Kirsch and Howell join basketball staff
Ryan Kirsch and Chris Howell will join SDSU men’s basketball head coach Bryan Petersen for the 2025-26 season. Both hires will serve as assistant coaches for the Jackrabbits.
Both Howell and Kirsch have been with South Dakota State before. Howell spent two of his five collegiate seasons as a player with the Jackrabbits from 2016-18 and Kirsch was a graduate assistant from 2017-18.
Kirsch’s hiring was announced Monday morning. He was Petersen’s first hire. Kirsch was previously the head coach at Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge, Iowa, where he led the Tritons to a 20-12 record.
After South Dakota State, Kirsch spent four seasons at Kirkwood Community College before spending two years with Minnesota Duluth.
Howell joins a new Jackrabbit team after two seasons as the program assistant at Marquette. Before that, the Wisconsin native spent a season at Hill College and the University of Mary in North Dakota.
As an athlete, Howell suited up for Butler Community College (2015-16), South Dakota State (2016-18) and Jackson State (2018-19).
Lutmer and Kizer show out in weekend meets at USD and Stanford
The Jackrabbits divided between the West Coast and Southeast South Dakota over the weekend.
Some Jacks competed in the Stanford Invite while the rest competed in the USD Early Bird meet.
Stanford Invitational
Junior Cody Larson competed in the 5000-meter and posted a program record time of 1:34.36 which was good enough to win his heat.
In the 10000-meter, Jessica Lutmer nearly set a program record but was 985 thousandths of a second short with her time of 34:00.53. Courtney Stadter also had a stellar performance putting herself third on the all-time list with her time of 34:12.94.
Grace Waage finished tenth in her 1500-meter heat and put herself sixth on the all-time jackrabbit list with a time of 4:25.75. In the men’s 1500-meter the Jacks put two runners in the top five of their heats. Brandon Kampsen took fifth while Jackson Dutcher finished one spot short of the podium.
Junior Ben Anteau was the sole Jackrabbit runner competing in the Mike Fanelli Distance Carnival, where he finished fourth in the 3000-meter steeple with a time of 9:02.67.
USD Early Bird
Madison Kizer started her outdoor season off strong with a gold medal in the high jump with a leap of 1.73m. For the men, Grayson Ring and Holen Brooks both had solid days, with Ring coming home fourth and Brooks placing fifth.
The men’s discus team flexed their muscles as they held down three top-five spots on the day. Caiden Fredrick took home gold with a throw of 53.27m, followed by TJ Christensen’s throw of 48.16m, good enough for second, while Ryan Hackbart rounded out the top five in fifth with a throw of 45.72.
For the women, Milee Young finished with a silver medal in discus with a throw of 48.35m
Ryann Moline competed in the javelin throw and took fourth with a throw of 38.60m, while Sloan Young placed sixth with a throw of 36.09m.
In the 800-meter Sam Castle finished second to take home silver with a time of 1:51.23 while Joe Dustin finished ninth
The 5000-meter saw the Jacks have two solid results with Nichole Swanson finishing third with a time of 17:37.00 finishing fifth was Kadense Dooley just over three seconds behind Swanson.
Senior Katelyn Darnell competed in four events over the weekend. The 200-meter dash, Javelin throw, 100-meter hurdle and long jump. Her notable results came when she won the 200-meter with a personal best time of 25.35 and then she finished sixth in the 100-meter hurdle with a time of 14.86.
SDSU will now travel to Vermillion to compete in the USD Challenge on Saturday.
