March 15: O’Gorman graduate Taryn Kloth will compete in beach volleyball along with her partner Kristen Nuss in the 2024 Paris Olympics (July 26-Aug. 11). The former LSU All-Americans compose the first U.S. Olympic women’s beach volleyball team that isn’t from California or use that state as its primary training ground. Nuss is a 5-foot-6 New Orleans native and her partner since 2021 Kloth is 6-4. Beach volleyball got its Olympic start as a demonstration sport in 1992 and an official sport in 1996.
March 23: Clark native Kim Kaufman tied for second in the Atlantic Beach (FL) Classic on the Epson Tour. She shot a three-round total of 207 to earn $24,694 and tied for second with Jessica Porvasnik. Briana Chacon won the tourney with a 206. Kaufman, 32, has been a pro player since 2013 and has almost $2 million in career earnings. The Texas Tech Hall of Famer has three Epson Tour championships and played a full schedule on the LPGA from 2014 to 2020 where she had 12 top-10 finishes. Kaufman had a runner-up finish at the 2015 Blue Bay LPGA championship. South Korea’s Sei Young Kim sank a seven-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to win the 2015 Blue Bay LPGA in China to defeat Stacy Lewis, Candie Kung and Kaufman by one stroke.
March 29: Aberdeen native and University of Minnesota-Crookston senior equestrian Gabi Siefkes earned her way into the national championship. The Central grad will compete May 3-5 in the Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association’s National Championship in North Carolina. Siefkes and her horses will compete in fence jumping and flat where riders enter the ring as a group and put their horses through walking, trotting and cantering (at a speed between a trot and gallop) demonstrations.
April 3: Black Hills State has removed the interim tag from Mark Nore to name him the school’s athletic director. Nore stepped into the interim AD role in December 2023 after Scott Larson resigned. Nore continued his duties as the Yellow Jackets’ women’s basketball coach. Nore is the BHSU’s all-time winningest women’s basketball coach as his teams went 390-293 from 2002-2024. The Belle Fourche native helped the athletic department transition from NAIA to NCAA DII and his teams won championships and earned trips to national tournaments. As a Yellow Jacket men’s player from 1993-97, Nore helped Black Hills win 77 games and advance to two NAIA national tournaments.
April 4: Former NSU standout and Green Bay coach Sundance Wicks has won the Joe B. Hall National Coach of the Year award. It is presented annually to the top first-year coach in NCAA DI men’s basketball. Wicks took over a team with only three wins in 2022-23 and went 18-14 this season. In the three seasons before Wicks arrived from 2020-23, the Phoenix went 3-29, 5-25 and 8-17.
April 5: South Dakota School of Mines and Technology athletic director Joel Lueken has resigned. Lueken took the job in 2014 and piloted the Hardrockers from NAIA to NCAA DII in 2016. The associate AD of internal operations and senior women’s administrator Cassie Kosiba will serve as interim AD.
April 6: The Minnesota women’s basketball team (20-16) finished the season as the WNIT national runner-up to Saint Louis. Former USD coach Dawn Plitzuweit was in her first year with the Gophers. In 17 seasons as a head coach, the teams of Plitzuweit have gone 385-157.

April 6: After 18 losses, the Aberdeen Central softball team got its first win in program history. The 2-year-old Golden Eagles scored a school-record 26 runs to defeat host Rapid City Central 26-13. Central coach Cassidy Neer’s winners had a mind-blowing 21 stolen bases in the game. Ayrlie Waldo (four hits, four runs scored and four stolen bases), Kaylee Hoffman (three hits, four runs scored and six stolen bases) and Addison Ward (two hits, four runs scored and four stolen bases) led the winners. The winning pitcher was Kaylee Kiesow. Rapid City pitchers had 13 wild pitches, walked 13 and hit nine batters.
April 7: Team South Dakota defeated the Alabama Thunder 8-0 to win the 2024 Chipotle-USA Hockey Youth Tier II 16U 2A National Championship in Texas. Coach Aaron DeBates’ team had players from throughout South Dakota and outscored its five opponents in the tourney 34-4. In the championship game, captain Colton Merchen of Rapid City scored four goals and for the tourney, he had 14 points (10 goals, four assists). Also scoring in the championship game for the winners was Jaxon Danielson of Aberdeen. Goalie Easton Mescher of Sioux Falls stopped 24 shots for his second shutout of the tourney.
April 6: The Derby Trailblazers are the National Basketball League Division 1 regular-season champs of Basketball England. The team features former NSU standout Sam Masten, one of the best players on the pro team. It is the club’s first league title since 2010.
April 9: Bud Postma has been named the interim athletic director at Dakota State. Postma was the AD at Madison High School for many years. He took over for Faith and NSU graduate Jeff Dittman, who retired.
April 10: ESPN named its top 30 coaches who will define the next decade of college football. Second on the list was Milbank and University of Sioux Falls graduate (where he won national championships as a player and coach) Kalen DeBoer. He is now the head coach at Alabama. At No. 28 was second-year SDSU coach Jimmy Rogers.
April 11: NSU senior pitcher Max Otto (Delano, MN) broke the school baseball record for innings pitched. He now has 228 innings under his belt, breaking the previous record of 225 that was held by Luke Chevalier (Barnstable, MA, 2016-19).
April 12: Among the inductees into the second class of the South Dakota Amateur Hockey Hall of Fame is Doug Sorensen of Brookings. Even though he never played organized hockey, he worked hard to learn the rules as a coach for about 10 years and then a referee for the past 27 years. He has become one of the most respected officials in the state as he now trains and evaluates other officials and has served as the state supervising referee and chief for the past six years. Another inductee was former Aberdeen Cougar standout Abby (Taffe) Trettin, who had a mind-blowing 673 goals and 289 assists in her varsity career and 42 goals and 43 assists in her college career at Concordia-Moorhead (sixth best in program history).
April 13: In their regular-season finale, the Aberdeen Wings claimed a North American Hockey League playoff spot with a 6-2 win over North Iowa. Jibber Kuhl had two goals for the winners while teammate Adam Dybal stopped 25 shots in net. The Wings made the Robertson Cup playoffs for the seventh season in a row, winning the national title in 2019.
April 13: In the SDSU spring football game, Brenden Begeman broke free for an impressive 70-yard TD run. The redshirt freshman from Selby collected a SD prep record 6,807 rushing yards during his career for Herreid-Selby Area.

April 13: In the final 73 seconds of the Rapid City Rush’s 2023-24 season, Blake Bennett scored his team-record 35th goal of the season and gave his team a 3-2 win over Wichita. The hockey minor league ECHL rookie passed the Rush’s record for goals in a season that had been set in 2014-15 by Jesse Schultz with 34.
April 17: The South Dakota High School Activities Association has hired Kristina Sage of Freeman High School to become an assistant executive director beginning in July. Sage has been at Freeman since 1989, first as a teacher/coach, and for the last seven years as the athletic director. Sage will be taking over for Jo Auch, who is retiring in June after serving the SDHSAA since 2008.
April 20: USD senior Jacy Pulse (Salem) won the 400-meter hurdles in the women’s elite invitational at the prestigious 64th annual Mt. Sac Relays in California. Her winning time of 56.17 seconds was the fifth best in the nation this season.
April 20: Max Otto pitched NSU to a 19-9 win over Bemidji with 10 strikeouts. Otto now has the career strikeout record for the Wolves with 243. Luke Chevalier set the previous record of 230 in 2019.
April 20: The 60th annual Watoma Relays in Watertown will remain in the starting blocks for another year. For the second year in a row and the fifth time in the past seven years, one of South Dakota’s greatest traditions in track and field won’t be run. Officials again had to cancel the meet due to weather conditions. The first Watoma Relays were run April 17, 1959.
April 21: It was a historic weekend for the Augustana softball team. Not only did the Vikings give coach Gretta Melsted her 800th career win, Augustana (40-13) also won its 22nd game in a row and its fourth regular-season NSIC title. Melsted, whose Vikings won the 2019 DII national championship, has been coaching 21 seasons with an 803-361 record (18 at Augie and three at Culver-Stockton, CA). Two of the greatest softball coaches in college history have called Augustana home. In 2003, Sandy Jerstad retired as the Vikings head coach and as the winningest softball coach in NCAA DII history. In 27 seasons, Jerstad’s Vikings went 1,011-359-2, winning the NCAA DII national championship in 1991 and finishing as national runners-up in 1993.
April 22: USD women’s basketball coach Kayla Karius is going home to Green Bay. After two season as head coach of the Coyotes (37-29), Karius will take over at Green Bay where she was one of the best players in school history. The athletic director for the Phoenix is former NSU AD Josh Moon and the head men’s basketball coach at Green Bay is former Wolves’ standout Sundance Wicks.
April 23: O’Gorman and Black Hills State graduate Nate Vogel will take over as the Augustana women’s basketball coach. Vogel has spent the last five seasons turning around the program at DII Texas A&M International. In his first year as coach there, the Dustdevils were coming off an 0-27 season and this year, they were 25-7.
April 23: Gene Schlekeway (Dec. 1, 1933-April 23, 2024) died at age 90 in Spearfish. A 1951 Britton and 1955 NSU graduate, he was a star athlete. He attended NSU on a three-sport scholarship and helped the Wolves win nine conference championships. He then went on to a successful career in education and coaching, first at high schools in Amherst and Watertown, and then at Black Hills State. With no wrestling experience, he coached the Watertown Arrows to the state wrestling title in 1966 and his Black Hills State football teams won 62 games (in 2024, he was still the all-time winningest football coach in school history) in the 15 seasons he served as the school’s head coach. He also coached Yellow Jacket golf, basketball and track teams. He is a member of four athletic halls of fame, including those at NSU, BHSU and the South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference.

April 24: The Central Division of the North American Hockey League will have two new teams this fall. The Minnesota Mallards will join the Watertown Shamrocks in the NAHL Central with Aberdeen, Austin, Bismarck, Minot, North Iowa and St. Cloud. The newest NAHL member, the Mallards, will be based in Forest Lake, MN, a northeast suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul. The NAHL will celebrate its 50th season in 2024-25.
April 24: James “JC” Crawford of Sisseton, Deb (Esche) Finnesand and John Ewart of Aberdeen, and Joe Stellinga of Watertown will be the newest inductees into the USA Softball of South Dakota Hall of Fame this fall. The induction will be Oct. 12 at the Aberdeen Ramkota Inn.
April 25: A former Yellow Jacket is coming home to Black Hills State University. Cheyenne (WY) native Rachel Erickson was named the new women’s basketball coach at the school. She was a former standout for BHSU (2014-18), helping the Yellow Jackets to two 20-win seasons and two NCAA DII tourney appearances. She returns to Spearfish after two seasons as an assistant coach for DI Colorado State.
April 25: Redfield native and Augustana coach Tracy Hellman was inducted into the Drake Relays Coaches Hall of Fame. The hall now has 92 members; the only other South Dakota coach to be honored was Dave Gottsleben of USD in 2018. Hellman is the director of track and field and cross country for the Vikings. Hellman has guided Augustana to 22 Drake Relays titles, including 17 in the last 10 seasons. The Vikings have won eight titles in the women’s college division distance medley relay and seven championships in the men’s college division distance medley relay.
April 25: Former Sully Buttes and USD standout Chloe Lamb is reuniting with her former Coyote coach at the University of Minnesota. Dawn Plitzuweit just completed her first season as head coach of the Gophers and has added Lamb as her team’s director of player development and assistant coach. In 2022, Lamb, Plitzuweit and their USD Coyotes advanced to the NCAA DI Sweet Sixteen in a season where Lamb was the Summit League Player of the Year. Lamb has been an assistant coach at the University of Mary for the past two seasons. “Chloe is a rising star in the coaching profession, and we are elated to have her joining our Gopher family,” said Plitzuweit.
April 26: Former NSU standout Sam Masten of the Derby Trailblazers was named the player of the year in Basketball England’s National Basketball League Division 1. Masten also was named to the league’s five-player all-star team for the season. Masten led Derby to its first regular-season championship since 2010.
April 26: Watertown freshman wrestler Gage Lohr won a national title in Las Vegas. He beat a field of 64 to win the 57-kilogram (125 pounds) 15U freestyle title in the U.S. Open Championships. Lohr already has won two State A titles for the Arrows.
April 26: The Sioux Falls Stampede announced it will not be renewing the contract of coach Eric Rud. He posted a 51-59-14 record during his two seasons as the coach of the United States Hockey League team, including a 2023-24 campaign in which he guided the Stampede back to the USHL playoffs for the first time in five years. Since Scott Owens retired as the Sioux Falls team’s coach in 2020, the club has had four different head coaches. Owens guided the Stampede to a 144-109-36 record in his five seasons and the 2019 Clark Cup. The Sioux Falls team that was founded in 1999 also won USHL championships in 2015 and 2007.
April 27: In his first ever college at-bat on a Sioux Falls baseball field that bears his family name, SDSU freshman Bryce Ronken of Sioux Falls (Washington) hit a two-run homer. The Jacks were playing Oral Roberts on Augustana’s Ronken Field, named for former long-time Augie baseball coach Dick Ronken, who is Bryce’s grandfather. The doubleheader was moved to Sioux Falls because of wet weather in Brookings.
April 27: After the 2024 NFL Draft, SDSU is up to 35 former players who have been drafted:
2024: SF Roosevelt graduate and OG Mason McCormick, fourth round (119th pick overall) by Pittsburgh Steelers. RB Isaiah Davis, fifth round (173rd pick), NY Jets.
2023: Timber Lake native and TE Tucker Kraft, third round (78th pick) by the Green Bay Packers.
2022: Pierre Strong Jr., RB, New England (4th round) and Chris Oladokun, QB, Pittsburgh (7th).
2019: Jordan Brown, CB, Cincinnati (7th).
2018: Britton-Hecla graduate Dallas Goedert, TE, Philadelphia (2nd, 49th pick).
2010: Danny Batten, DE, Buffalo (6th).
1999: Steve Heiden, TE, San Diego (3rd , 69th pick).
1995: Adam Timmerman, OG, Green Bay (7th).
1993: Sturgis graduate Doug Miller, LB, San Diego (7th).
1986: Bruce Klostermann, LB, Denver (8th).
1980: Chuck Loewen, OL, San Diego (7th).
1978: Wessington graduate Bill Matthews, LB, New England (5th).
1976: Todd Simonsen, OL, Houston (6th) and Bob Gissler, DE, Miami (14th).
1975: Lynn Boden, OL, Detroit (1st , 13th pick) and Jerry Lawrence, DT but moved to OL by Oilers, Houston (8th).
1973: Phil Engle, OT, Green Bay (11th).
1970: Tim Roth, DE, Oakland (16th).
1966: Ron Meyer, QB, Chicago (7th) and Ed Maras, End, Green Bay (20th).
1964: Howard native Wayne Rasmussen, DB, Detroit (9th).
1962: Beresford graduate Joe Thorne, RB, Green Bay (12th) and Ron Frank, OT, San Francisco (16th).
1961: Leland Bondhus, OG, Green Bay (19th).
1959: Florence (SD) graduate LeRoy Bergan, OT, Baltimore (17th).
1958: Wayne Haensel (a former SDSU head coach), OT, New York Giants (25th).
1957: Stratford (SD) native Harwood Hoeft, WR, Baltimore (24th).
1956: Dick Klawitter, C, Chicago (8th).
1955: Jerry Welch, QB/RB, Baltimore (22nd).
1953: Ellendale (ND) native Pete Retzlaff, RB, Detroit (22nd).
1951: Lemmon (SD) native Harry Gibbons, FB, Detroit (20th) and Dick Peot, OT, Detroit (28).
1939: Mobridge native Bob Riddell, End, Philadelphia (17th).
April 27: The Washington Wolfpack opened its Arena Football League season, losing a 47-40 heartbreaker to the host Oregon Black Bears. Former NSU standout Jake Oliphant made his pro debut for the Wolfpack. The Wolfpack will host the Billings Outlaws in their home opener in Everett (WA) May 5.
April 27: After the 2024 NFL Draft, USD is up to 17 former players who have been drafted:
2024: Myles Harden, DB, Cleveland (7th).
2014: Tyler Starr, LB, Atlanta, (7th).
2012: Tom Compton, OL, Washington (6th).
1990: Yankton graduate Dave Elle, TE, Phoenix Cardinals (10th).
1986: Chul Schwanke, RB, LA Rams (11th).
1986: Mike Slaton, DB, Minnesota (9th).
1982: Watertown graduate Craig Austin, LB, Seattle (10th).
1980: Ben Long, LB, Miami (10th).
1979: Sioux Falls Lincoln graduate Bill Moats, DB, Green Bay (12th).
1974: Johnny Vann, DB, Washington (10th).

1972: Gene Macken, OT, St. Louis Cardinals (9th).
1970: John Kohler, OL, Denver (3rd , 63rd overall pick).
1958: Leola graduate Harry Hauffe, OT, Green Bay (14th).
1958: Tyndall graduate Ray Schamber, DE, Baltimore Colts (10th).
1957: Milbank graduate Carl Johnson, RB, Detroit (25th).
1954: Mitchell graduate Ordell Braase, DL, Baltimore (10th).
1950: Bowdle native Howard “The Bowdle Blaster” Blumhardt, RB, Chicago Cardinals (21st).
April 29: USD has named Carrie Eighmey as its new women’s basketball coach. Coming from DI Idaho — and DII Nebraska-Kearney and NAIA Hastings College before that — Eighmey has a 248-121 career record as a head coach in 12 seasons. The Edgar (NE) native has won three national championships, two as an All-American player at Hastings and one as a Hastings assistant coach. Eighmey replaces Kayla Karius, who left USD after two seasons to take the head job at Wisconsin- Green Bay where she was a hall-of-fame player.
April 29: Key members of the SDSU football offense in 2021 and NFL teams they are with currently: QB Chris Oladokun (2021 NFL Draft seventh round pick by Steelers, now with Chiefs); RB Pierre Strong Jr. (2021 fourth round by Patriots, now with Browns); RB Isaiah Davis (2024 fifth round by Jets); WR Jaxon Janke (free agent with Texans); WR Jadon Janke (free agent with Texans); Timber Lake native and TE Tucker Kraft (2023 third round by Packers); SF Washington graduate and TE Zach Heins (free agent with Chargers); LT Aron Johnson (2022 free agent recently released by Ravens); SF Roosevelt graduate and LG Mason McCormick (2024 fourth round by Steelers); RT Garret Greenfield (2024 free agent with Seahawks). The 2021 SDSU defense also got in on the NFL act with CB DeShawn Gales (2024 free agent with Browns); LB Isaiah Stalbird (2024 free agent with Saints); CB Don Gardner (saw NFL regular-season action as 2022 free agent with Buccaneers, was released mid-last season due to injury and has had NFL tryouts since); DB Michael Griffin II (2022 free agent who spent time in NFL, injured, returned as a 2023 CFL starter with Calgary); DL Caleb Sanders (2023 free agent who spent time in NFL and who played in the CFL last season with Saskatchewan). A couple of days after the 2024 NFL Draft, there had been an unprecedented 16 players with South Dakota connections who hooked up with NFL teams plus a USD player was taken in the CFL draft. The other draftees were Rapid City native and O’Gorman graduate and Illinois TE Tip Reiman (2024 third round by Cardinals, 82nd overall pick) and USD CB Myles Harden (2024 seventh round by Browns).
NFL free agents signed in 2024 with SD connections were USD LB Brock Mogensen (Cowboys); Brandon Valley graduate and Augustana OT Blake Larson (Rams); and Augustana QB Casey Bauman (Chargers). Four USD standouts got invitations to rookie minicamps: LB Stephen Hillis (Bills); OL Isaac Erbes (Titans); and DL Brendan Webb and LB Jonathan Joanis (49ers). Plus, USD DL Micah Roane was a fourth-round pick (38th pick overall) of the Montreal Alouettes in the 2024 draft of the Canadian Football League.
April 29: To spend more time with his family, Rob Weinmeister has resigned as head coach of the Aberdeen Cougars girls’ varsity program. His Cougars were the state champs in 2024, 2017, 2016 and 2015, and state runners-up in 2023. His eight-season (2021-24 and 2012-17) head coach record with the team was 170-54-9 (2021-24 and 2012-17). His teams won 19 of 24 state tourney games, with the four titles, a 2023 runner-up finish, two third-place finishes and a fourth-place finish.
April 29: Max Kepler hit a game-winning single in the top of the ninth and his Minnesota teammate Caleb Thielbar shutdown the Chicago White Sox in the bottom of the ninth inning to preserve a 3-2 Twins’ win. It was the Twins’ eighth win in a row, something the team has not accomplished since the 2011 season when the Twins won eight in a row from June 11-21. Former SDSU standout Thielbar struck out Korey Lee to end the game to earn his second save of streak and of the season.
April 30: Former SDSU standout Caleb Thielbar, Max Kepler and their Minnesota Twins struck again, and again the Chicago White Sox was the victim. For the second game in a row against the White Sox, Kepler drove in the winning run in the top of the ninth inning to give the Twins a 6-5 win. It was Minnesota’s ninth win in a row and the team’s longest win streak since a 10-game run in June 2008. Thielbar got the final two outs in the eighth inning to earn the win.
April 30: Quarterback Mark Gronowski announced via social media that he will return to SDSU for the 2024 season. He has two years of eligibility remaining. In his three seasons as a starter, the Jacks are 37-3 and have won two FCS national championships (2022 and 2023) and finished as the national runners-up in spring 2021. The Jacks will put their 29-game winning streak on the line when they open at Oklahoma State on Aug. 31.

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