Seven SDSU football players competed in the major all-star games which had college athletes competing in games before the NFL draft. South Dakota State had players in the Hula Bowl, East-West Shrine Bowl and the Reece’s Senior Bowl.
Less than a week after winning his second national Championship, safety turned linebacker Isaiah Stalbird had an impressive performance in the Hula Bowl, racking up five tackles and a fumble recovery.
Isaiah Davis played in the Senior Bowl, sharing the field with names such as Bo Nix, Sam Hartman and Brock Bowers. The Missouri native showed his breakaway ability with a 20-yard run in the game, the second-longest in the bowl game.
The Jacks were back in Frisco, Texas. Zach Heins, Mason McCormick, Garret Greenfield, Jadon Janke and Jaxon Janke all competed in the East-West Shrine Bowl. South Dakota State had the most players from any school in the game.
Heins, along with the twins all had at least one catch in the game with Jadon Janke pulling in a 52-yard catch.
Hendo’s Hundredth
A last-second three-point miss from University of South Dakota’s Isaac Bruns did more than just win the game for South Dakota State, it gave head coach, Eric Henderson, his 100th career win as the head coach of the SDSU men’s basketball team.
“I’ve been blessed with a lot of really good players, I know that,” said Henderson in a postgame interview with CBS Sports following their victory over USD.
Henderson is in his eighth season at South Dakota State and his fifth as the head coach. The 22nd SDSU men’s basketball coach began his career early in the 2000s when he became an assistant coach at Wayne State in Nebraska, his alma mater, for women’s basketball.
After just a couple of seasons, Henderson took on a graduate manager position for the Iowa State Cyclones, his first taste of Division 1 basketball. After a five-year stint at Burlington Catholic Central High School in Burlington, Wisconsin, Henderson went to North Dakota State as an assistant from 2014-16.
The Wayne State Graduate had his best season in the 2021-22 collegiate year when he led the Jacks to a 30-5 record (18-0 in Summit League) which was the first Summit League team ever to reach 30 wins.
It was this year that South Dakota State held the longest active regular season win streak in the entire Division 1. The streak began Dec. 15, 2021, and ended March 17 against 4th-ranked Providence in the 2021-22 NCAA Division 1 March Madness tournament.
Swimming and Diving
Denilson Cyprianos was the star of the Coyote Invite in Sioux Falls, South Dakota as he came away with a pair of first-place finishes at the last regular season meet for the Jackrabbits.
Cyprianos opened up the meet early with a victory in the 400-yard individual medley where he finished with a time of 4:08.92, seven seconds over the next placer. Later on, the native from Zimbabwe clocked a 1:54.78 time in the 200 butterfly. Taking third in the 200 butterfly was sophomore Jack Ellison who finished at 1:57.42.
Cyprianos wasn’t the only Jack to have back-to-back same finishes. Standout freshman Cody Vertin had second-place finishes in both the 200 freestyle and the 100 individual medley with finishes at 1:43.57 and 52.53 seconds respectively.
Aiden Carstensen placed in the top four in three different events, the 100 butterfly at 51.40 seconds, the 100 backstroke at 50.69 seconds and the 100 freestyle at 46.86 seconds.
In the 1,650 freestyle, Will Stanton clocked in a 17:04.66 finish which put him in second place in the event.
A 169.30 score put Oscar Francis in second in the 1-meter diving competition while teammate Reece Reid also took second in the 3-meter board with a score of 197.05.
For the women, Gigi Hioki finished second in the 1,650-yard freestyle (17:30.40), second in the 200 butterfly (2:08.06) and third in the 100 butterfly (57.78 seconds).
European Poppy Mead placed second for the Jacks in the 400 individual medley at 4:46.11 with teammate Kelsey Kocon who finished in fourth at 4:47.92.
An SDSU 400 freestyle relay team made up of Hioki, Mead, Izzy Cox and Lily Esmas took third in the event, finishing with a time of three minutes and 39.19 seconds.
South Dakota State had another third-place finisher, this time in the 200 breaststroke with Jenna Currier at 2:28.93.
Both teams will return to the pool for the Summit League Swimming and Diving Championships in Minneapolis, Minnesota Feb. 21 through Feb. 24.
Statline
Women’s Basketball
• 100th all-time meetings between SDSU and USD. South Dakota State holds a 65-35 series record.
• After Saturday’s game, Brooklyn Meyer ranks seventh in the Summit League in scoring (16.2 PPG), fourth in rebounding (7.1 RPG), fourth in field goal percentage (.533) and first in blocks (1.9 BPG) for Summit League conference games.
Men’s Basketball
• The win signified The Jackrabbit’s first this season when trailing at the half. The Jackrabbits were 0-10 when trailing before the victory on Sunday.
• William Kyle III’s five blocks were a career high and tied for the second most by a Jackrabbit in a game since the Division 1 jump, trailing Cody Larson’s six which was recorded in 2014.
Wrestling
• Tanner Sloan’s win over Evan Bockman marks the senior’s 101st win of his career, tying Mike Engels (1971-74) at 101 wins for 14th place in the Jackrabbit career win category.