSIC and MIAA postseason tournaments, with the remaining six spots are awarded on an at-large basis. The GAC does not have an automatic bid this season.

The SMSU Women’s Basketball team (4-22, 2-18 NSIC) will be on the road to conclude the regular season this weekend playing Concordia University (19-5, 17-3 NSIC) on Friday with tip-off scheduled for 6:00 pm. The Mustangs will head to MSU Mankato (20-4, 16-4 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon with the contest beginning at 4:00 pm. SMSU is coming off two losses last weekend against Wayne State and Augustana.

Both the women’s and men’s basketball teams will begin the first round of the Sanford Health NSIC Basketball Tournament on February 27 with the rounds one and two played at the high seed. Last year, the SMSU Men’s Basketball team won the Sanford Health NSIC Tournament Championship in Rochester, MN.

The SMSU Wheelchair Basketball team is 13-13 overall and are scheduled to play at the National Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball Tournament played on March 7-10 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

The SMSU Tennis team fell to Augustana College (S.D.) 9-0 last weekend in NSIC action. The Mustangs (0-3, 0-2 NSIC) suffered their consecutive conference loss over the weekend, both to teams that finished first and second in the NSIC. SMSU will take off a week before taking on Northern State and St. Cloud State on March 1-2.
The SMSU Baseball team went 2-2 in their first four games up in the Metrodome versus Upper Iowa and the University of Mary last week. The Mustangs loss the season opener, last Thursday, 4-6 to Upper Iowa while mounting an 8th inning comeback to win game two 7-2. Last Sunday, the Mustangs battled the Marauders winning game one 7-2 before losing 0-4 to conclude last week’s non-conference play. SMSU will continue non-conference play on Wednesday, February 27, with a doubleheader versus Concordia-St. Paul in the Metrodome.
The SMSU Softball team was scheduled to go to Edmond, OK this weekend to play five games against Central Oklahoma, West Texas A&M, Missouri Southern State and Emporia State. Due to poor weather conditions throughout the Midwest, the trip was cancelled.

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

Go Mustangs!
Congratulations to Charlie Ehlers who provided the correct answer to last week’s Mustang Hoofprint’s Trivia Question: Who were last year’s winner/s of the $5,000 top prize at the Gold Rush Raffle? Last year’s Gold Rush Raffle winners were Kari Ehlers and Kurt Hovalt who split the $5,000 cash prize.

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

How many of our coaches competed as a student-athletes at a member institution of the NSIC?

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