SMSU Athletics

December 18, 2014 – Hoof Prints Article
 
Hello Mustang Fans!
 
Finals will be completed today and SMSU will officially be on winter break. The students will return to class on Monday, January 12, 2015. It will be a little quieter around campus the couple of weeks.
 
For the sixth time, SMSU has been awarded the NCAA Division II Award of Excellence for its civic engagement efforts with Mustang Mail. The program partners every SMSU student-athlete with an elementary student in Marshall. The student-athletes and elementary school students write letters to each other throughout the year prior to a face-to-face meeting in the classroom.
 
Each finalist is awarded $500 for having the top civic engagement program in their respected conference. The National Student-Athlete Advisory Committee will choose two runner-up recipients and the overall 2015 Division II Award of Excellence winner will emerge from the list of 25 finalists.

The national winner will receive a cash prize of $1,500 and a nationally televised football or basketball game during the 2015-16 season. The first runner-up will receive a $1,250 cash prize and the second-runner-up will receive $1,000, which should be used toward future community engagement initiatives.

The two runner-up recipients and the overall winner will be announced during the Division II Business Session at the 2015 NCAA Convention on January 17, 2015 in Washington, D.C. We look forward to this year’s convention to see how Mustang Mail stands up against the best civic engagement events in NCAA Division II.
 
Gold Rush Raffle Tickets are now available! They were delivered this morning and already 150 tickets have been accounted for. The Gold Rush Raffle Committee has been meeting in preparation for the event, and this year the committee is working hard to make this year’s Gold Rush Raffle an enjoyable time for all. The Gold Rush Raffle will be held on Friday, February 5 in the SMSU Conference Center.
 
The Mustang Booster Club will also be sponsoring a number of socials following SMSU Women’s and Men’s Basketball games in 2015. Here are the dates and locations of the Mustang Booster Club Socials:
 
January 3 – Wooden Nickel
January 17 – HyVee
January 31 – Ramada (Hawaiian Night/Hall of Honor Weekend)
February 21 – Hitching Post 
 
For the latest information on and Mustang Athletics go to SMSUmustangs.com.


This Week in SMSU Athletics
 
The SMSU Men’s Basketball team (8-3, 4-1 NSIC) will head to the University of Sioux Falls this Saturday to battle the Cougars (4-6, 2-3 NSIC) with game time starting at 4:00 pm. The Mustangs are coming off an impressive road trip picking up wins at the University of Mary and Minot State this past weekend.  
 
The SMSU Women’s Basketball team (0-9, 0-5 NSIC) continue NSIC action this Saturday when they go to Sioux Falls, SD, to compete against the University of Sioux Falls (8-1, 4-1 NSIC) with tip-off at 2:00 pm. The Mustangs are coming off two losses to the University of Mary and Minot State on the road last weekend.
 
Following Saturday’s match-up with USF, the Mustang Basketball teams will have eight days off for the winter break. The teams will be back in action on January 2 &3 at home playing host to Wayne State on that Friday and Augustana College on Saturday.
 
The SMSU Wrestling team (3-2) lost a dual versus Augsburg College last Thursday at the PE Gym 14-30. Patrick Kelley, Jacob Begin and Cole Wilson all had impressive wins. This is a young Mustang Wrestling squad with a lot of potential in their underclassmen. The Mustang Wrestling team will also take a break over the Holiday Season with their next match coming on January 15 at MSU, Mankato.
 
The SMSU Wheelchair Basketball team (3-17) will be back in action following the winter break on January 16 & 17 as they head to Wichita, KS, for the Kansas Tournament.
 
The SMSU Women’s and Men’s Indoor Track & Field teams next competition will be on January 10 at the Minnesota State Alumni Open held in Mankato, MN, with the competition starting at 11:00 am.
 
I would like to wish all of our teams the best of luck this weekend!
 
Go Mustangs!
 
Congratulations to Diane Taylor, who provided the correct answer to our last Mustang Hoofprints Question: Who is the career leader in rebounding for the SMSU Women’s Basketball program? Julie Thein finished her career at SMSU with 913 rebounds at SMSU from 1987-91.
 
Hoofprints Trivia Question (please put this in a box with the title on top)
 
What year did the NCAA DII Membership pass the legislation putting in place a mandatory break of 7 days for all winter sports over the Holiday Season?
 
The first person to email me at MustangHoofPrints@SMSU.edu with the correct answer to this question will receive an SMSU t-shirt.