May 1, 2014 – Hoof Prints Article Hello Mustang Fans!
Next week is finals week on the campus of SMSU. The SMSU Softball and Women’s Golf teams concluded their seasons last weekend. The Mustang Baseball team and Women’s and Men’s Outdoor Track and Field teams are in their final week of regular season competition. It is hard to believe we are coming to the end of another academic year and athletic season.
Great news out of the NSIC Office this week, as Erin (Frye) Lind will be the conferences fifth full-time commissioner and beginning her duties July 1, 2014. Lind joined the NSIC staff in the summer of 2001 and has served as the NSIC Associate Commissioner and Senior Woman Administrator since 2005.
Erin is a 2001 graduate of Southwest Minnesota State University earning her bachelor's degree in sports management with minors in business management and coaching. She was a starter for the SMSU Women's Basketball team from 1998 to 2001. Erin was a first-team All-NSIC selection. She ended her career as the school's seventh all-time leading scorer with 1,380 points and helped lead the Mustangs to the 2000-01 conference championship and a first-ever NCAA tournament appearance.
Erin was also the first recipient of the SMSU GOLD (Graduate of the Last Decade) Award. The GOLD award is presented to a graduate of Southwest Minnesota State University to recognize recent (past 10 years) graduates with exceptional achievement and significant contribution to the recipient's profession or community/society or university. Congratulations to Erin and her family, on her appointment as Commissioner of the NSIC beginning this summer.
Last Saturday, SMSU Mustang Booster Club hosted the first-ever "Mini Sports Camp" at the Schwan Regional Events Center and PE Gym. The event was a huge success with over seventy campers participating in the sports camp. A big thank you to all our staff members, coaches, membership drive committee members and student-athletes who took part in the planning an execution of this event. We were very happy with the number of kids who attended the camp and look forward to making the Mini Sports Camp an annual event to kick-off the Mustang Booster Club Membership Drive.
The SMSU Department of Athletics and sponsors, Aramark, Hy-Vee and Pepsi, are in the soft launch phase of a new way for fans to interact with Mustang Athletics on their mobile devices.
The new "Mustang app", which is available for download now, will not only allow you to keep updated with Mustang Athletics, but you'll earn rewards for attending SMSU events and receive great offers from Aramark Dining Services, Hy-Vee, and Pepsi.
The app, which is compatible with Apple devices and Android based platforms, can be downloaded by searching "Mustang App" in the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, or any other app stores.
Another way to download is to follow the instructions below:Step 1: Text 'Mustangs' to 80802
Step 2: Click the link in the text message you received
Step 3: Download from Application Store
Step 4: Register for Application
Step 5: Start Earning Rewards
Save the date! The 29
th annual David and Carol Drown SMSU Golf Classic will be held Friday, June 20 at the Marshall Golf Club. The Golf Classic is the next Mustang Booster Club fund raising event, and the Golf Classic Committee will be convening in the next couple of weeks to begin the planning for this great event.
For all your information on the SMSU Booster Club, the Mustang App and SMSU Athletics, go to SMSUmustnags.com.
Upcoming SMSU Athletics Events The SMSU Baseball team (21-20, 12-13 NSIC) is coming off a four-game road sweep of the University of Minnesota, Crookston last weekend in NSIC action. The Mustangs doubleheader with Bemidji State scheduled for yesterday at Alumni Field will be played today in Sioux Falls, SD, at Karras Park on the campus of Augustana College.
SMSU will end the regular season this Saturday and Sunday with a four-game series versus Northern State at Alumni Field. The games are scheduled to start at 1:30 pm on Saturday and noon on Sunday. The Mustang are currently in 9
th place in the NSIC heading into the last six games of the regular season with the top eight teams making the NSIC Baseball Tournament. Good luck to Coach Blanchard and the Mustangs as they look to earn their way into post-season play.
The Mustang Softball team (15-30-1, 12-17-1 NSIC) ended their season this past weekend going 2-0 versus MSU Moorhead on Friday and splitting with Northern State on Saturday. The Mustangs finished the season in eleventh place in the NSIC with the top ten teams making the NSIC Softball Tournament. I would like to thank seniors Kaley Searcy and Jennifer Johnson for their hard work, dedication and commitment to the SMSU Softball program.
The SMSU Women’s Golf team’s season came to an end on Sunday with a sixth place finish at the NSIC Championships at Dacotah Ridge Golf Club in Morton, MN.
SMSU shot a final round score of 363 on Sunday to finish with a four-round total of 1,419 (+267). The first two rounds of the championship were played last October at The Classic at Madden's in Brainerd, MN, while yesterday's third round and today's final round were played at Dacotah Ridge.
Augustana College won the conference championship with a score of 1,304 (+152), earning a 33 stroke victory over Concordia-St. Paul (1,337). Augustana's Maggie Leland won the conference individual title with a 34-over-par 322.
Rachel Patnoe – playing her final collegiate round – led SMSU on Sunday with a 17-over 89 to finish tied for 16
th overall with a 62-over 350.
Becky Koepp shot a 19-over 91 today and recorded a 26
th place finish at 73-over 361.
Dana Wagner finished 27
th overall with a 75-over 363, following a round of 22-over 94 on Sunday.
Abby Gruber shot a 20-over 92 on Sunday and finished 31
st overall with an 80-over 368.
Megan Will, who did not compete in the fall portion of the championship, shot rounds of 98 and 91 this weekend. Wagner led SMSU during the season with an 85.5 stroke average in 16 rounds, including a pair of top five finishes.
I would like to thank our seniors Rachel Patnoe,
Marissa Campeau and
Trisha Kienitz for their hard work, dedication and commitment to the SMSU Women’s Golf program.
The SMSU Women's and Men's Indoor Track and Field team’s next competition will be at the Howard Wood Relays on May 2-3 in Sioux Falls, SD.
For the Women’s Track team, Rylee Armstrong competed in the NSIC Heptathlon held at Swisher Field hosted by Northern State University this past Sunday and Monday placing 14th with a total of 3,389 points. On Monday, Armstrong finished fourth in the long jump with a mark of 5.17m (16-11.5), eighth in the javelin with a throw of 26.91m (88-03) and 14th in the 800-meter with a time of 3:17.53.
On Sunday, she tied for fourth in the high jump with a mark of 1.55m (5-01.00) to earn 678 points, while she picked up 501 points with a fifth place finish in the shot put with a throw of 9.56m (31-04.50).
Good luck to all of our SMSU Teams competing this weekend!
Go Mustangs!
No one was able to provide the correct answer to last week’s Mustang Hoofprint’s Trivia Question: Who was the last SMSU female student-athlete to be awarded the Willis R. Kelly Scholar-Athlete Award winner as the top female scholar-athlete in the NSIC? In 2002, Christy Kubat (Brusven) was the Kelly Award recipient for her academic and athletic accomplishments at SMSU.
Hoofprints Trivia Question (please put this in a box with the title on top)
Who holds the record for the longest triple jump in SMSU Men’s Outdoor Track & Field?
The first person to email me at
MustangHoofPrints@SMSU.edu with the correct answer to this question will receive an SMSU t-shirt.
