Cross Country
Cross Country ended the season strong with a Summit League Championship victory before participating in the NCAA Midwest Regionals and NCAA Championship. The victory marked SDSU’s ninth consecutive victory with SDSU’s Carson Noecker taking second overall in the event. Noecker took second place with a time of 32:51.47 and beat the previous SDSU record of 24:44.8 set by Chase Cayo.
Four Jackrabbits achieved All-Summit League First Team Honors. In regionals, the SDSU men’s team placed sixth while the women’s team finished 12th. Noecker continued a fantastic performance as he broke another Jackrabbit record in the 10k, finishing with a personal record time of 29:25.80, beating out Michael Krsnak’s time of 30:22.70. Noecker became one of three Jackrabbits to compete in the NCAA Championship. Out of 252 racers, he finished 44th overall after achieving a time of 29:29.60.
Equestrian
Equestrian ended their season with a 4-9 record while going 3-3 against Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference foes. The Jackrabbits advanced to the semifinals in the ECAC conference tournament before falling to UT Martin 11-9.
The 2024-25 season marked the first year under head coach Kamerra Brown. Before SDSU, Brown was at William Woods University as the hunter/jumping instructor and assistant professor for equine studies for the last four years.
Brown competed as an undergraduate at Delaware State before spending time as a graduate assistant and assistant coach at South Dakota State.
Of South Dakota State’s four wins, three came by way of Minnesota Crookston. The Jacks beat Minnesota Crookston on Nov. 2 (12-4), March 8 (11-6) and March 27 (11-9).
Hannah Steele was a standout rider for the Jackrabbits this season. Steele competed in both jumping seat disciplines (flat and fences) in every meet this season. The senior tallied a flat career-high ride of 91 in SDSU’s final meet of the regular season.
Football
The Jackrabbits couldn’t carry on their two years of FCS dominance as they fell to the 2025 FCS National Champions NDSU in the semifinals. Overall, South Dakota State ended the season 12-3 in the final season under Jimmy Rogers.
Two of the three defeats this season came by way of the Bison as the Jacks fell in the regular season and in the playoffs. SDSU also lost to Big 12 opponent Oklahoma State 44-20 in the opening game of the season.
South Dakota State averaged 36.67 points per game this season while scoring 26 touchdowns through the air and 43 on the ground. SDSU’s ground attack excelled this season as four players rushed for over 400 yards in Amar Johnson (1,222 yards), Angel Johnson (646 yards), Kirby Vorhees (581 yards) and Chase Mason (464 yards).
In his final year with SDSU, Mark Gronowski threw for over 2,700 yards on 61.13%, 23 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Gronowski’s favorite target was Sioux Falls native Griffin Wilde as he racked up 1,147 yards and 12 touchdowns on 70 catches.
SDSU was hit heavily with the transfer portal this season as they lost a plethora of talent on both sides of the ball. Gronowski, defense tackle Bryce Hawthorne, Wilde and offensive lineman Evan Beerntsen joined teams in the Big 10 conference with Gronowski and Hawthorne heading to Iowa and Wilde and Beerntsen reuniting with Zach Lujan at Northwestern.
30 players and commits followed Rogers to Washington State including Angel Johnson, Vorhees, Tucker Large, Cale Reeder, Caleb Francl, Matthew Durrance and Max Baloun.
With the departure of Rogers, Dan Jackson was named as the new head coach for the Jackrabbits. Jackson is a former player at SDSU and was most recently the defensive coordinator at Idaho. SDSU is set to open its 2025 season against Sac State on Aug. 30 at the Dana. J. Dykhouse Stadium.
Wrestling
The Jackrabbits sent a program record of nine wrestlers to the NCAA Division I Championships this year after a successful Big 12 season. In the Conference tournament, nine Jackrabbits finished on the podium.
Soccer
Soccer finished off with a record of 15-5-2 thanks to strong performances at home as well as against Summit League opponents, going 5-2-2 at home and 5-2-1 against the conference.
They eventually earned the No. 3 seed and would go on to play the No. 6 Coyotes. For the Summit League title, the Jacks took on Oral Roberts. Katelyn Beulke recorded two goals as SDSU beat ORU 3-1 after scoring the first three goals of the game. After winning their ninth conference championship, they turned their attention to their NCAA first-round opponent Minnesota. The Gophers put up 18 shots with nine being on goal as they bested the Jacks 2-0 to eliminate them from the tournament.
Swimming and Diving
The men’s swimming and diving team finished 4-3 while the women finished 2-6 in the 2024-25 collegiate season.
For the men, SDSU took third out of seven opponents at the Summit League Championships and qualified five swimmers for the national competition.
At the National Invitation Competition, the Jackrabbits took 20th and scored 135 points.
Cody Vertin tallied an eighth-place finish in both the 400 individual medley and an eleventh-place finish in the 200 individual medley.
Zavier Kranz, Austin Smith, Denilson Cyprianos and Sam Johnson competed in the 400 freestyle relay and took 16th out of 24 relay teams with a time of 2:59.79 seconds.
The women’s swimming and diving team qualified one swimmer for the NIC in Jenna Currier. The junior from Iowa took 33rd in the preliminary round of the 50-yard backstroke with a prelim time of 26.16 seconds.
Volleyball
Sylvie Zgonc was the bright spot on an underwhelming 2023 Jackrabbit team. Zgonc won Summit League Freshman of the Year and making the 2023 All-Summit League Volleyball Team First Team.
Zgonc was as good as advertised in her sophomore season though. She led the Jacks to a hot start. Through non-conference play, the Jacks boasted a record of 11-0, more wins than the entire previous season. They kept rolling to a 22-0 start before losing in a five-set thriller to St. Thomas to give the Jacks their first blemish of the year.
That would be the only loss of the regular season and the Jacks came into Summit League Tournament as regular-season champions and the number-one seed with a 26-1 record.
They emerged from the tournament with a few award winners. Zgonc won the Summit League Player of the Year, scoring a total of 551.5 points with 494 kills. Madison Burr won Summit League Freshman of the Year with 305 points and 130 total blocks. Sydni Schetnan was awarded the 2024 All-Summit League Volleyball First Team alongside Zgonc. Head Coach Dan Georgalas was also awarded Summit League Coach of the Year.
In the conference championship, the Jacks would see familiar foes in the USD Coyotes. The Jacks would draw first blood, winning set one before USD came back to take a 2-1 lead. Which once again put the Jacks in a must-win set. The Jackrabbits came through to force a fifth set, where they fell short 15-10 to USD. The Coyotes handed SDSU their second loss of the season.
Even though the Jacks fell short of winning the Summit League Tournament, they were selected to be a part of the NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Tournament. SDSU was slated to play the eight-seed Miami Hurricanes for the first round. The Jacks had an uneventful tournament, getting swept 3-0 by the Hurricanes. The sweep was the first and only time the Jacks were swept in the season.
Men’s Basketball
The Jackrabbits men’s basketball team found themselves down two of their highest volume scorers due to the transfer portal by the start of the season. Despite the vacancies, they were able to field a formidable team that made its way to the Summit League quarter final, while ending with a 20-12 record.
Washington State transfer Oscar Cluff quickly made an impression on the team as he became the team’s scoring, blocks and rebounding leader. By the end of the season, he was second in the country in rebounding average, with 12.3 per game. SDSU found themselves as the no. 3 seed in the Summit League tournament and faced off against no. 6 UND in the Quarterfinals.
South Dakota State led at the half 38-33, but a 52-point half gave UND the game. Following the loss, the Jacks will again be losing multiple players to the transfer portal, including freshman starter Owen Larson and Cluff, who transferred to Purdue. Larson will be joining former head coach Eric Henderson with the Drake Bulldogs.
Women’s Basketball
The 2024-25 women’s basketball team came into the season with a lot of expectations after being crowned back-to-back Summit League Champions. SDSU started the season with strong showings, beating Creighton, losing by four points to a Duke team that would end the season as a top-ten ranked team and defeating a ranked Oregon Ducks team.
SDSU had a mix of new faces and veterans that led the Jackrabbits this year. Brooklyn Meyer averaged a career-high in points with 17, which helped her reach All-Summit League First Team alongside her teammate Paige Meyer, who averaged over 12 points per game. Freshman guard Katie Vasecka made a splash this year for the Jacks, making the All-Freshman Team while averaging 8.4 points per game while playing an average of 21 minutes.
Led by Brooklyn Meyer, the Jackrabbits came into conference play with a record of 14-3. Their losses came at the hands of Duke, Georgia Tech and Texas. SDSU went on to be undefeated in conference play and were the number one seed in the Summit League Tournament.
SDSU then went on to beat Oral Roberts to advance to the national tournament.
With a record of 29-3, SDSU then moved on to the NCAA Tournament, where they would be a number ten seed set to play No. 7 Oklahoma State Cowgirls. In the opening round of the tournament, the underdog Jackrabbits found themselves trailing 31-24 at halftime. But the Jackrabbit trio of Brooklyn Meyer, Madison Mathiowetz and Paige Meyer helped take a two-point lead going into the fourth and the Jacks maintained the lead, winning 74-68. Brooklyn Meyer ended the game with 19 points, followed by Mathiowetz with 17 and Paige Meyer with 16.
The Jacks were then faced with their toughest task of the year, Paige Bueckers and UCONN. After the first quarter, SDSU found themselves down by just five points before the Huskies erupted and pulled away in the final three quarters. Bueckers ended the night with 34 points while the Jacks were outscored 91-57. UConn went on to win the whole tournament, defeating South Carolina in the Championship. Bueckers then went on to be selected first overall in the WNBA draft just 22 days after defeating the Jackrabbits.
Indoor Track and Field
The Jackrabbits had an eventful 2024-25 season on the track, which led the men and women to the Summit League Championship Meet in Brookings. The Men had a few standout performances when it mattered. Cody Larson grabbed gold in the 5000-meter. James Pierce also took first in the 400-meter. Jared Wipf won the 60-meter and tied his own program record time. Multiple other big-time performances led the Jackrabbits to win their first Indoor championship since 2022.
The women also had big-time moments in the championship meet. Brielle Dixon won gold in the 60-hurdles with a time of 8.61, the 23rd fastest time in the nation and a record for a Summit League championship meet. Multiple other Jackrabbits medaled in events, including Madison Kizer, Grace Waage, Jessica Lutmer and Courtney Stadter. The Jackrabbits went on to finish fourth in the conference with NDSU taking home the victory.
Wrestling
The Jackrabbits sent a program record of nine wrestlers to the NCAA Division I Championships this year after a successful Big 12 season. In the Conference tournament, nine Jackrabbits finished on the podium.
Cade DeVos was South Dakota State’s highest placing athlete at nationals, taking sixth place as the No. 13 wrestler in the 174-pound weight class and earning All-American honors for the second time. The sixth year student athlete was SDSU’s only placer at the tournament.
SDSU’s Bennett Berge was the highest-ranked Jackrabbit heading into the tournament at fifth. Berge’s weight class featured notable names such as Carter Starocci of Penn State, Dustin Plott of Oklahoma State and Parker Keckheisen of Northern Iowa. Nebraska’s Silas Allred upended Berge in the second round of the tournament by way of pin.
