January 8, 2014 – Hoof Prints Article Hello Mustang Fans!
Next week, the spring semester begins at SMSU. We have a busy week as many of our winter sports are competing on the road. We have a couple of important events coming up in the next month for the SMSU Department of Athletics and the Mustang Booster Club.
The SMSU Department of Athletics will be hosting the 12
th Induction into the Hall of Honor on Saturday, January 31, 2015. The Hall of Honor ceremony will be held at the SMSU Upper Level Conference Center, will begin at 12:00 pm with a half-hour social, followed by lunch and the induction ceremonies beginning at 12:30 p.m.
This year's induction class includes football and baseball player Joe Dittrich (1977-81); men's basketball player Jacob Fahl (1999-2003); baseball player Chad Hess (1994-97); golfer Laura (Lundbohm) Hulsebus (2000-04); football player Nate Rudolph (1996-99); football and baseball player Gary Schleper (1982-87); community member and supporter of SMSU athletics Brian Brandt; and the 2000-01 women's basketball team. It is always an exciting time when we recognize the contributions and talents of our former student-athletes, alumni, coaches, teams and community members.
Tickets for the lunch and ceremony are $15 per person. To reserve a ticket for the banquet please call the SMSU athletics office at 507-537-7271 or e-mail Melissa.bromen@smsu.edu.
Gold Rush Raffle Tickets are now available! The Gold Rush Raffle will be held on Friday, February 6 in the SMSU Conference Center beginning at 6:00 pm with a social, drinks and appetizers. To kick-off our program, we will hear from a student-athlete speaker at 7:00 pm and the reverse raffle will start shortly after the speakers conclude. It is a wonderful event that raises money for SMSU Athletic Scholarships through the Mustang Booster Club. If you have any questions about the event or would like to inquire about purchasing a Gold Rush Raffle Ticket, please call Jennifer Graven at 507-537-6233.
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 17 – HyVee
January 31 – Ramada (Hawaiian Night/Hall of Honor Weekend)
February 21 – Hitching Post
For the latest information on the SMSU Hall of Honor and Mustang Athletics go to SMSUmustangs.com.
This Week in SMSU Athletics The SMSU Men’s Basketball team (9-5, 5-3 NSIC) went 1-1 last week at home beating Wayne State College on Friday before losing to a very good Augustana team on Saturday. The Mustangs will begin the weekend road trip on Friday at Upper Iowa University (8-6, 4-4 NSIC) with game time scheduled for 8:00 pm. Southwest will turn around and play Winona State (5-7, 2-6 NSIC) on Saturday evening with the tip-off scheduled for 6:00 pm at McCown Gym. SMSU is currently in 5
th place in the NSIC and 3
rd place in the South Division.
The SMSU Women’s Basketball team (1-11, 1-7 NSIC) picked up their first win of the season last Saturday with a win over Augustana College. The Mustangs head south this weekend to Fayette, IA, on Friday to battle Upper Iowa University (3-9, 1-7 NSIC) at 6:00 pm in Dorman Gym. On Saturday, Southwest will finish up the road trip at Winona State (9-3, 5-3 NSIC) with tip-off scheduled for 4:00 pm.
The SMSU Wrestling team (3-2) will be back in action on January 15 at MSU, Mankato. Jacob Begin and Cole Wilson are both nationally ranked in their respective weight classes. Begin is currently ranked #4 at 174 pounds in the NCAA Division II national rankings, while Wilson is ranked #5 at 285 pounds.
The SMSU Wheelchair Basketball team (3-17) will have their next competition on January 16 & 17 when they head to Wichita, KS, for the Kansas Tournament.
The SMSU Women’s and Men’s Indoor Track & Field teams will compete this Saturday at the Minnesota State Alumni Open held in Mankato, MN, with the competition starting at 11:00 am. This will be the Mustangs first competition of the winter season.
I would like to wish all our teams the best of luck this weekend!
Go Mustangs!
Congratulations to Ken Mukomela, who provided the correct answer to last week’s Mustang Hoofprint’s Trivia Question: In 2005, the Mustang Booster Club and SMSU Department of Athletics hosted the first Gold Rush Raffle fund raising event. Where was the first Gold Rush Raffle hosted? The Gold Rush Raffle was first held at the Best Western Marshall Inn ten years ago.
Hoofprints Trivia Question (please put this in a box with the title on top)
Over the last six years, what is the average return rate from the spring to fall semester been for SMSU Student-athletes? The return rate is the percentage of all our student-athletes rostered during the spring semester that enroll at SMSU the following academic year.
The first person to email me at
MustangHoofPrints@SMSU.edu with the correct answer to this question will receive an SMSU t-shirt.
