Fall 2005 Rabbit Tracks

RABBITtracks

Volume 11, No. 2

South Dakota State University

P a s s Gi O o nB a t e .

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Fall 2005

CJhAa Cm K p i S o. n s .

A message from Fred Oien

Go Jacks!

Editor’s note: SDSU Athletic Director Fred Oien invited Kaye Strohbehn, president of the Student Athlete Advisory Council, to describe the meaning of being a Jackrabbit student-athlete. Here are her impressions: From dreams to reality As children growing up and playing sports, many of us dreamed of being a great athlete someday, but that someday seemed a long ways off. So, we continued to play the sport we loved, spending hours improving our skills and setting short-term goals.

In high school, we may still have had the long-term goal of becoming a college or even pro athlete, but we realized there were still long practices and hard work needed to improve our skills. Some of us have continued with our sport in college, and have made our dream of becoming a college athlete a reality.

Being on a college athletic team with other men and women who share a common interest and a common goal is a very special honor, and, a whole lot of fun.

There is a special thrill to being introduced as a member of a SDSU varsity team at competitions.

However, what many people don’t realize is the great responsibility that comes with the honor of being a Division I student-athlete. While being recognized as an athlete does have some benefits, most of us truly want to be students first. Our coaches and teammates help us balance our responsibilities. Every student-athlete I have known at SDSU does strive to do their personal bests academically and athletically.

role models.

Being a student-athlete has not always been the easiest job in the world, but as I approach the end of my college career with four years of competing as a Jackrabbit, I know I would not have traded this experience. The people I have had the privilege to meet and the opportunity to travel to other universities and represent SDSU have provided me with great experiences. I am sure other studentathletes share these feelings.

Being a student-athlete has offered its own set of challenges, yet at the same time has given us the opportunity to develop our time-management and leadership skills. On behalf of all SDSU studentathletes, I would like to thank our friends, professors, parents, athletic staff and our coaches who support us and make the dreams become reality.

For all you do to make the sport experience a reality, I thank you on behalf of the Jackrabbit program.

— Kaye Strohbehn, SDSU swimmer and StudentAthlete Advisory Council president

To you, our donors and fans, who make the sport experience a reality, I thank you on behalf of the Jackrabbit sports program.

— Fred Oien, SDSU Athletic Director

As student-athletes at SDSU, we take great pride in representing the University. We are also proud of the contributions we make to the community, such as helping tutor elementary students and being positive

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VISION To be a premier student-centered, collegiate athletic program.

MISSION To passionately and relentlessly create an environment, rooted in sportsmanship and ethical conduct, where motivated student-athletes can develop into lifelong champions.

VALUES Honesty, equity, academic integrity, fiscal integrity and social responsibility with the expectation of competing at the highest level.

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Contents High-Tech Display — Scoreboards scream ‘big time’ . . . . .2 Kalina — Postgraduate scholar & scuba diver . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Lowery — The legs and loyalty of a champion . . . . . . . . . . .8 Evans — Plays like they were her backyard . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Worcester & Martin — Look at the newcomers . . . . . . . .12 Fischer — From avoiding foes to avoiding blockers . . . . . . . .14 Endahl & Brown — Spending a summer at Sutton Bay . . . .16 Hammerbeck — Guilty of horsing around with SDSU . . .18 DeHaven & Co. — Recall 1985 national title . . . . . . . . . .20 Jackrabbit — Shares tales of wearing the suit to work

. . . .22

Robinson — Studies, soccer define her summer . . . . . . . . . .24

Rabbit tracks Fall 2005,Vol. 11, No. 2

Rabbit Tracks is produced by University Relations in cooperation with the SDSU Athletic Department at no cost to the State of South Dakota. Please notify the Athletic Department office when you change your address.

SDSU President Peggy Gordon Miller SDSU Athletic Director Fred Oien SDSU Sports Information Director Ron Lenz SDSU Sports Information Assistant Director Jason Hove Assistant to AD/External Affairs Keith Mahlum Editor Nan Steinley, University Relations

Athletic Department South Dakota State University Box 2820, Brookings, SD 57007 Telephone: 1-866-GOJACKS Fax: 605/688-5999 Website: www.gojacks.com

Contributing Writers Dave Graves, Kyle Johnson, Miranda Reiman, Denise Watt, University Relations

Front cover photo by Eric Landwehr, University Relations

Designer Kristine Madsen, University Relations Photographer Eric Landwehr, University Relations

Cover photo: New Daktronics scoreboard at the football stadium.

1,200 copies printed by the SDSU Athletic Department at no cost to the State of South Dakota. PE069 11/05.

Scoreboards puts Jacks on high-tech display

F

ans attending SDSU sporting events might feel like they are watching live feeds from the ESPN SportsCenter.

Daktronics, recognized as the world’s leader in scoreboards, electronic displays, and large screen video systems, now is showcasing its best scoreboard technology at Coughlin Alumni Stadium and Frost Arena.

“This project incorporates all the top features that Daktronics has for technology and sports marketing services,” says Kirk Simet, national sales manager for Daktronics. “It will have a major impact. Seriously, it ranks among the top-twenty systems in the United States for colleges and universities in sheer magnitude.”

The state-of-the-art scoreboards bring a new atmosphere and energy to both Coughlin Alumni Stadium and Frost Arena, especially since the old boards had been in operation since the 1970s. The original Frost scoreboard was installed when the building was built in 1973, while the football scoreboard was erected in 1977.

Coughlin Alumni’s latest piece of technology is almost six times wider than its predecessor, measuring 121 feet wide and 56 feet high. In the center is a seventeen-by-twenty eight-foot video board that is used for in-game broadcasts, replays, and advertisements.

2 • Rabbit tracks

The board houses the game play clock, and it maintains running totals of each team’s rushing, passing, and total offensive yardage numbers. In addition, there are television monitors and displays near the concession stands that highlight Jackrabbit football.

Takes professional staff The Frost Arena project has a four-sided Pro-Star video display basketball scoreboard hanging above the court. Measuring thirty-by-sixteen feet, it features a rotating sponsors’ board and has a spotlight in the center to shine on wrestling matches.

Located on the east and west ends of the arena are sixtyfeet wide by four-feet high pro-ad video strips that will feature team player statistics and interactive graphics. The new thirtyseven foot long scorer’s table is digital and features a light emitting diaode [LED] matrix.

Keyframe, a division of Daktronics, will operate the scoreboard systems at both Coughlin Alumni and Frost Arena.

With a staff of ten to twelve, they will be responsible for game-day production and all video and advertising content.

“The scoreboard package we have requires a staff like one that puts on a television production,” points out Athletic Director Fred Oien. “It’s not a small task and requires the work of professionals like the people from Keyframe.”

Daktronics For Simet, a 1980 State graduate and 1978 national wrestling champion for the Jacks, the scoreboards represent a personal high for his alma mater.

“Oh, it’s a tremendous thing,” he says.

“It’s one of the biggest systems in the country.

From a design standpoint, it’s the most unique system that Daktronics has ever done.”

Scoreboard

“It’s one of the biggest

Other sports impacted

The package includes a wrestling scoreboard, a display system for swimming, a scoreboard for the new softball complex From a design north of Coughlin, and upgrades to the standpoint, it’s the most current baseball scoreboard.

Murals featuring photos of former unique system that Jackrabbit student-athletes hang in the walkways and concession areas of Daktronics has ever Major corporate sponsors Coughlin Alumni Stadium and Frost Arena.

The $3 million price tag for the project will be Inscribed with a corporate sponsor’s name, done.” – Kirk Simet, paid for through current and future gifts to the murals feature all twenty-one sports Daktronics national the SDSU Foundation. The scoreboard and they add color and excitement in the package has four anchor corporate sponsors: facilities. sales manager Avera Brookings Medical Clinic, Coca-Cola, The video components of the boards Daktronics, and First Bank and Trust. may also be used for non-sporting events In total, there will be twenty corporate partners as well like graduation ceremonies, concerts, conventions, and supporting the project. With their backing, sponsorship banquets. revenue to the athletic department is expected to increase “There will be ongoing uses for the displays throughout more than 250 percent this academic year. the year,” says Mahlum. “It’s important to note also that “We’re really investing money to expand the value of because of the technology, we can highlight student-athletes in those gifts,” says Oien. “After a few years working on this other sports within our program who don’t compete in these project, we finalized what we wanted in the venues and did it venues.” in a way that enhances and benefits the program financially.”

The scoreboards’ large video screens will come in mighty Assistant Athletic Director Keith Mahlum, who oversees handy, too, during the recruiting seasons when SDSU and its major donations to the athletic department, agrees. “We sports programs are highlighted. covered all the bases that we wanted in terms of the scope of “You have about thirty seconds to make a first impression the project, including enhancements to the venues. And in on prospective student-athletes when they walk into where terms of the facilities, this project puts us on par or ahead of they are going to play,” notes Oien. “When they see what we other Division I universities around the country that we will be have, they will be impressed.” competing against.”

Kyle Johnson

systems in the country.

More than the score

Football scoreboard: Includes a seventeen-by-twenty eight-foot video board that is used for in-game broadcasts, replays, and advertisements.

The board houses the game play clock, and it maintains running totals of each

team’s rushing, passing, and total offensive yardage numbers.

Basketball scoreboards: The centercourt, overhead board includes four seven- by twelve-foot video boards.

There is a spotlight in the center to shine on wrestling matches. On the east and west ends of the arena are sixty-feet wide by four-feet high pro-ad strips that keep up-to-date team and player statistics.

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Daktronics

Scoreboard/Scholarship

What new scoreboards mean to Jackrabbit coaches: Andrew Palileo, head volleyball coach: “For our home volleyball matches, the board makes the sport more personalized with statistics like kills, digs, blocks, and not just the score. It makes the arena that much more attractive and adds a special flare during the recruiting process.”

John Stiegelmeier, head football coach: “We are tremendously excited about the addition of a new Daktronics scoreboard. It shows great progress. Not only does our new scoreboard do that, but it also defines an already great Division I-AA venue. Anytime you upgrade your facility it’s a positive move.”

Scott Nagy, head men’s basketball coach: “We are very excited as a coaching staff to have the new displays in Frost Arena. We know we have a great place to play and with the addition of these scoreboards our arena has been enhanced tremendously. Our fans will definitely enjoy them and we think it will help our efforts to recruit quality student-athletes. This gives us a top-notch Division I arena.”

Aaron Johnston, head women’s basketball coach: “The new video display systems will allow our department to showcase our athletes and teams on some of the best equipment around. The video boards will keep our home facility on par with the technology used in many major arenas in the Midwest. The overall fan appeal and competitive atmosphere of Frost Arena will be greatly enhanced during our games because of our partnership with Daktronics. This installation will allow us to continue to attract some of the very best athletes and fans in the area.”

Jason Liles, head wrestling coach: “As a wrestling program, we are extremely excited to have the new boards in Frost Arena because of how they enhance the event experience for our student-athletes as well as our fans.”

Partners: Anchor – Avera Brookings Medical Clinic, Coca-Cola, Daktronics, First Bank and Trust Founding – ARAMARK, Farm Credit Services of America, Larson Manufacturing, State Farm Major – Burger King, DeSmet Farm Mutual, First Premier Bank, SD Beef Industry Council, SDSU Bookstore, WNAX Radio 4 • Rabbit tracks

Winners

NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship winners from South Dakota State Editor’s note: The selection this spring of Ashley Kalina as an NCAA Postgraduate Scholar marks the sixth consecutive year that an SDSU athlete has won a prestigious award.

Kalina was one of only twentynine women in all three NCAA divisions to receive the $7,500 scholarship in 2005. The following three pages give readers a chance to get better acquainted with the recently married Ashley (Kalina) Arnio.

Listed below are past winners, their sport, postgraduate endeavors, and current occupation.

2005 — Ashley (Kalina) Arnio, softball, criminology student at Florida State, Panama City campus.

2004 — Scott Connot, football, has not yet used, strong safety with Kansas City Chiefs.

2003 — Tyler Bryant, wrestling, a third-year pharmacy student, served as an assistant SDSU wrestling coach his first two years.

2002 — Josh Ranek, football, did not use, running back with Calgary Renegades (CFL).

2001 — Rose (Ebnet) Henderson, volleyball, graduated from Northwestern Health Sciences University, Bloomington, Minnesota, in November 2004. Now is a doctor of chiropractic in Denver.

2000 — Casey Estling, basketball, Has just been granted a one-year extension to utilize the scholarship. Currently working for AEGON in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in the Transamerica Retirement Services division, where he is a quality assurance consultant.

Ashley

Kalina

Fastpitch standout sets stage for launching program to new level

Kalina C

ivil Engineering graduate Nick Arnio ’02 spent four years at State learning the key principles of construction. But if he needs a refresher on building a good foundation, the Army ROTC grad need only ask his wife, Ashley (Kalina) Arnio. While Kalina ’05 was a psychology major, the four-year letterwinner also was quite a foundation builder, according to her softball coach.

Part of that was built through earning career marks in at bats (723), games played (227) and home runs (20).

But Coach Shane Bouman says, “The biggest record is not even on paper. Her biggest record is how she helped this program. She’s done a lot more for this program than you could ever “I had never been put on paper.” And as the holder of five career and four single-season marks, there is a lot you can put on more passionate paper.

But Bouman, who is entering his fifth year at SDSU, about a team than I looks at things like grade-point average, discipline, and was my senior year. attitude.

Everything just fit.”

Kalina’s key stat

– Ashley Kalina

The 2005 squad raised its GPA to 3.41. “She took pride in that; not only for her work but also for the entire team,” Bouman says of the 4.0 scholar from Elkhorn, Nebraska, who won a prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship in June.

The outfielder was known for tutoring teammates as well as being serious about her own studies.

“I did a lot of studying on the bus and I took my laptop everywhere. On road trips you played softball, went out to eat, and then went to bed or studied. It’s not like a party atmosphere. You play your games and realize you have to make up time missed from class and then you have to study on top of that.”

Kalina adds, “Most of my teammates were very dedicated to their studies. We all focused on our classes, we all wanted good grades.”

To graduate in four years with a 4.0 GPA and play 227 fastpitch games requires spartan discipline. The time-pinching athlete says that being a hard worker also helps. Plus, “I’m very resourceful. I use the textbook. Then I use the websites provided in the book if I don’t understand something.”

‘I tried my hardest’ “Some of the classes were just more going to class and taking good notes and asking help from your teacher. Our coach said the first week of school you go let your teacher know who you are,” says Kalina.

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Ashley

In addition to establishing a relationship with her teachers, Kalina also went to tutoring in Spanish and to chemistry group study sessions.

Still, “There were many times I left my final [exam] not knowing what my grade was going to be in the class.” Of course, it always turned out to be an “A.” Kalina has earned nothing but A’s since her sophomore year at Elkhorn High School.

But straight A’s were not among her goals when she started college.

“I just wanted to know I did everything I could; that I tried my hardest,” Kalina says.

That was the same attitude she plied in the weight room or on the softball diamond. Bouman notes that Kalina “competes on and off the field. She wants everybody else to give as much as she does. . . . [And] always expects more out of herself than we ask of her. There are not a lot of athletes out there like that.”

As a result, the four-year starter has “raised the level of attitudes and expectations of our program,” which experienced its third winning record in school history last season, Bouman says.

Worth the wait With a combined nine career and single-season marks, numerous all-academic selections, and an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship she has done much to create a legacy at State. But Kalina says, “There’s nothing I did on an individual level that will replace my team my senior year.

“What I envisioned a college team being like didn’t happen until my senior year.”

Bouman took the job in September 2002, after the school year had started. “With coach being new, and there being some girls that didn’t want to go the same path that he did, he had to transform the program,” Kalina recalls. She fit well with his fastpitch philosophy of speed, pitching, and defense.

Camaraderie around a common goal Her competitive nature also was a perfect match for Bouman’s blend of ball.

Kalina says, “That common goal of not only wanting to be good, but being willing to work hard to make it happen” had been missing until her senior season. “We had always worked hard, but until last year the passion wasn’t there. I think last year we finally got the foundation we wanted.

“I was the only girl in my [recruiting] class that was left.

To have a team of girls believe the same thing that coach believed and I believed was worth it. We had to change the way people saw our name. We did that to some extent.

“I loved that I left knowing that every year it’s going to be better. He’s going to bring in better recruits to push who is there to be better.

“I had never been more passionate about a team than I was my senior year. Everything just fit.”

Dave Graves

6 • Rabbit tracks

Kalina

From softball to scuba diving Kalina leaves diamond to seek degree in underwater crime investigation After a lifetime in the Midwest, Ashley Kalina ’05 now is living out the T-shirt message “Life is a Beach.”

But if you know Kalina, you know the slogan won’t be “Life is a Beach Party.” The winner of the prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship now is living in Panama City, Florida, where she is seeking a master’s degree in criminology at a branch of Florida State University.

She also is one of fifteen students that has been admitted into the Underwater Crime Scene Investigation program.

While it sounds like the premise for a television show, for Kalina it is real life and possibly her future. “This semester I will be spending most of my days in the Gulf Coast in scuba gear,” Kalina wrote in a letter to supporters of the fastpitch team she anchored for four years.

“This is a new experience for both of us. We’re both from the Midwest,” Kalina says of herself and husband Nick Arnio, an Army first lieutenant.

She moved to Panama City after their June 25 wedding in Omaha, Nebraska. “We fell in love with the beach. We went snorkeling a lot. We think that scuba is something we can do,” Kalina says. Her husband will begin military dive training in October.

In the meantime, the couple has been training by doing breathing exercises in the pool at their apartment complex.

Focused on the FBI That spirit of planning and preparation shouldn’t surprise those familiar with Kalina. In a couple weeks she will have to carry a brick and swim with it for seventy-five yards while snorkeling. And Kalina intends to be prepared, like she was for every game and every class.

“There were times when she was very tired [but] she always kept up with her studies,” says her advisor Thomas Shaffer.

The Psychology Department assistant professor had Kalina in a half-dozen classes, worked with her in his neuropsychology research, and presented papers with her.

Last summer they presented a paper on attention deficit disorder testing at the American Psychology Association convention in Honolulu, Hawaii.

It was her first trip to the ocean. “I loved it then. I never thought I’d be spending most of my days in the ocean,” Kalina says.

Ashley

But the Arnios will be breathing the salt air for at least the two years of the program and possibly longer as they have bought a house and will be moving into it in October.

However, she suspects that at some point their Midwest roots will pull them back to the heartland.

In the meantime, Kalina will train for her dream job of working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“The FBI is in the back of my mind, but if I don’t achieve it, I’m not going to be disappointed.” Her short-term goal is to work as an investigator in a large police department.

“The way I was raised and the way my husband was raised, we have big dreams for a family. That is ultimately going to be my priority. But getting my master’s is going to give me more flexibility to allow me to get a job that I want to do rather than one I have to do.

“Being in the FBI or a government agency, it’s in the back of my mind in everything I do. What I want to do in law enforcement drives my personal life too. I try to do what is right.”

Focused learning Kalina knew when she went to State that she wanted to be in law enforcement, so she “planned everything out. I was very careful about the courses I took. I graduated with 129 credits; 128 were required. Everything I did was for a purpose. I knew I wanted to get out in four years.”

Kalina

Advisor Shaffer says that in class Kalina was the student that set the curve.

Coach Shane Bouman says that on the field Kalina was the player that hit the fastball. In fact, she played well enough to gain a contract with the Nebraska Comets, a start-up professional fastpitch team that played fourteen games this summer.

She was thankful for the opportunity, but also discovered that “pro ball is more about the individual than the team.

“It was great having that elite feeling, but I would have done it for nothing if it would have been the same emotion as playing college ball. It was hard. I think that my Comets teammates were passionate about women’s softball but at times games were really flat.”

And that just doesn’t fit Kalina or Bouman.

“Coach Bouman—he’s very inspirational. I definitely would like to see if I could cut it as a coach,” perhaps on a junior college team or a young American Softball Association team.

But first it’s out to the pool to work on those breathing exercises.

Dave Graves

Ashley (Kalina) Arnio quick facts Married: To Nick Arnio on June 25 in Omaha. He is a 2002 civil engineering/Army ROTC graduate from State.

Born: May 28, 1983 Parents: Richard and Susan Kalina Hometown: Elkhorn, Nebraska High School: Elkhorn (2001) Major: Psychology Minors: Criminal justice and religion Miscellaneous: Kalina is the first Jackrabbit student-athlete to earn academic All-America recognition since SDSU’s move to Division I. Quote: “I am so proud to call myself a Jackrabbit—live it, love it, breathe it.”

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Loyalty of a champion Lowery finds success while setting aside individual honors Only eight Jackrabbit males have earned all-American honors in cross country more than twice in the program’s storied history.

Brad Lowery won’t be the ninth.

Entering his final season, Lowery already has gained allAmerican honors in his sophomore and junior years and is coming off a record-setting indoor and outdoor track season.

But he won’t be toeing the line at this fall’s national meet.

SDSU, which is in the transition stage of his Division I venture, is not eligible to qualify runners for the national meet.

That fact doesn’t leave the 2001 Pierre High School graduate crestfallen and he doesn’t regret his decision to stay with the program for his final seasons despite not being able to enter national-qualifying meets.

“I never felt it [transferring] was a good option for me,” Lowery, a physics majors, says.

8 • Rabbit tracks

Commitment to team Paul Danger, the SDSU track and cross-country coach from 1998 to 2004, drove to visit Lowery in Pierre right before the University publicly announced its decision in December 2002 to move from Division II to Division I athletic competition for all its sports.

Lowery didn’t give transferrring a thought. “I didn’t feel I could leave my teammates. Plus, SDSU was giving me very good meets.” Lowery and a handful of the team’s top thinclads flew to elite meets such as the Mount Sac Relays and the Stanford Invitational in California.

His father, Bob Lowery, adds, “I don’t think transferring has ever crossed his mind. We, as parents, are very appreciative of the education he has got at State and the opportunities South Dakota State has given him.” He also appreciates his youngest son’s maturity and unselfish perspective on life.

Brad

Lowery

The elder Lowery said that Brad told him, “I can’t look at that [division switch] from a selfish point. South Dakota State is making a decision that is best for the institution. I need to be supportive of that. I’m one of those guys that got caught in the transition, but that’s just the way it goes.”

At the 2003 national cross-country meet, a few other runners invited Lowery to join their program.

Lowery’s response: “I’m not going anywhere,” he says.

Opportunities for advancement Well, not exactly going nowhere. He was going places, and that was part of the attraction for him staying at SDSU. In his junior track season in 2004, Lowery was in pursuit of an Olympic Trials qualifying time in the 1,500-meter run.

The 3:42.44 that he ran at the Mount Sac Relays gave him a PR and “B” standard qualifying time.

But he wanted to trim a couple seconds off that to improve his chances for an invitation to the Olympic Trials in Sacramento, California. As a result, Danger gave him the opportunity to run a few post-season meets in June in California.

A hamstring injury with ninety meters to go in a race at Occidental College in Los Angles ended that bid.

Current coach Rod DeHaven, a 2000 Olympic marathoner, said, “If there is anything that speaks to his character is he stayed [at SDSU]. If any athlete in this University could have left, once the transition to Division I was made, he could have left.

“He gave up an opportunity to be an all-American at Division I or II.”

What the future holds When he enrolled at SDSU, one of Lowery’s goals was to be a national champion. That won’t happen now, but his goals remain high. On November 16, Lowery plans to run unattached in the U.S. Club Championships in Rochester, New York.

He finished seventeenth in the meet last year and is hoping to place in the top five or ten this year.

This fall’s cross-country season also will be a good indicator of what races Lowery will train for as a post-collegian. “My most success has been at 1,500 meters and the mile, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best event for me in the future.

“I have good speed, but not great speed. It’s hard to win a lot of [1,500-meter] races without having great speed at the end.”

Coach DeHaven says Lowery “has a pretty good kick, but at the next level he has to be able to run 51 seconds on the last 400 meters of a 1,500-meter run” after running the first three laps at 57 to 58 seconds. DeHaven should know. He holds the school record of 3:40.15.

“Getting him faster and stronger is going to be the key to getting him to the next level,” DeHaven says.

Lowery is committed to getting to that next level. Though the academic all-American holds a 3.744 grade-point average, he plans to delay a grad school program in math and concentrate on running after his December graduation.

“I definitely haven’t reached my potential. I’m going to take it one year at a time and see how these longer events go.”

Dave Graves

Left: A photo illustration shows Brad Lowery striving to become the first to run a four-minute mile in South Dakota. The scoreboard shows that Lowery just missed the mark, but the May 6 effort at the Howard Wood Dakota Relays in Sioux Falls still set a state and University record.

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Brad

Lowery

Running early, running fast Born into a family of runners, Brad Lowery couldn’t wait to get started and there has been no slowing State’s most celebrated runner in at least two decades.

During their formative years in Vermillion, the Lowery children found their leisure activities to be just a little different than their peers.

When other classmates were pretending to be Eric Dickerson, Refrigerator Perry or some other NFL star, Vermillion track coach Bob Lowery would bring home relay batons and cones. “My kids would play track in the backyard or the basement,” says Lowery, now an executive with the South Dakota High School Activities Association.

But for seventeen years he was the head track coach in Vermillion. So the Lowery kids were traipsing off to track and cross-country meets from the time they were born.

For Brad Lowery, the third of four children, those backyard meets were just the start of a highly competitive career.

As he enters his final season at State, Lowery holds the school record in the 5,000-meter run, is second in the 1,500-meter run, is a two-time allAmerican in cross country, the indoor mile, and the outdoor 1,500 meters, and has been mentioned in the same breath with SDSU distance running legend Garry Bentley ’74.

“He’s far exceeded our expectations,” says Bob Lowery, who notes that his son plans to continue running after graduation in December.

Following a fast heritage Brad Lowery, 23, says it was a natural for him to pursue track, especially since he had been chasing older brothers Brian, 26, and Brandon, 24, since the year he was born.

Ma and Pa still hold the mile record at their high schools. Bob, originally of Superior, Nebraska, ran distance events at Peru State in Nebraska. Diane 10 • Rabbit tracks

Kittelson, a Hamlin High School graduate, was on the first SDSU women’s cross-country team in 1975 and the team captain in 1976 and 1977.

“He [Brad] never did crawl. At seven months he was laying around. At 7 1/2 months he was walking. At eight months he was running,” Dad says with a slight exaggeration.

He doesn’t need to exaggerate the accomplishments of his youngest son.

Brad’s victories last spring included twin wins at the prestigious Drake Relays April 28 and 30 and a May 6 assault on the four-minute mile at South Dakota’s premier track meet—the Howard Wood Dakota Relays in Sioux Falls.

The Drake double Lowery is the only Jackrabbit ever to pull a double victory at Drake and one of the few athletes from any school to ever do that, SDSU Coach Rod DeHaven says.

In ranking his career highlights, the Drake titles are at the top. “Being the most recent one, it’s the one I think about the most. Winning one at a meet like that is great. To win two, I was very pleased,” Lowery understates.

“I thought I had a chance to win both [the 1,500- and 5,000-meter runs], looking at what others had run. The 5K was the question because I hadn’t run that many” and his fastest 5K was a 14:22 at Stanford earlier in the spring.

Others in the field had run 14:00.

At the two-mile mark of the 3.1-mile race, Lowery was in fifteenth place. In the next three laps, he moved into third place, but there was only a lap and a half to go. At 300 meters out (threequarters of a lap), Lowery still trailed the leaders by fifty meters, or about eight seconds.

“I caught the leaders and blew them away. I closed my last 400 [meters] in fifty-nine seconds,” Lowery recalls.

His 14:00.24 clocking set a school record and won the race by two seconds. He admits that such a victorious surge “usually doesn’t happen.

I ran a really conservative race the first two miles because I wasn’t sure of my conditioning. I ended up having quite a bit left.”

The 1,500-meter run on April 30 was less dramatic, running in a pack until breaking away in the last 300 meters and outkicking other leaders.

Chasing South Dakota history The Dakota Relays race was a special mile feature, designed to give Lowery a chance to become the only one to run a four-minute mile in South Dakota. Only two people from South Dakota—Jeff Schemmel at Kansas State and Steve Heinrich at the University of Indiana— have ever broken the mark.

“I thought I had a really good shot,” says Lowery, but in the home stretch he had to battle a South Dakota wind.

“It was disappointing not to break four minutes, but still it was very exciting to run 4:01 and give it a good shot.”

Conditioning himself to be able to run a 4:01.67 mile doesn’t leave a lot of time for Lowery to pursue other interests, like movies and Frisbee. This summer he would get in ten runs per week as he gradually built his base to ninety-five miles per week while still getting “plenty of rest at night.”

Structuring his free time around running doesn’t bother Lowery. He grew up that way.

Dave Graves

Kelly

Evans

Linked to a family tradition It’s no wonder SDSU golfer Kelly Evans plays courses like they are her backyard, she grew up on the greens.

A lack of available babysitters may have jumpstarted Kelly Evans’ golfing career.

When Tedd and Bev Evans’ daughters were young, finding a babysitter could be challenging, “so if we wanted to go golfing, we took the kids along,” says Tedd.

As a young child running behind her parents’ golf cart with her younger sister Tracy, Kelly Evans hit the occasional hole or two. She played her first tournament at age nine. “When I was little, [golf] was just a thing we did with our family,” says Evans, who recalls sharing clubs with her sister, a freshman at SDSU this fall.

As a seventh-grader, Evans played on the Brookings High School team. But the summer following her first season, she spent some time away from the course, says Tedd, Brookings Country Club manager and superintendent.

Although naturally talented, Evans says his daughter discovered “the mental aspect of the game,” which rekindled her interest. She started shooting better, which “made me like it better,” she says.

“Once you discover the joy of the game, it’s really hard to turn away from.”

For the Evans family, golf is a tradition. “I enjoy golf, that’s why I got in this business,” says Tedd, who often filled the role of coach for his daughter.

Kelly says, “My dad has been a great teacher for learning to love the game. It’s kind of a cool thing to have that relationship with him.”

Tedd describes his daughter as mature, quiet, and intelligent. “She loved sports, all sports really,” he says, admitting that he “might have kind of forced her a couple times” to keep golfing.

‘Worth the frustration’ “I’m really excited about this season,” the SDSU senior says, adding that last year’s inaugural Division I season proved to be a learning experience. “I’d like to shoot better scores this year.”

She names team improvement as another season goal. Eight members, including two incoming freshman and one transfer student, comprise this season’s lady Jackrabbits. The team boasts a twomember increase from last season.

“Just being a student-athlete in general really teaches you to manage your responsibilities,” she

says. “Golf in particular teaches a lot of patience and persistence. Those are valuable lessons to learn at a young age.”

Specifically, she says, golf has taught her accountability and how to use creativity in her game.

“That’s something I’m still learning about,” she says of exploring the several different ways to play a course. “There are a lot of bad days on the golf course,” but, she adds, a great shot or a great round is “enough to keep you coming back. It’s worth the frustration.”

Time management remains key for Evans, who averages at least two hours of practice a day. Also, the team will play one full round a week, and weekend meets mean four days on the road, she says.

Proudly continuing a family tradition Evans, who will graduate in May, spent her summer working at a 3M internship. While her future career plans remain uncertain, she hopes to continue her involvement in the sport.

“Hopefully I can stay competitive,” she says, adding that she plans to one day make golf a tradition with her own family. “I definitely hope to stay close to it.”

Denise Watt

Evans’ honors Kelly Evans’ successes both on the course and in the classroom haven’t gone unrecognized. The 4.0 senior microbiology major has: • Earned selections to the 2005 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Women’s At-Large Team and the National Golf Coaches Association Division I All-American Scholar Team.

• Claimed one top-ten finish and four top-twenty finishes last season.

• Held the best Jackrabbit women’s stroke average during the last two seasons. Her average for last season was 83.6.

• Been named to the Division I All-Independent Women’s Golf Team this summer. Senior teammates Lindsey Brown and Kelli Endahl earned honorable mentions.

Rabbit tracks • 11

Newcomers

Newcomers of the year Kelsey Worcester and Kristina Martin are two athletes who won’t settle for the best.

Last year, the freshman roommates were named Newcomers of the Year among independent D-I schools for their respective sports. Both women see that as a place from which to build.

“The love that I have for soccer keeps me going,” says Worcester, a 5-4 Jackrabbit forward. “I’d really like to be one of these players that can dance on the ball,” she says.

Martin, a six-foot, outside hitter on the Jacks volleyball team, says “It made me realize that I can do great things if I keep working on it. I want to raise the bar and do better. It was a really good feeling. It gets me excited for the upcoming year,” says Martin of her post-season award. In addition, Martin was named to the D-I All Independent Volleyball second team.

Ranking third on the team with 351 kills (2.92 kpg) and 236 digs (1.97 dpg), Martin is one of four starters that will return to the team this fall.

“I want to make sure we have a winning record,” she says, of the team that rounded out the year with a 22-12 record.

Pushing herself, others Head Volleyball Coach Andrew Palileo affirms Martin’s drive. “She always wants to improve,” he says, noting that rubs off on the rest of the team. “Her teammates love her and that’s what makes someone like her getting the award so much more special,” he says. The award—which is voted on by the head coaches—is given to one standout

12 • Rabbit tracks

freshman athlete per sport among the independent D-I schools.

Martin, a Hubertus, Wisconsin, native, says that she learned her work ethic playing four sports in high school. The basketball-soccer-volleyball-track star stayed busy training throughout high school.

Martin says keeping up with all of her high school activities “was really hard. It taught me to be motivated.”

After spending a week at SDSU, Martin knew it was the right fit.

“I got to know the team,” she says, noting that Palileo played a big part in her decision to come to State. “I knew that he’d push me to the fullest. I need that.”

Taking up sports management, with minors in mass communication and business, Martin hopes to someday be a sports manager for a college team. “I really love to work with the teams,” she says.

Friendship fueled by competition In addition to having the support of her volleyball teammates, Martin says her roommate helped motivate her last season.

“We got along so well. We could always confide in each other,” she says of Kelsey Worcester. Martin says that they’re both “very competitive” and could identify with each other.

Worcester agrees. “We got really lucky. We clicked really well. It was nice having a non-soccer athlete [as a roommate],” she says, quick to note that her teammates are also among her closest friends.

“We can all go out and have fun together as a team,” Worcester says, attributing some of that camaraderie to Coach Lang Wedemeyer’s recruiting strategy. He was looking for good athletes, but he wanted a “bonded team,” she says.

Growing up in Anamosa, a small Iowa town of 5,000, Worcester finds that closeness important. In high school, the four-sport athlete had grown up with most of her teammates.

That small-town feel was part of her attraction to Brookings.

“I’m a country girl and I just like the atmosphere,” says Worcester, a landscape design major.

The other reason she came to SDSU was Wedemeyer. “I really liked Lang. He’s one of the top coaches in the nation,” she says.

Newcomers

During high school, her soccer enthusiasm took Worcester two hours from her home to Des Moines, Iowa, where she played with a club team. “The club thing was all year round.

I pursued my career with them,” she says. “It helped me adjust to the players [at State] a little bit better. It’s one thing if you can play, but it’s different if you can play with different teams.”

And one team Worcester can certainly play with is the Jackrabbits, who went 5-11-1 last year. As a freshman, she netted nine goals—half of the team’s total—and scored nineteen points.

From intimidation to best in the nation “I was probably one of the bottom players coming in. I was so intimidated. In high school we didn’t have the competition. I didn’t have the confidence in me,” says Worcester, who scored three game-winning goals later in the season.

“She’s stepped up. We’re looking for her to continue her scoring for our team this year,” says Wedemeyer.

Worcester has high expectations, too.

“I know what it takes to work hard. Every day I try to improve,” she says, admitting that it is harder to drive herself in the off-season. In addition to the Jackrabbit acceleration program, the team “does a lot of ball work” in their spring practices. “Lang does a good job at inspiring us every day.”

He says likewise of Worcester. “I think that Kelsey is best described as being a positive life force. She is always smiling and that is contagious to her teammates,” says Wedemeyer.

Winning the Newcomer of the Year Award is just a byproduct of her hard work, says Worcester.

“It surprised me. I didn’t expect it [but] it comes with hard work and you get the rewards on the side,” she says.

Worcester was also one of eleven D-I players to earn NCCA Women’s Soccer AllIndependent Team honors.

She was also one of thirteen players named to the Soccer Buzz.com national team. D-I coaches vote on the honors, along with staff of the internet magazine devoted to NCAA women’s soccer .

Worcester and Wedemeyer are looking forward to this season.

“Our competition, although it was tough last year, will be very tough this year. We hope that [Worcester] will rise to the occasion once again,” says Wedemeyer.

Worcester adds, “I’m really excited for this coming year. We have so much talent coming in. We are going to win a lot of games. I just know it.”

Miranda Reiman

Rabbit tracks • 13

Paul

Fischer

Fischer back tackling opponents after hitting foes overseas Paul Fischer will forever only getting back on the field again, but playing against remember 2004 as a year of Division I competition.” change, both personally and as a student-athlete.

Service appreciated In the next-to-last game of For head coach John Stiegelmeier, Fischer is the first player he the 2003 football season, Fischer has had serve in a war situation and return to play in his nine and teammates were savoring a years at the Jackrabbit helm.

42-22 win over Augustana. That “Paul’s service gives us a tremendous platform to evening a phone call prompted appreciate the guys who are fighting for us and appreciate a uniform change that sent the those who have fought in any conflict. junior defensive lineman halfway “It’s interesting because every fall we talk about how across the world to a different war game in Iraq. honored we are and lucky we are to be living in the United He was told to report to his South Dakota Army National States,” adds Stiegelmeier “One of the reasons we’re able to Guard unit in his hometown of Madison. “Some of my do that is because of guys like Paul Fischer.” buddies were already over there from a different unit so I An Army specialist, Fischer’s job was “route clearance” for knew it might be coming,” says Fischer. “It was exciting, but Company B of the 153rd Engineering kind of unnerving, too, because you Battalion. Driving an armored personnel “Knowing how everyone don’t know what you’re going to be carrier, the lead vehicle for the convoy facing.” supported us when we got home delivering supplies, Fischer and four After two months of training in Fort other soldiers on board would be on the made us feel pretty good about Carson, Colorado, the unit landed in lookout for improvised explosive what we did.”

Kuwait on February 20, 2004. Two weeks – Paul Fischer devices or better known as IEDs in later, the soldiers were running convoys Army circles.

Iraq veteran and SDSU over the hot and dusty trails of Iraq.

Unattended ca Fischer returned to the SDSU campus defensive tackle usually “blown up” and dead animals, a year later on February 21, 2005. Not like donkeys and dogs, were strictly only did he miss family, friends, and nearly three semesters of avoided by driving on the other side of the road as far as classes, he also was absent for the entire 2004 football season possible for fear they might be bomb-laden. And, yes, many and the Jackrabbits’ move from NCAA Division II to Division times Fischer’s unit came under enemy fire.

1-AA. “It’s pretty hairy . . . just one of those deals . . . you’re Plenty of change for a 23-year-old, who joined the Army there to do the mission,” relates Fischer, who adds, “There National Guard as a junior in high school and will have six were some nervous times going into a community, too, seeing years in this January. After avoiding trouble spots overseas, signs that say ‘Down with America.’ You knew which areas Fischer is doing what he does best, tackling enemy ball were hot spots and were pretty sure that you were going to carriers and protecting the Jacks’ end zone. get hit.”

“I’m so excited to be out there,” he says. “I left when we were still Division II. I’m really anxious about this season, not

14 • Rabbit tracks

Paul

Feelings are mutual Perhaps the one person on the Jacks’ football staff who best understands what Fischer went through is his position coach, Rob Sarvis.

In his first year as defensive line coach, Sarvis knows something about military life, having served four years in the U.S. Navy during the time of the first Persian Gulf War. It’s a background that makes for a unique bond between player and coach.

“Paul is looking forward to being a student again, playing football, and I’m really looking forward to coaching him,” says Sarvis, who was a member of the presidential honor guard that helped provide security for President Bush and President Clinton from 1991 to 1994.

“Naturally, there’s an immediate respect for one another and there are certain things we have talked about privately,” he adds. “Having known the thoughts, fears, and the things that are going through his head that he’s dealing with, I have gone through also. So, there really is a connection there.”

Soldier to player Sarvis, who was a defensive end and punter for Norwich University, America’s oldest private military college, likens the work ethic of a soldier to a football player.

Fischer

“There’s a strong correlation between both, especially coaching the defensive line,” he says. “There’s almost a hardline approach to them that you would see in a military-type setting.”

Although sustaining hits from offensive lineman isn’t the same as getting shot at, Sarvis agrees that Fischer no doubt sees life on the gridiron in a different light.

“I think he has a new found appreciation for the workouts,” he says. “Now he’s enjoying every single second of it.”

Says Fischer, “We were talking recently and he asked me how fall camp was and if it was easy. I said it’s still a tough camp, but from a mental standpoint, it’s a lot easier after being over there [Iraq].”

Fischer, an animal science major, notes his transition back to civilian life has been good, especially after what he left behind in Iraq.

“It [transition] wasn’t too hard. Once you get home you are so excited and everything is great. You feel so lucky after seeing that country, how bad everything is, and seeing how rough the kids have it over there.

“Knowing how everyone supported us when we got home made us feel pretty good about what we did,” he adds.

Kyle Johnson

Paul Fischer quick facts Hometown: Madison Position: defensive end Vital Stats: junior, 6-1, 235 Born: May 15, 1982 Parents: Keith and Charlene Fischer Military: Six years with South Dakota Army National Guard Service: In Iraq from February 20, 2004, to February 21, 2005 Duties: An Army specialist, drove armored personnel carrier for Company B of the 153rd Engineering Battalion Rabbit tracks • 15

Summer

Vacation

My summer at

Sutton Bay Three SDSU golfers caddy at elite private golf course Spending summer days against a backdrop of rolling Missouri River plains sounds more like vacation than work.

But for three Jackrabbit golfers, spectacular river views became part of just another day at the office this summer.

Kelli Endahl, Lindsey Brown, and Ryan Trasamar caddied at Sutton Bay, a private golf course near Agar. From hearing SDSU tales from alums, to caddying for people from across the United States, this summer’s experience became one all three would enjoy.

Golfers can view Lake Oahe from all but one of 18 holes on the course, according to a Golf Digest article naming it the best new private course of 2004.

“Every hole you could see the river,” says Endahl, a senior public recreation major from Canby, Minnesota. “I heard many times ‘look at this view.’”

Located about forty-five miles north of Pierre, Sutton Bay opened in 2003. It not only offers golf, but hunting and fishing as well.

The trio didn’t plan on all working at the same place this summer. “We each kind of did our own thing and it worked out,” says Endahl, who first learned about the job from Coach

Kelli Endahl, left, of Canby, Minnesota, and teammate Lindsey Brown, of Fort Pierre, enjoy a moment on the green at hole number sixteen at Sutton Bay golf course forty-five miles north of Pierre. Pictured in the background is the Missouri River.

16 • Rabbit tracks

Jared Baszler. SDSU grad Mark Amundson, general manager of the course, told Baszler about the caddy program beginning at Sutton Bay. Baszler e-mailed his golfers about the opportunity, which sparked interest among the three teammates.

“I’d heard a lot of good things about [the course],” says Trasamar, who knows Amundson and is good friends with his son. While the sophomore business economics major knew right away that he wanted to work at Sutton Bay, he didn’t want to go alone. He recruited his high school friend Adam Wudel, a golfer at North Dakota State University, as a fellow caddy.

“We used to hang out all the time in high school,” says Trasamar, who graduated from Sioux Falls Roosevelt. “It was kind of nice to hang out with one of my best friends from high school all summer.”

A Fort Pierre native, Brown had played the course before.

Since she spent much of her time commuting, however, she says she played less than during a typical summer. She drove the forty-plus miles to work everyday with SDSU roommate Endahl, whose aunt and uncle lived in Pierre.

However, the time Brown spent at Sutton Bay helped her improve her short game, she says. “That we got to play that

Lindsey Brown, of Fort Pierre, tries to free her ball from a seemingly endless field of high grass at Sutton Bay, an elite private golf course opened on the South Dakota prairie in 2003. Brown and teammates Kelli Endahl, of Canby, Minnesota, and Ryan Trasamar, of Sioux Falls, served as caddies at the club this summer.

Summer

Vacation tougher course is rewarding,” when play goes well, and more frustrating when things don’t, he says.

Mingling with the famous, familiar

Amidst yucca plants and prairie grass, Kelli Endahl looks for a ball while thin-layered, dark clouds form a canopy at Sutton Bay golf course near Agar.

Endahl and SDSU golf teammates Lindsey Brown and Ryan Trasamar were able to enjoy this scenery almost daily as they caddied at the private, central South Dakota course this summer.

course was just incredible. Playing that course helped me more than playing the courses I usually play,” she says.

Endahl agrees. “To play a course like that, it really helps out working on your game for the upcoming season,” she says.

Brown says she enjoyed caddying for ranch owner Matt Sutton ’52, and his former Jackrabbit gridiron teammates.

“They were a lot of fun, of course big supporters of SDSU, so that was a lot of fun,” she says. “[Matt] knows everything about that course,” she adds.

The former teammates told of their 1951 season, she and Brown even got to hit a few shots when the team played for best ball, she says.

One of his favorite Sutton Bay memories was caddying for professional golfer and network commentator Ian Baker-Finch.

“He knows so much about the game,” says Trasamar, noting that Baker-Finch says the same things in person as he does on television.

Brown, a senior pharmacy major, says she enjoyed making connections with people. She caddied for a surgeon from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. The surgeon offered to serve as a reference for her.

“You make a lot of good contacts while you’re out there,” she says. “Overall, it was a great experience. You meet a lot of great people. You get all sorts of personalities, too.”

Endahl says golfers hailed from places like “To play a course like Minneapolis, Omaha, and that, it really helps out California. Not all of Sutton Bay’s guests traveled working on your game thousands of miles, for the upcoming however. SDSU staff members and a number of season.” – Kelli Endahl, Jackrabbit fans golfed at SDSU golfer who Sutton Bay this summer as well, she says. “That was fun caddied at Sutton Bay to see familiar faces out there every once in a while.” this summer.

While Endahl and Brown both have internships next summer, Trasamar says he hopes to return to Sutton Bay. Denise Watt

A hazardous course hazard The caddies arrived at work around 7:30 a.m., Endahl says.

Their duties included everything from guiding guests to the different holes to finding balls hidden in the long grass.

Despite the beautiful surroundings, the job had one slimy hazard. Caddies made a habit of carrying one club that they dubbed their snake stick, to combat the rattlesnakes that lived on the course.

“Lindsey and I were pretty fortunate,” says Endahl, noting that the two didn’t see many rattlesnakes. Brown says she did see one dead one. “That’s how I like to see them,” she says, adding that the two did see several bull snakes both on the greens and in the fairways.

Trasamar fared differently. In his first two months, he only saw two snakes. Then, during one two-week period, he saw at least ten. He and Wudel even had to kill one. “It took a lot of courage to do that because I hate snakes,” says Trasamar, who adds that his fear of garter snakes has since disappeared.

Despite the snake hazard, Trasamar says he played better this summer than during the previous two. “Playing a much

Rabbit tracks • 17

Warren Hammerbeck and I happen to have them,” he says.

Residing on a ranch near Greely, Colorado, Hammerbeck has interest in his family’s Forty Bar ranch near Chamberlain, where he keeps sizeable herds of thoroughbreds and quarter horses.

The program, new for the 2005-06 “He’s pretty meticulous about his season, may already have its riders in breeding program. He’s opened up his place, but they need a solid group of arms and said ‘Which ones would you horses for practice and competition. like?” says McGee, of Hammerbeck’s “We’re looking for horses with a donation. “I feel pretty fortunate to have good disposition. They have to be had that opportunity.” Hammerbeck, athletes. We prefer horses that have whose thoroughbreds compete across competition experience,” says McGee, the United States, has a long history in former Fresno State head equestrian the horse racing industry. coach, noting that those animals can “We want horses that will be suitable “withstand the rigors of training.”

Warren Hammerbeck, a 1961 animal for practice and competition,” says McGee, explaining that the need for husbandry alum, is answering the call. horses stems from the nature of the “It would be easier to just donate sport. Since the team does not travel money, but what the program needs with animals, horses are needed to host right now is potential athletes [horses] competitions as well.

Students blind-draw for their competition horses, so the unique bond that many riders share with their animals can be a hindrance during practice.

“In order for them to improve their skills they ride a different horse every day.

You’re able to adjust Megan McGee Warren Hammerbeck ’61 your cues and body 18 • Rabbit tracks

The equestrian program’s roster is full, at thirty women on the team. So why is head coach Megan McGee still traveling the region to evaluate athletes?

position and style to each horse,” she says.

Before accepting a donation, McGee and assistant coach Joe Humphrey often do a thirty-day trial with the animal. “It’s not whether I like the horses or not—it’s if they suit the team or riders,” she says.

Hammerbeck, a Foundation board member, has brought more than fifteen of his animals to Brookings for evaluation. McGee says they are unsure of the number that will fit the program.

The total number of University horses is expected to be around fifteen.

“We’re going to stick to that number due to the size of the facilities. That number will expand as the size of the team expands,” says McGee. Some of the students will bring their own horses with them, an option that’s not always given to the student-athletes at other universities. “That’s a powerful recruiting tool for us,” she says.

The equestrian program is currently headquartered at Pegasus, a twenty-three acre equine facility. Owned by Christine Hamilton, a SDSU Foundation Board member, and her husband, Eddie, Pegasus has twenty indoor stalls, and office and conference space. Studentathletes will board horses and practice at Pegasus. Competitions will be held at the Swiftel Center, also in Brookings.

Future facilities for the program will be developed on a 154-acre site directly north of Coughlin Alumni Stadium.

Warren

Hammerbeck

“My goal is to get this program up attention of international people to this and running,” says Hammerbeck, who part of the world,” he says, noting that along with his wife, Fran, have been equestrian is a revered sport across the program backers from the start. Others globe. include Jody “It’s a world of contact. It’s a Svennnes and world of recognition that’s global. family, of Brookings, “We’re looking for These sorts of opportunities are who have offered to rare. [South Dakota] desperately horses with good needs to be known on the lease two horses to the team and many world-stage as more than disposition. They alumni and friends just Mount Rushmore or have to be of the University the Corn Palace,” he says. that have expressed “We have a lot of athletes.” – Megan challenges. I’m an interest in donations.

Hammerbeck McGee, Equestrian optimist and I believe we says he is a “South in South Dakota and our head coach Dakota State grad athletes can meet the helping to support challenge,” says this opportunity. I Hammerbeck, noting that see this equestrian program as a rare the coaching staff plays a vital opportunity for the state of South Dakota role in growing the program. to present its athletes on a world-class “They do understand the stage.” vision. These people, like Megan The retired ConAgra executive, now McGee, in the wake of their daily running his own consulting firm predicts effort carry a lot of people with the exposure that the sport will bring to them,” he says. the University.

When the equine selection is “It gives [SDSU] a way to be complete, McGee says, “The D-I exposed to the other great universities,” powerhouses are gong to want he says. The equestrian team will join to play us. [Having good horses] the ranks of twenty-two other schools, makes it a better competition.” such as Auburn, Texas A & M, and Stanford, offering the sport. “It brings the

The rest is up to the studentathletes, who will spend hours training and caring for the equines.

“You don’t get anywhere without work,” says Hammerbeck.

Miranda Reiman

Rabbit tracks • 19

’85 runners: We are the Champions Cross-country team delivers on prospect of national title

A

ll-American cross-country runners Rod DeHaven and Jeff Massmann never lacked for confidence and they have the dorm-room stereo story to prove it.

Before leaving Brookings on Thursday, November 21, 1985, en route to the Division II national cross-country championships in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, DeHaven and Massmann had an engineering project to complete.

The Mathews Hall residents rigged a string to their door, recalls team captain Rob Beyer.

Opening the door caused a weight to drop and start their stereo. The song that blared at 1:30 a.m. Monday upon their return from East Stroudsburg was that 1977 Queen classic We are the Champions. The runners’ boldness did not backfire.

DeHaven, Massmann, and their teammates were indeed champions.

Their margin of victory (60 to 108) was so wide that the Jackrabbits could have scored their No. 6 man instead of their leading runner and still won by twenty points, according to Beyer, who now is an executive with McData in Minneapolis.

The cross-country title was the fourth of six that the storied men’s program has earned since 1956.

This could be the year In some ways, this title was no surprise.

DeHaven, Massmann, and Beyer were 20 • Rabbit tracks

joined on the team by Todd Stevens, Bob Wilson, Joe Flannery, and Tim Moore. After reciting the names of the runners to Bob Bartling, the Midwest running guru gasped, “No wonder they won. They were loaded. That’s a great crew. Gee, they were talented.”

Talented, deep, and healthy.

“Everything was in the right place,” says Flannery, who went on to coach track and cross-country for four years at Western Illinois. SDSU had been sending teams to nationals for years and Scott Underwood’s squad had finished in the top ten the previous four years.

The 1985 team was missing only one runner (Stuart Lund) from the 1984 team that placed fourth.

This would be an upset But in other ways, the Jacks had no chance of winning the national title.

Even other runners at the title meet thought that, Beyer recalls.

“We went to dinner that night [before the race] without the coach and ate at a pizza/pasta place in downtown East Stroudsburg. There were some runners next to us. I bent over and asked ‘Who do you think is going to win?’

“They said, ‘Edinboro will win for sure.’ I asked them about South Dakota State and they said, ‘They’re a good team but they can’t run hills.’ So I said, ‘I think we can run hills.’”

Indeed, the flatlanders from the Dakota prairie could run hills, and it’s a

good thing because the course was very hilly, Flannery recalls.

SDSU had faced Edinboro in midseason at the Notre Dame Invitational and “they pounded us,” recalls “Rocket” Rod DeHaven, then a sophomore. Edinboro won that meet by forty-six points with SDSU placing third on the flat, eight-kilometer course.

Edinboro had won its regional meet on the East Stroudsburg golf course two weeks earlier.

Ignorance is bliss SDSU didn’t get a look at the course until the Friday before the race and it had rained so hard that day that the team couldn’t do any “more than skip through a few puddles,” DeHaven says.

Captain Beyer recalls that the guys were commenting on the hilly nature of the course. I said, “It’s to our advantage.

We don’t know how much the course is going to hurt.”

And hurt it did. Beyer said his legs hurt for three weeks afterwards. But he was able to rub them with the balm of a national championship.

“It was by far the toughest course we had run. There was a steep hill, a short par three [about 250 meters], that was straight up. Your nose was almost touching the grass,” says Beyer, who notes that runners encountered the incline between Mile One and Two and then again in the second half of the 6.2mile race.

Champions “Edinboro was way ahead of us after one mile,” Beyer says of the team SDSU also would best for the 1989 title.

Tortoise and the hare DeHaven, State’s current coach, recalls, “We knew Edinboro tended to go out very hard. At Notre Dame, which was a totally flat course and five miles, that strategy worked very well. At a course that emphasized strength, it didn’t work so well.”

DeHaven went out with the lead pack while his teammates started out more conservatively.

SDSU didn’t make its move until after the first big hill. Beyer explains, “We just hung as a pack and when we went by them, we went by them aggressively to break them mentally. If we would have gotten separated out, those hills would probably killed us too.”

DeHaven adds, “The damage from the hills and the early pace had been inflicted. Those [Edinboro] guys were much like road kill. I think our runners drew encouragement from seeing our other runners pass them.”

DeHaven, who finished fifth at nationals as a freshman, also took encouragement from his coach.

“For me personally, it was not one of my better days. The last couple kilometers I really struggled. I can remember Coach Underwood just pleading with me to finish. I must have looked bad. Scott was pleading with me at 300 meters out ‘Just finish and we’ve got it won,’” DeHaven remembers.

He fell short of his individual goal, finishing ninth in 32:11. Four more SDSU runners crossed the line in the next forty seconds.

DeHaven observes, “It’s hard for people to look at cross country being an exciting sport. For those who go out and watch, running from one spot on the course to another to see how things have changed, there’s an adrenaline rush. “[But] the lack of a [local] celebration didn’t lessen the luster any. It’s the nature of the sport. A championship is a championship. It’s not about riding on the fire engine.

Celebrating present, past runs Flannery notes, “It did seem apparent right away that we had won it.

Underwood could size it up and just tell.

There was the usual jumping up and down, high fiving. It puts you on this high that you can hardly believe it, even though you knew you could do it.”

DeHaven adds, “We were all very excited about accomplishing what we had set out to do.

“Yeah, we won it that year, but it goes all the way back to the early 1970s, the Bills [brothers] and the Brandts that had built the tradition. There was an alum who did a couple cartwheels across main street in East Stroudsburg.”

Jed Schimmel ’83 was one of the few Jackrabbit fans to see the national championship. “None of our parents had come to the meet,” except for those of Bob Wilson, who was from New Hampshire, DeHaven says.

No autograph requests The results were in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader on Sunday, but there was no welcoming entourage when the team returned.

The University did make note of the championship at noon on Monday, when President Robert Wagner and Athletic Director Harry Forsyth hosted a congratulatory gathering in the HPER Center. It had the drawing power of a lecture on peas.

There was certainly not the euphoria created by national basketball titles in 1963 and 2003.

SDSU runners Rod DeHaven (left, 211) and Todd Stevens (front, far right) run in a pack early in the North Central Conference championship at Saint Cloud, Minnesota, on November 9, 1985. The race was held in 26degree weather with a 15 mph wind.

SDSU Coach Scott Underwood congratulates Rob Beyer (324) and Joe Flannery after finishing the 10-kilometer course at the 1985 national championship.

“What you remember are the cold, rainy days, the hot days, the hardship of rolling out of bed and running when you’re tired. You remember going three miles out toward the sheep farm and the wind is blowing so hard that you’re bent over at the waist.

“Yeah, there’s not going to be people slapping you on the back when you’re done.

“You will remember the hard workouts when you’re flying and you look back and see you’re teammates, and you know it’s coming.”

The lasting memory Flannery adds, “You just can’t top it [the national championship plaque] with any other award or trophy. It’s just something you want to pull out every once in a while and smile. . . . There were no parades. It’s a thing that makes you smile inside and try and savor it as long as you can.

“When you’re training and doing all this running individually, what you don’t realize, the real gift and the real prize is the friendship we got out of this.”

Dave Graves

Rabbit tracks • 21

Jackrabbit

Mascot

The life of a Jackrabbit Enthusiasm, integrity, mystique

A

s prolific as its namesake, the Jackrabbit mascot leaves a long trail of distinction. Those who have donned the costume have done so with distinction and their antics have entertained, amused, and in other ways augmented State sports games and more for many years.

One standout Jackrabbit, in the opinion of Alumni Association Director V.J. Smith, was Jason Kraiss of Rochester, Minnesota, who first wore the costume in the summer of 1993.

“The mascot was, obviously, on summer vacation,” Kraiss remembers. “Some teachers had arranged for a group of little preschoolers to meet the Rabbit on the top of the Campanile. I was asked to do it. Anytime they needed someone to fill in, they’d ask me. It was very neat. I enjoyed it very much.”

Kraiss next wore the costume during Rabbit Night.

“I’d written away to ten companies that had rabbit mascots,” says Smith. “The Eveready Energizer Bunny, the General Mills Trix Rabbit, the Nestle’s Quick Rabbit. They all donated costumes. We quickly “Guess who got the job? filled eight and had two more to fill. There were two students Jason. The reason why is doing four-month internships here because he passed the and we asked if these two guys would wear them. One said, ‘You Rabbit Test.” – V.J. Smith, wouldn’t catch me dead in a Alumni Association director rabbit costume.’ The other said ‘I’d love to.’ That was Jason.”

A month later, a graduate assistantship opened up in the Athletic Department and both students applied.

“Guess who got the job?” Smith says. “Jason. The reason why is because he passed the Rabbit Test.”

At the time, Kraiss felt he’d flubbed the interview. Nonetheless, “Those who go the extra mile and take on additional responsibilities are rewarded in the end,” he says. “The grad assistantship was the best professional experience of my life. I learned so much from V.J. and Keith Mahlum and Fred Oien.”

Rabbit tracks • 22

Jackrabbit

Mascot

Resume builder Another top-notch Rabbit, 1997 grad Garron Williams, of Mankato, Minnesota, agrees that being the Rabbit can spice up a resume.

“It’s a pretty unique thing,” Williams says. “It’s definitely something that makes you different from everyone else who’s just as qualified for the job. They look at that and think, ‘Here’s this guy who was the crazy Jackrabbit.’”

Williams wanted to wear the costume long before he could fill it.

“When we took him up there to the games as a little kid, he always wanted to be the Bunny,” says his dad, Gary Williams of Lake Benton, Minnesota. “And when he was, he didn’t even tell us until that Christmas. We got a post card” of Williams in costume, sitting on Santa’s lap, part of a downtown Brookings athletic event. “For someone to be the Jackrabbit for four years and nobody really knows who it is, is something. He and his friends kept it pretty secret.”

That secrecy is pretty much standard operating procedure.

Garron Williams

No telling “The anonymity helps a lot,” Williams says. “It keeps the mystique to it. It also keeps your friends from hassling you. People would come up to me and say stuff to me and they didn’t know who I was. That was hilarious.

I’d think, ‘Hey, I live next door to you!’ I just enjoyed the people and the crowd.”

“You can’t see very well in “Garron totally enjoyed being a Rabbit and he was very that thing. You look out of the good at it,” Smith says. mouth. It’s tough, really For Kraiss, the children, at the games, schools, and tough. You gently feel your hospitals where he visited, were way around.” – Jason Kraiss the best part of it. “That was a blast,” he says. “The kids just swarm you. You can’t see very well in that thing. You look out of the mouth. It’s tough, really tough. You gently feel your way around. You get an appreciation for how difficult it is. It’s certainly not easy.”

Kraiss also enjoyed adults, whose reaction was usually the direct opposite of those swarming kids.

“It was fun to walk around in the grocery stores,” Kraiss says. “You’d see mostly older people. They’d do anything to either ignore you or walk away from you. So I’d do anything to embarrass them.”

Well, not anything.

“There is that line where the fans think you’re hilarious,” Kraiss explains. “But there is that line where you can be inappropriate. I stayed on the conservative end.”

Cindy Rickeman To catch up with these men in the rabbit suits: Garron Williams, 507-387-5325, garronw@hotmail.com; Jason Kraiss, 507-285-5655, kraiss.jason@mayo.edu.

Who was that Schmuck?

One of the best Jackrabbits in the history of SDSU was Chad Breidenbach.

“It was in the 1991-92 time frame. He was . . . called Schmuck. He was the best,” says Alumni Association Director V.J. Smith.

“He always knew if someone was watching him and he’d play to that person. I would just sit there and laugh through the whole game.

And the kids loved him. There’s a fine line when you’re dealing with kids. You have to be animated enough, but you can’t scare them off,” Smith adds.

Cindy Rickeman

Jackrabbit mascot turns 100 Since South Dakota Agricultural College switched the name of its sports teams from Barn Yard Cadets to Jackrabbits 100 years ago, the logo has gone through many changes.

A poem titled “How the Jackrabbit Came to Be” points to the Class of 1907 as the source of the mascot. However, earlier references dispute that theory.

The first hint that a name change was in the wind appeared in a 1904 Industrial Collegian, both as a commentary and as a reference to local editor R. Adams Dutcher, the father of Hobo Day. In its coverage of an SDSC versus Minnesota Gophers game, the November 12, 1905, Minneapolis Tribune carried an illustration depicting the State team as a jackrabbit.

An artist’s sketch of an athlete running alongside a jackrabbit made its first appearance in the Industrial Collegian in May 1906.

The 1908 yearbook pictured a walking rabbit with football in arm and clad in football pants. The 1927 yearbook depicted a drawing of a realistic-looking, running rabbit. The 1938 annual carried a more cartoonish character.

The logo most familiar today, the running rabbit, was created by University Relations staffer Larry Westall about 1971.

Editor’s note: The source of this information is the book College on the Hill.

Rabbit tracks • 23

Summer

vacation

What I did on my summer vacation...

Robinson The school year never really ended for Lisa Robinson.

While other students enjoyed a break from schoolwork this summer, the 5-5 soccer forward spent most of her vacation in the classroom, taking surveying and physics classes.

“It’s hard for me to take classes like that during soccer season,” says the sophomore engineering major, whose scholarship requires her to maintain sixteen credit hours per semester. “It is nice to have them done and out of the way.”

Her three-week surveying class lasted from 8 a.m. to around 9 p.m. After completing the course, the Rapid City native returned home to begin a physics class at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Robinson’s summer wasn’t entirely confined to the classroom, however.

She spent plenty of time on the soccer field as well.

The 19-year-old divided her time between club soccer and a men’s league, playing at least two games a week with each. A Rushmore Soccer Club veteran, Robinson has participated in club soccer since her middle-school days. This summer was the final summer she was eligible to play, and tournaments allowed her to travel to Montana and Minnesota.

An invitation from her former soccer coach spurred Robinson into playing with the Rapid City men’s league for the first time.

“It was a lot of fun,” says Robinson, who has played soccer since age 5. “It was just a little faster-paced game.”

Monsters of the Men’s League Jackrabbit football players formed a men’s league softball team that played Thursday nights. The team posted a 17-1 record before fall camp started and won the Cubby’s tournament July 16-17 with a 5-0 record.

Team members were Travis Ahrens, D.J. Fischer, Paul Keizer, Mitch Klein, Hank McCall, John Perry, Scott Breyfogle, Jeff Hegge, Marty Kranz, Paul Aanonson, Andrew Hoogeveen, Tyler Koch, Justin Kubesh.

24 • Rabbit tracks

She compared playing with the men’s league to the elevated level of Division I play. The opportunity helped her stay in shape during the summer, she adds.

Between three and five times a week at 8 a.m., Robinson participated in P3 (Performance Plus Program) at the Black Hills Orthopedic and Spine Center. P3 is similar to the Jackrabbit “I had a really good Acceleration summer, just spending program at State. most of my time doing Family schoolwork, playing time became a key part of soccer, and hanging Robinson’s summer as out with my family.” well. She – Lisa Robinson spent time working out with her younger sister Amy, who tried out for and made her high school soccer team.

“I had a really good summer, just spending most of my time doing schoolwork, playing soccer, and hanging out with my family,” she says.

Although Robinson admits that she feels ready for another vacation, she remains excited about the upcoming season. “I think we’re going to have a really good season this year.”

Denise Watt

A mission to Mexico

By John Perry Landscape design major from Montrose/Defensive Back

This summer I was able to once again participate in a mission trip to Mexico. A group of twenty left for Tijuana on June 27 and stayed until July 3.

We had the opportunity to build three houses for families as well as prepare a site for the construction of a new dorm building for a Bible college.

Overall, the trip was a great experience, not only to help others, but to learn from a different culture.

A message from Keith Mahlum

Lights, camera and plenty of action For months you’ve heard us talking about the videoboard/scoreboard project at Coughlin Alumni Stadium and Frost Arena. We traveled around the state explaining the scope of this endeavor via colorful placards and detailed PowerPoint presentations.

On September 3, at our football home opener, we let the project stand up and speak for itself. Based on your reactions, those of students on campus, and members of the football team, the enhancements are a big hit.

We expect to be a premier intercollegiate athletic program in everything we do. This project is no exception. Two of the desired outcomes of this project are to enhance the game-day experience for our fans and expand the way we highlight our sports teams, departmental programs and our University. We will accomplish these goals by utilizing Daktronic’s cutting-edge technology (i.e. Pro-Star videoboards, Pro-ad displays and Protable) and adding numerous large pictorials at each site.

At the core of this comprehensive venture is our focus on the student-athlete. On game days you will see live game footage, instant replays, video features and other inside information regarding Jackrabbit Athletics. At home events we will highlight the breadth and scope of our HPER and Athletic Department.

As we move forward with this project we will not forget the past. Integrated into this new enhanced game-day production will be long-standing Jackrabbit traditions that we all know and love—the Pride/pep band, tailgating, SDSU ice cream, and exciting athletic competition. We are very proud of our tradition of excellence on campus. Our expanded partnership with Daktronics will allow us to tell this story more effectively.

So as you make plans to attend many events this year expect some of the best Jackrabbit experiences you’ve ever had. On behalf of our department, I send a special thank you to the SDSU Foundation, Daktronics, our corporate partners and local businesses who’ve made the awesome project a reality.

To coin a phrase from our friends at the SDSU Alumni Association . . . IT’S A GREAT DAY TO BE A JACKRABBIT!

Keith Mahlum SDSU Assistant to Athletic Director/Development Director

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South Dakota State University Athletics Department Box 2820 Brookings, SD 57007-1497

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