SMSU Athletics

February 20, 2014 – Hoof Prints Article

Hello Mustang Fans!

The Gold Rush Raffle was a huge success last Friday evening. I would like to thank the Mustang Gold Rush Raffle Committee members for their time and effort in the development and planning for the event. I would also like to thank our coaches and staff members who were responsible for the overall execution of the activities and event schedule for the evening. We are very fortunate to have the support we do in SMSU Athletics throughout the campus and in our community of Marshall.

We were able to sell 600 Gold Rush Raffle Tickets this year selling out for the 9th straight year. The Mustang Booster Club and Department of Athletics are very appreciative of the over 300 Mustang supporters who came out to enjoy the Gold Rush Raffle environment and help us raise funds for the Mustang Booster Club.  Thank you to all who contributed to the success of the Mustang Gold Rush Raffle!

SMSU Athletics will recognize nine student-athletes that have earned the NSIC Myles Brand All-Academic with Distinction Award tomorrow evening. A total of 96 student-athletes from the NSIC's 16 institutions and two affiliated members will receive the award in its fifth year.

SMSU student-athletes earning the award include Vanesa Corona, Josh Hanson, Ethan Hildebrandt, Bree Holleman, Micah Larson, Rachel Patnoe, Rebekah Rolling, Nick Smith and Britt Wickett.

The honor, named for the late NCAA President Dr. Myles Brand, is bestowed to senior NSIC student-athletes who have a cumulative grade point average of 3.75 or higher, are exhausting their eligibility and are on track to graduate. Each student-athlete will be recognized by the NSIC with a certificate of achievement and a wristwatch. Congratulations to these nine student-athletes for their hard work and academic excellence.

The fun and activities continues this week on the campus of SMSU. The SMSU Department of Athletics will be hosting "It's a Slam Dunk – Don't Drive Drunk" this today and Saturday when the Mustangs play their final regular season home games of the 2013-14 season.

For the second straight year, SAAC members from across the 16-team Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference are producing videos with the underlying theme of "It's A Slam Dunk-Don't Drive Drunk". The videos honor Drake Philip Bigler, the five-month old son of SMSU head men's basketball coach Brad Bigler that was tragically killed by a drunk driver on the night of July 28, 2012.

Videos were submitted through the NSIC SAAC Facebook page (Facebook.com/NSICSAAC) were judged on overall impact, creativity, memorable content, and delivery and clear message. Concordia-St. Paul was this year's award for top video. The video named most outstanding of all submissions will be recognized during halftime at the NSIC Basketball Tournament Championship games.

To help further raise awareness, over the last month, each NSIC SAAC group will have a booth at their arena to have people in attendance sign and a pledge card stating that they will not drive drunk. Each person that signs the pledge card will receive a blue keychain with an inscription of the theme: "It's a Slam Dunk-Don't Drive Drunk", the NSIC and NCAA logos along with Drake's name.

Last year, 14 of 16 NSIC schools submitted videos with the underlying theme of "It's a Slam Dunk – Don't Drive Drunk". The University of Mary's submission was named most outstanding, while Southwest Minnesota State University collected 1,337 pledges from fans, the most in the NSIC, to earn $1,000 that was donated in SMSU's name to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Bring your family out to the SMSU Women’s and Men’s Basketball games this weekend and support the Bigler Family, SMSU and the NSIC with the “It’s a Slam Dunk – Don’t Drive Drunk” campaign.

Also this weekend, the SMSU Department of Athletics 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 prize giveaways. Several SMSU students will also be donating hair to Locks of Love during halftime of the men's game. College Against Cancer will be selling pink t-shirts to raise money for Relay for Life and ACMC will be serving ice cream for all fans at the basketball games on Saturday.
 
For all your information about this weekend’s activities and SMSU Athletics, go to SMSUmustnags.com.

Upcoming SMSU Athletics Events

The SMSU Wrestling team (11-5 overall, 5-2 NSIC) will conclude the 2013-14 regular season this Saturday, as they welcome the University of Mary (2-9, 1-6 NSIC) to the PE Gym at 2:00 p.m. It will be Senior Day for the Mustang Wrestling team as they pay tribute to six seniors who have all played a major role in the programs growth over the last five years. Thank you to William Dean, Ethan Hildebrandt, Codie Lane, Micah Larson, Justin Reinsma and Andrew Rodas for your persistence, hard work and leadership with the SMSU Wrestling Program.

The SMSU Men’s Basketball team (16-10, 13-7 NSIC) will conclude the regular season this weekend with a pair of home games at the R/A Facility. The Mustang welcome Concordia-St. Paul (8-16, 5-15 NSIC) to the R/A Facility tonight  with tip-off set for 8:00 p.m. On Saturday, No. 17 Minnesota State University (23-4, 17-3 NSIC) comes to town with game time scheduled for 7 p.m.

SMSU begins the weekend in third place in the NSIC South Division standings and in a three-way for fourth overall. CU is tied for sixth in the NSIC South and tied for 12th overall, while MSU is tied for first place in both the NSIC South and overall standings. Following this weekend, the Mustangs will open play in the NSIC/Sanford Health Men's Basketball Tournament at home on Wednesday, February 26, starting at 7:00 p.m. versus either, Minnesota Duluth, U-Mary or Minot State. SMSU will secure the No. 3 seed in the South Division and will host the No. 6 seed in the North with one victory this weekend.

In this week’s NCAA Division II Central Region rankings, the Mustangs were ranked 9th out of ten teams.
SMSU is one of five NSIC schools to appear in the regional rankings with No. 1 Winona State, No. 2 Minnesota State, No. 8 Bemidji State and No. 10 St. Cloud State. The Mid-American Athletic Association (MIAA) has four teams ranked this week with No. 3 Missouri Southern, No. 4 Northwest Missouri State, No. 5 Central Missouri and No. 6 Fort Hays State (Kan.), while the Great American Conference (GAC) has one team ranked with No. 7 Arkansas Tech.

The top eight teams in the 41-team region advance to the NCAA region tournament on March 15-18. Automatic bids are granted to the winners of the NSIC, MIAA and GAC postseason tournaments, with the remaining five spots are awarded on an at-large basis.

The Mustang Women’s Basketball team (4-20, 2-18 NSIC) will close out the regular season this weekend with two home games at the R/A Facility. SMSU will take on Concordia-St. Paul (19-8, 14-6 NSIC) this evening starting at 6:00 p.m., before facing No. 21 Minnesota State (19-5, 16-4 NSIC) on Saturday at 5:00 p.m. SMSU will look to snap its five-game losing skid and improve upon its 3-7 record at the R/A Facility this season.

The SMSU Women’s Basketball team will be on the road for the first round of the NSIC/Sanford Health Women’s Basketball Tournament next Wednesday, February 26 against an opponent to be determined following this weekend’s game.

The SMSU Women's and Men's Indoor Track and Field were in action last weekend in Mankato following a two-week break, competing at the Minnesota State Open. The men's team had a solid day with several high finishers, including Alejandro Sanchez leading the way with a first place time of 1:55.46 in the 800m. Teammate OJ Ojullu finished in fourth place in the 800m with a time of 1:57.43.

Chris Kveseth also had a strong day earning second place in the 600m with a time of 1:24:54, while Dallin Finley earned an eighth place finish in the 200m with a mark of 23.13. SMSU's 4x400m relay team posted a season-best 3:23.30 to finish in fourth place.

On the women's side, Amanda Grengs earned a fourth place finish in the mile run with a time of 5:29.65 to earn the highest finish among SMSU's women's runners. Grengs also finished 12th in the 1,000m with a time 3:14.78. Julia Sauder ran a time of 1:47.23 in the 600m to record a 13th place finish. The Mustangs competed yesterday at Bemidji State at the Bemidji State Twlight.

The SMSU Wheelchair Basketball team (13-15) team went 1-3 last weekend losing its first game versus Sioux Falls 31-34 before winning the next three with two wins over the Timberwolves concluding the weekend with a victory over Sioux Falls 52-31. Last week’s games were the final in the regular season for SMSU, who will compete next at the NWBT Championships on March 6-8 in Arlington, Texas.

The SMSU Tennis team (1-4, 0-3 NSIC) is back in action this weekend as the Mustangs travel to Sioux Falls, SD., for NSIC matches versus Augustana College and Minnesota Crookston. The matches will be played at the Sioux Empire Fitness Center in Sioux Falls.

The matches will be SMSU's last conference matches of the month of February and much of March as the Mustangs will embark on a five-day trip to Mesa, AZ., over spring break to play seven non-conference matches beginning March 11.

The SMSU Baseball team (1-3) opened the season with two non-conference games last weekend losing game one  7-11 to Emporia State before beating Missouri Western State 7-6 last Saturday in Emporia, Kansas against two NCAA Central Region opponents. On Sunday, the Mustangs took two losses 2-4 against Emporia State and Missouri Western State. The Mustangs will return to action on March 7 with the first of 12 games at the Tucson Invitational. SMSU opens its spring trip with games versus Malone (OH) and Cal State San Bernardino on March 7.

Congratulations to senior outfielder Jon Ellis has been named the NSIC Player of the Week for his performance in four games last weekend in SMSU's season opening trip to Emporia, KS. Ellis, a native of Fairmont, MN, batted .583 (7 for 12) with one home run, one double, six RBIs and three runs scored in SMSU's four games versus two of the top teams in the Mid America Athletics Association (MIAA). He also walked three times and had 11 total bases for a .917 slugging percentage. Ellis, a three-year letterwinner, has played in 80 career games with 72 starts and has a .333 career batting average with 12 doubles, four home runs and 43 RBIs.

The Mustang Softball team (0-4) opened the 2014 season in Golden, CO versus Colorado School of Mines last Saturday where they lost 6-8 and 5-14. SMSU would play a second doubleheader against Mines on Sunday battling in both games but coming up short 5-9 in game one and 7-12 in game two. The Mustang will be in action next on March 6 versus Missouri – St. Louis in a doubleheader as part of their spring trip. On March 7, SMSU will battle North Alabama before heading to Kissimmee, FL to play 12 games in the Rebel Spring Games over the break.

Good luck to all of our SMSU Teams competing this weekend!

Go Mustangs!

Congratulation to Max and Mary Lord who provided the correct response to last week’s Mustang Hoofprint’s Trivia Question: At last year’s Gold Rush Raffle, who won the grand prize of $5,000? Marrisa Brody, Greg Devos, Janelle Fillipi, Pat Hagemeyer and Todd Vogl were all winners in 2013 splitting the $5,000 Grand Prize at the Mustang Gold Rush Raffle.

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

Who is the career leader in field goal percentage for the Mustang Men’s Basketball team?

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