We will be tracking the most special, the rarest and most interesting sports moments across South Dakota each month. Included are such events for October. Email us at dave@sdsportscene.com if you think we missed something or if you have an event you would like us to consider for this feature:

Oct. 1: Northern State has suspended its search for a new athletic director until spring with no reason given for the deal. Josh Moon resigned as NSU athletic director in July to take the same position at Wisconsin-Green Bay. Terri Holmes will continue to serve as the NSU interim AD. Previously, NSU announced three finalists for the job and planned to have a new AD in to start 2022.
Oct. 2: The Black Hills State football team defeated Fort Lewis (CO) 45-17 to move to 4-1, the Yellow Jackets best start since 2016 when they started 5-1 and finished 7-4.
Oct. 2: The University of Sioux Falls nipped next-door neighbor Augustana 28-26 to win its football homecoming game in front of an overflowing crowd of 5,726 fans at Bob Young Field. Adam Mullen hit Dominic Pegley for a 26-yard TD pass with 2:53 left to give the Cougars a 28-24 lead. The Vikings were driving, but Giovanni Purpura ended it with an interception and the game basic ended when USF took a safety rather than risking a punt. It was the 400 th game called by Augie play-by-play man Jeff Fylling, who called his first Augustana football game on Sept. 3, 1984, when the Vikings defeated Sioux Falls College 45-14.
Oct. 2: An eighth-grader, Jayden Taken Alive (18:07.88) of McLaughlin, won the prestigious Lakota Nation Invitational Cross Country Meet in Rapid City. Second place went to Bailen Hayford (18:31.90) of Rapid City Central.
Oct. 4: The Mitchell girls won all their singles and doubles matches to take the lead in the opening day of the State A Tennis Tournament in Sioux Falls. Rapid City Christian is in second place, winning all their matches except for a doubles match it lost to Mitchell. The next day, the Kernels won their third state title in a row with RCC finishing second.
Oct. 5: Augustana broke ground on its on-campus, 3,000-seat Midco Arena where the Vikings will begin play in the fall of 2023 as the state’s first collegiate hockey program. The arena will cost about $40 million.
Oct. 5: When the Northwestern volleyball team defeated Aberdeen Christian, the Wildcats gave coach Nora Groft her 600th career win (vs. 75 losses). All total as a head coach, assistant and player, Groft has helped Northwestern to 12 state titles, 16 state championship matches and 19 state appearances.
Oct. 7: Mount Vernon sophomore Emilee Fox has accepted a scholarship offer to play basketball at SDSU after she graduates in 2024.
Oct. 7: Burke hosted a rare spike and hike doubleheader varsity sports night. First, fans gathered at the Burke gym at 4:30 p.m. to watch Burke defeat Corsica-Stickney 3-2. Then fans made the seven-block trip west to Tolstedt Field to watch the Burke football team defeat Corsica-Stickney 61-18.
Oct. 8: Avery Summers of Sioux Falls Jefferson became her school’s first-ever state individual champion. She defeated Elle Dobbs 6-1, 6-2 of Sioux Falls Lincoln to win the No. 1 singles title at the state tennis tourney in Sioux Falls. SFJ opened in August.

Oct. 8: The Rapid City Stevens girls won the state team tennis title for the first time since 2006 after finishing the regular season 28-0. The Raiders of Coach Jason Olson had finished as the state runners-up 11 times in-between state titles.
Oct. 9: The NSU football team held on to defeat Winona State 52-49 to spoil the Warriors’ homecoming. The Wolves’ last points came on Payton Eue’s 38-yard field goal with 7:42 left in the game. NSU had lost 14 straight games to Winona and last beat the Warriors 37-34 on Oct. 30, 1999. In that 1999 game, the two teams each scored two touchdowns in the final 17 minutes, taking the lead with each TD. NSU got the last touchdown with 3:30 left on a Tefua Bloomfield one-yard run and Pete Peterson PAT. Winona now leads the overall series vs. NSU 25-18.
Oct. 11: Assistant coach Rich Bisaccia was named the interim head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. Bisaccia played football at Yankton College. A native of Yonkers, New York, Bisaccia was a four-year starter as a defensive back at Yankton College in South Dakota from 1979-1982.
Oct. 12: Two Sioux Falls youth golfers recently became the first South Dakotans to qualify for the Drive, Chip and Putt national finals on April 3, 2022, in Augsta, GA, during the Masters Tournament. Lincoln Trasamar, 8, won the boys’ 7-9 division at the regional finals in Colorado. Meanwhile, Lauren Wolthuizen, 9, won the girls’ 7-9 division at those same finals. Each of the 80 (all age divisions) national finalists will get a score based on how well they hit three drives, chips and putts.
Oct. 13: Rapid City officially opened its new $130 million, 11,000-seat Summit Arena in the complex now known as The Monument (the former Rushmore Plaza Civic Center). The Summit Arena will become The Monument’s main venue rather than the original Don Barnett Arena (opened in 1977 with the Civic Center), which will now be known as the Don Barnett Fieldhouse.
Oct. 15: An early Black Hills snowstorm, which dumped 27 inches on nearby Deadwood, left a foot of snow on the Hill City football field. Despite the deep snow, the Rangers hosted their game against Tripp-Delmont/Armour/Andes Central/Dakota Christian, which was won by the visitors 66-6. Only the yard lines were shoveled off for the game.
Oct. 15: Aidan Fredrickson had 185 yards rushing, 193 yards passing, three touchdowns each rushing and passing and three interceptions on defense to lead Britton-Hecla to a 55-14 win over Langford.
Oct. 15: Milbank native, University of Sioux Falls graduate and Fresno (CA) State football coach Kalen DeBoer had his former USF coach talk to his team Friday night in Laramie before they played the University of Wyoming. Brandon resident and former USF coach Bob Young, 82, must have been his old inspirational self as Fresno State defeated Wyoming 17-0 the next day. DeBoer also took over as the USF head coach in 2004 when Young (172-69-3, 13 conference titles and the 1996 national title — a team on which DeBoer was a star player) retired.
Oct. 16: The Sioux Falls Roosevelt girls won the State AA soccer title despite entering the state tourney as the No. 10 seed and with a losing record. Roosevelt scored four upsets in a row, defeating Rapid City Stevens 4-3 on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw in regulation and two 10-minute overtime periods. SFR got the game-winning penalty kick from senior midfielder Halle Miller, who broke her collarbone a week before the state tourney and had surgery shortly after. Her kick was the only play Miller saw action in the state title game.
Oct. 16: Even though two of South Dakota 11 college football teams are winless, the South Dakota teams are having their best season as a whole ever this deep in the season. Seven of the teams have winning records and SDSU and Augie only have one loss each while NSU, Sioux Falls and USD have only two losses each. So far, the 11 state college footall teams have a record of 42-38.
Oct. 20: Rapid City Central announced plans to soon start an athletic hall of fame.
Oct. 21: On the last play of the game, Beresford quarterback Tate VanOtterloo scrambled for several seconds before finding Isaiah Richards in the end zone on the final play of the game. The 24-yard touchdown pass, which went through the hands of another Beresford receiver before Richards caught it, resulted in the 14th-seeded Watchdogs beating third-seeded Mount Vernon/Plankinton 27-24 in the opening round of the Class 11B playoffs. VanOtterloo threw for 339 yards (189 to Richards), three TDS (two to Richards) and no interceptions. With 1:42 left, MVP had just taken the lead on a two-yard TD run by Reed Rus.
Oct. 22: Need cheer? Check with Sioux Valley as that school has won every State A cheer championship (2007-21, 15th in a row) South Dakota has ever offered. Meanwhile, Dakota Valley has won 12 straight State A dance championships (2010-21) after St. Thomas More won the first three state titles (2007-09) offered.
Oct. 23: Northern Iowa used four field goals (55, 51, 46, 27) by Matthew Cook to defeat SDSU 26-17 on Hobo Day before a crowd of 16,889, fourth largest in SDSU and South Dakota college football history. It was Northern Iowa’s third Hobo Day win since 2015 and its fifth win in Brookings since 2011. The Jacks are 62-40-5 in Hobo Day games.
Oct. 23: NSU quarterback Hunter Trautman became the Wolves all-time leader for career TD passes with 74 in his team’s 38-17 win over Concordia-St. Paul. It broke the record (71) of Jared Jacobson (2011-14). In third is Jason Landmark (1986-89) with 67.
Oct. 23: Seven eighth graders finished in the top eight places in the State B girls’ cross country championship race in Sioux Falls, including winner Ella Boekelheide of Northwestern. Second was Kimball/White Lake eighth-grader Autumn Baker followed by Arlington eighth-grader Kaelyn Ulschmid and Freeman Academy junior Jada Koerner. The other eighth-graders finished fifth (Autumn Fallis of Highmore-Harrold), sixth (Madisyn Gellhaus of Ipswich) and seventh (Danika Kaup of Potter County). Another eighth-grader, Ellie Maddox of Sioux Falls Christian, won the State A girls’ title in her first season in cross country.
Oct. 24: Leave it to the Coyotes to spoil a Jackrabbit winning streak, or vise versa. The SDSU soccer team had won 10 games in a row before USD’s Jordan Centineo scored with only 66 seconds left to earn a 2-1 win on a rainy afternoon in Vermillion. The soccer series between the two rivals is off to a heated started like in other sports, with SDSU leading the all-time series 8-6-2.
Oct. 25: South Dakota will be represented in the 2021 National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas by three West River women. Barrel racers Lisa Lockhart (Oelrichs) and Jessica Routier (Buffalo) and breakaway roper Sawyer Gilbert (Buffalo) will be among the 120 competitors starting Dec. 2 as the rodeo starts its 10-day run at the Thomas & Mack Center. Lockhart is now a 15-time qualifier while this will be Routier’s fourth trip in a row to the NFR. Meanwhile, breakaway roping and Gilbert will make their debut at the NFR, where the top 15 money winners of the year qualify in each of the eight
events.
Oct. 28: Eleven of the 28 South Dakota high school football quarterfinal football games were decided by 14 points or less. If you believe the seedings, there were 10 upsets. Beresford continued it post-season winning streaks on last plays of the game as it stopped Aberdeen Roncalli’s two-point conversion try in a 7-6 overtime win.

Oct. 30: The NSU football team defeated Moorhead 33-27 to improve to 7-2 for the first time since 1999.
Oct. 30: The 136 th annual Black Hills Brawl wasn’t a disappointment. Again. South Dakota Mines won the Homestake Trophy and college football’s fourth longest rivalry game 13-10 over Black Hills State. Mines (65-60-11 series lead) got an interception from Kaleb Tischler with two minutes left and two fourth-quarter field goals from Connor Taylor (41 and 27, last with 4:47 left) and made it stand up. An Edgemont senior, Lathen Stevens, gave Black Hills a chance when he gave the Yellow Jackets the ball back on an interception with 2:49 left.
Oct. 30: The University of Sioux Falls defeated Mankato 45-35 to ensure the Cougars of their 27th consecutive winning football season.