Jan. 2: Northern State women's basketball coach Curt Fredrickson earned career win No. 700 - second most in NCAA DII women's history - all at NSU in 33 seasons.
Jan. 4: Golfers are playing in Aberdeen.
Jan. 4: South Dakota State 1980s standout shortstop David Lane makes a big donation to the Jacks' baseball program to build a grandstand and press box at Erv Huether Field in Brookings.
Jan. 5: With his 302nd career win at the school, SDSU men's basketball coach Scott Nagy became the all-time winningest basketball coach in school history. Former SDSU women's coach Nancy Neiber won 301 games from 1984 to 2000.
Jan. 6: In six games, the Harding County boys' basketball team now has wins over teams from three states: South Dakota, North Dakota and Wyoming.
Jan. 7: With no individual champions, Groton won the team title at the Miller-Highmore Wrestling Tournament.
Jan. 7: NSU wins its second game in a row on a three-point buzzer beater, first a 40-footer from Geoffrey Firmin to beat Winona, and now one from Alex Thomas (his second of the season) to beat Minnesota-Crookston.
Jan. 7: South Dakotan Coulter Boyer (Hurley) and his four North Dakota State teammates from Sioux Falls - Ryan Jastram (Roosevelt), Mike Hardie (O'Gorman), Preston Evans (Roosevelt) and Trevor Gebhart (Washington) - helped the Bison win the Division I Football Championship Subdivision national title.
Jan. 9: Mount Vernon native and Minnesota linebacker Chad Greenway was been named to his first Pro Bowl after recording a personal-best 174 tackles in 2011.
Jan. 9: A hole-in-one. In South Dakota. In mid-January. Guy Faber of Brandon did it at Hidden Valley Golf Course using an eight-iron on the 155-yard hole No. 1.
Jan. 10: Heidi Hoff of Brandon Valley scored a school-record 45 points to go along with 11 rebounds, four assists and four steals in a girls' basketball win over Sioux Falls Roosevelt.
Jan. 10: Miller High School senior Darin Peterka broke his school's all-time career scoring record at 1,754 points. John Meek set the record in 1957 at 1,385 points. Meek of Texas is an uncle of Miller coach Bob Waldrop.
Jan. 12: The SDSU men's basketball team defeated USD 86-56 before a sold-out crowd of 6,216 at Frost Arena in the first meeting between the schools in eight years. A moment of silence was held in honor of former Gov. Bill Janklow (a Chicago Bears season-ticket holder), who had died earlier in the day.
Jan. 14: Two players scored 55 percent of all the points in Tiospa Zina's 89-65 win over Little Wound in the State Farm Boys' Basketball Shootout in Redfield Saturday. Maron Taken Alive scored 38 for Tiospa Zina and Anthony Hopkins scored 46 for Little Wound.
Jan. 14: Records fell as the SDSU women's basketball team beat Missouri-Kansas City 75-62: Jennie Sunnarborg scored a career-high 31 and became the 31st player in school history to reach 1,000 career points. And there were 57 fouls and 78 free throws as SDSU shot a school record 48 free throws (made 34) to break the school record of 47 against Southern California on Nov. 17, 2006.
Jan. 14: Rapid City Stevens senior Margaret McCloud achieved a rare Class AA milestone by scoring her 1,000th career point as a post player.
Jan. 15: Hours after making his successful Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association debut, 24-year-old South Dakota bareback rider Austin Janis of Rosebud was killed in a traffic accident near Wray, Colo.
Jan. 16: A crowd of 3,309 at Frost Arena watched the SDSU women's basketball team nip USD 59-51 as their rivalry is renewed.
Jan. 16: Three of the last four winners of the nation's horse trainer of the year have been born in either Gettysburg or Mobridge. Bill Mott (Mobridge) won the 2011 Eclipse Award for outstanding trainer while Steve Asmussen (Gettysburg) was the 2008 and 2009 winner.
Jan. 17: Hannah Phillips of the Presentation College basketball team got eight steals in the first half against Trinity Bible College. The 5-foot-5 guard ended the game with 37 points, 12 steals, 10 rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots.
Jan. 23: The flooding numbers are totaled. High water caused about $9 million of damage to 42 of the 130 state parks and recreation areas in South Dakota during 2011.
Jan. 24: Former South Dakota State assistant football coach and San Francisco 49ers general manager Trent Baalke was named the NFL executive of the year.
Jan. 28: The Colorado State men's basketball team defeated No. 13 San Diego State 77-60 for the Rams' first home win over a ranked team since Dec. 30, 2003. The Rams are coached by Doland native and former Northern State assistant coach Tim Miles.
Jan. 28: Bemidji State women's basketball sophomore Morgan Lee had two teeth knocked out and two others chipped in a freak accident in the first half in Aberdeen. She then came back to score 13 in the second half, including a three-pointer to tie the game with 44 seconds left, to lead her team over Northern State 56-54.
Jan. 28: The SDSU men's basketball team defeated Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne 74-43. It was the fewest points the Jack have allowed since beating Dana College 98-40 on Nov. 30, 1990.
Jan. 31: There were five steals in 12 seconds in the Miller-Aberdeen Roncalli girls' basketball game, ending in a layup by Tara Parmely of Miller.
Jan. 31: In a girls' basketball loss to Warner, Aberdeen Christian committed 10 total fouls. However, those fouls were divided between just two players and as a result, the Knights had both of their top scorers foul out in the contest.
Feb. 2: Five of the seven Bingers (Alissa, Kristin, Ashley, Paige, Cassie, LaMour and Lexi) on the Hitchcock-Tulare girls' basketball varsity scored in a win over Sunshine Bible Academy.
Feb. 3: With only six players, the Presentation College women's basketball team beat Bethany Lutheran 91-86 in overtime while Bethany used 11 players.
Feb. 4: The SDSU women's basketball team extended and ended its consecutive made free throw streak at 27 over the course of three games.
Feb. 4: The SDSU men's basketball team had a key six-point possession in the second half of its 66-56 win over Southern Utah. Trailing 38-36 with 12:31 left, lone senior Griffan Callahan got fouled after making a three-point basket. That gave the Jacks the ball again and Nate Wolters made a three-point play to put SDSU on top 42-38 with 11:51 left.
Feb. 6: In its girls' basketball loss to Sully Buttes, all 24 Wakpala points came on three pointers (Caitlin Plenty Chief 5, Ashley Chasing Hawk 2 and Darlene Cadotte 1).
Feb. 6: A 30-minute documentary on Mike Miller's rise to the NBA from the Corn Palace in Mitchell to NCAA Tournament hero at Florida aired on Fox Sports Florida.
Feb. 7: Watertown junior Tanner Heiser scored a school-record 44 points in a 66-64 overtime loss to Brookings. Heiser made a 24-footer to send the game into overtime.
Feb. 9: The Coyotes breathed new life into a rivalry left for dead in its 72-68 win over the SDSU men's basketball team in Vermillion. The Jacks dominated USD 86-56 Jan. 12 in Brookings.
Feb. 9: Fourteen different Sioux Falls Lincoln boys' basketball players scored in a win over Sturgis.
Feb. 9: The Cheyenne-Eagle Butte boys' basketball team rallied from 20 points down with a little more than six minutes to play to defeat McLaughlin 79-76.
Feb. 9: The Summit twin basketball standouts, Logan and Presley O'Farrell, almost had matching numbers in a win over Rosholt. Logan had 15 points, nine rebounds, eight assists and seven steals and Presley had 18 points, nine rebounds, five assists and five steals.
Feb. 9: During senior night, the host Rapid City Central wrestling seniors beat rival Rapid City Stevens for the first time in their high school careers. Trailing RCS by three points with three matches to go, RCC senior Joe Sigler trailed the state's second-ranked 195-pounder Jarran Jensen 11-3 late in the third period when Sigler pinned Jensen with 11 seconds left in the match to spur the Cobblers to the dual win.
Feb. 10: The Northern State wrestling squad won back-to-back matches without recording a takedown to start a dual against Minnesota-State, Moorhead. Blake Lundgren used an escape and riding time for a 2-0 win at 165 pounds, and Donnie Bowden took advantage of two escapes and riding time to fuel a 3-2 win at 174. The Wolves won the dual 28-12.
Feb. 11: The SDSU men's basketball team wins to give the Jackrabbits their first 20-win season at the Division I level, the 20th such season in program history and the ninth for coach Scott Nagy.
Feb. 12: Just as he was ready to age out of the 13-14 age bracket and move up to the 15-16 age group, Tucker Iwerks of the Aberdeen Swim Club broke a 33-year-old state record in the 100-yard butterfly in 54.65 seconds. Mark Lewis of the Sioux Falls Snowfox set the record of 54.91 seconds in March 1979.
Feb. 13: The USD women's basketball team was down by nine to SDSU with 2:30 left in regulation, went on a 9-0 run to send the game into overtime and won 59-53 over the Jacks, who won the earlier meeting 59-51.
Feb. 13: Timber Lake swept a basketball doubleheader over Eureka-Bowdle - both the girls' and boys' scores were 67-65.
Feb. 16: Crow Creek junior Jolonna Sazue scored her 2,000th career point and teammate Evaline Arrow scored her 1,000th career point in the same game.
Feb. 17: In one St. Cloud women's basketball possession, NSU freshmen Caitlin Farroh blocked two shots and Sadie Stotesbery blocked one for the Wolves.
Feb. 18: USD senior center Jodie Boss broke her own single-game record of seven with nine blocked shots. The Coyotes also set a team record for blocks with 16 (13 in 1989).
Feb. 18: USD senior swimmer Liz Hoffman ended her career with 22 school records, 86 individual wins and three Summit League individual championships.
Feb. 18: Oklahoma University freshman Hilary Krein (Eureka) won her first collegiate race with a personal best of 4 minutes, 59.52 seconds in the indoor mile at the Oklahoma Invitational.
Feb. 24: The same day that male athletes from Miller and Highmore-Harrold were playing against each other in one sport, male athletes from the two schools were joining forces in another. On the first day of the State B wrestling tournament in Rapid City, the Miller/Highmore-Harrold wrestling cooperative scored 18 points. That same night at the gym in Highmore, the boys' basketball team from Miller beat Highmore-Harrold 76-42.
Feb. 25: The Dakota State men's basketball team qualified for the program's first trip to the NAIA Division II Men's Basketball National Tournament since 1992.
Feb. 25: Senior Louie Krogman (White River) capped off his brilliant University of South Dakota men's basketball career by finishing with 1,644 career points (sixth all-time at USD), including 292 three-pointers (second behind Josh Mueller's 307 from 2001-05). That gives him career combined high school and college totals of 5,165 points, including 680 three pointers.
Feb. 25: Krogman's fellow USD senior Charlie Westbrook ended his career with 1,009 career points in only two seasons with the Coyotes.
Feb. 25: The field MVPs of the Summit League Indoor Track and Field Championships were South Dakota State seniors Jared Vlastuin and Lora Shearer.
Feb. 25: The numbers were impressive in the South Dakota State men's basketball 75-64 win over Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis at Frost Arena.
- Nate Wolters set the SDSU junior season scoring record with 635 points (Chris White scored 633 during his junior year in 1990-91).
- Wolters also moved up to fourth on the SDSU all-time scoring list with 1,542 points, passing Steve Brown (1,534 points from 1975-78).
- In another school record, Jordan Dykstra's impressive streak of 11 straight three-pointers over three games came to an end (Craig Jenkins made nine in a row for the Jacks over three games in 1986).
- It was the Jacks third undefeated season at Frost Arena at 14-0. SDSU posted an 18-0 record at Frost Arena in 1984-85 and a perfect 17-0 mark in 2002-03. SDSU has now won 17 straight games at Frost.
Feb. 25: Pierre won its first state wrestling title since 1974.
March 3: During one stretch of the second half of the District 2B boys' basketball championship, Langford shot 1-for-17 from the field and actually gained a point on Warner. Langford eventually won the contest 42-38.
March 6: It was South Dakota's version of Super Tuesday as both SDSU basketball teams qualified for the NCAA Division I national tournaments.
March 8: Aberdeen Central senior and three-sport athlete Tiffany Lundberg began play in her 10th state tourney, rare for a Class AA athlete.
March 9: Aberdeen survived a recent blizzard, but the Aberdeen Wings succumbed to a Blizzard of a different sort when the visiting Alexandria Blizzard scored three goals in the final 79 seconds to beat the host Wings 4-2 in a North American Hockey League game.
March 9: By mid-afternoon, more than 50 golfers were playing the Bakker Crossing course in Sioux Falls.
March 10: Heidi Hoff rewrote the Brandon Valley girls' basketball record book by ending her career with all-time records for points (1,470), rebounds (688), assists (366) and steals (193).
March 11: Aberdeen Central junior Hannah Kastigar scored 103 points at the prestigious USA Swimming Speedo Championship Series in Pleasant Prairie, Wis., to finish second in her age group (winner had 107 points). Kastigar would later swim in the USA Olympic trials.
March 15: Amber Wollschlager of Milbank played her first basketball game in her home state in the last game of her college career as USD beat the senior and her Drake teammates 61-53 in Vermillion in the first round of the Women's National Invitational Tournament. Wollschlager scored 15.
March 15: Langford did not have a single player score more than eight during its 45-41 first-round win over Hanson in the State B boys' basketball tournament. Weston Hoglund and Kyle Johnson each scored eight points, Nick Alberts and Drew Planteen each seven, and Tyler Block, Michael Erickson and Bo Fries each five.
March 17: South Dakota State senior Jill Young ended her basketball career as 15th on the SDSU career scoring chart with 1,356 points. She also left as the school's all-time three-point leader with 305 career threes. She helped the Jacks to a 97-37 record in the last four seasons, with four straight NCAA Tournament appearances. At Mitchell Christian, Young had 3,317 career points and 462 three-pointers. So her career high school and college totals are 4,673 points and 767 three-pointers.
March 17: Legendary Mitchell basketball coach Gary Munsen retired, leaving some staggering numbers:
- 672-285 record as a varsity boys' coach in 42 seasons (39 at Mitchell, three at Marion, 1966-69).
- Mitchell boys won nine state titles, were state runners-up five times and qualified for the state tourney 34 times in 39 seasons under Munsen.
- Munsen was the Mitchell girls' coach from 1989 to 2001. During those 13 seasons, the Kernels went 230-71, won three state titles, were state runners-up four times and qualified for the state tourney 11 times.
- His total wins as a high school varsity coach were 902.
- His Mitchell boys won a State AA record 40 games in a row from 1984 to 1987.
- His Mitchell girls went 68-1 from 1992 to 1994.
- His Mitchell boys won 15 Eastern South Dakota Conference titles, including five straight from 1983 to 1987.
- Munsen spent four seasons as the Mitchell assistant and sophomore coach from 1969 to 1973, with his sophomores winning 77 games.
March 19: USD senior women's basketball player Jodie Boss ended her career as the Coyotes' all-time career record holder in blocked shots with 226 in two seasons. In her first two seasons at Wayne State, Boss set the school career record there for blocked shots with 168.
March 19: The first hole-in-one at an Aberdeen golf course came early and was recorded by Aberdeen Roncalli junior Andrew Welk, who used a six-iron to ace the 175-yard Hole No. 13 at Moccasin Creek Country Club.
March 23: The pro roping team of Brock Hanson of Arizona and Ryan Motes of Texas tied the world record of 3.3 seconds. Hanson was riding RU Drifting Joe, which was raised by Ruzsa Quarter Horses near Selby.
March 24: Nebraska named Doland native Tim Miles as its new men's basketball coach.
March 27: The South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department has sold 18,917 annual resident fishing licenses compared to 7,867 in 2011, thanks to an unseasonably warm spring.
March 30: South Dakota State men's basketball coach Scott Nagy brought home a pair of awards from the Final Four festivities in New Orleans. The National Basketball Coaches Association awarded Nagy it's NABC Guardians of the Game Pillar Award for Service, while Samaritan's Feet honored Nagy as its Barefoot Coach of the Year.
March 30: South Dakota campgrounds are seeing record numbers of campers due to the unseasonably warm weather.
March 31: South Dakota pro cowboy Chuck Schmidt of Keldron won the saddle bronc riding championship at a rodeo in Atlantic City, N.J. He did the same thing the night before at a rodeo 1,460 miles away in Fargo. He turned 24 on March 28. The two wins jumped Schmidt from 48th to 23rd in the world standings.
April 7: Winona State pounded out 51 runs and 47 hits, including 14 homers, in a two-game sweep over Northern State.
April 14: The Aberdeen Central girls ran the 400-meter relay with two girls during the Rapid City Track-O-Rama. When Jamie Larson of Aberdeen Central finished running her second leg, there was no one there to hand the baton to, so she ended up running the final 300 meters by herself. Central was scheduled to run in the second heat, but their first two runners accidently were sent on the track for the first heat. Central ran the second heat again with all four of its runners, including Larson.
April 16: Sioux Falls Lincoln graduate and former DWU standout Thomas Madut finished the Boston Marathon in 46th place (2 hours, 35 minutes, 18 seconds) in a field of 21,611.
April 17: Stanley County senior classmates Jake Etzkorn, Tate Cowan, Chantry Norman and Jamie Wolf all signed national letters of intent for rodeo in Fort Pierre.
May 5: In a five-day span, Macy Heinz of Ipswich established three school records in track and field. The seventh-grader broke a 30-year-old school record in the 400-meter dash on May 2 by clocking a :59.67. She then went toe-to-toe with the state's best distance runners from all three classes on May 4 at a meet in Sioux Falls and emerged with the fastest time in the state in any class in the 1,600-meter run in a time of 5:04.72. To cap off her week, Heinz broke her third school record by winning the 800-meter run in a time of 2:17.14 at a meet in Ipswich on May 5.
May 5: Logan Burns of Custer finished 32nd in the in the 1,600-meter run at the Sioux Falls Relays in a talented field of Who's Who of runners. His time, 4:44.48, was seventh fastest time of any runners in Class A so far this season.
May 8: Lead native and Dakota Wesleyan senior Dani Bellet was named the Great Plains Athletic Conference Women's Golfer of the Year for an unprecedented fourth year in a row.
May 10: USD sophomore pole vaulter Bethany Buell won the Coyotes' first-ever Summit League outdoor track and field title in Fargo by clearing 14 feet, ½ inch in meet and Schlanser Track stadium records.
May 16: Salem resident, 1998 Mount Marty graduate and high school referee Jeremy Grady's first career hole-in-one also earned him a 2012 Jeep Compass during the 20th annual Mount Marty Golf Classic.
May 17: Tyler Schultz of Custer became the only high school shot putter in state history to break the 70-foot barrier as his throw of 70 feet, 6 inches would turn out to be the best high school throw of the season in the nation.
May 19: Four-year starting South Dakota State shortstop Eric Cain ended his career with a school record for playing in 218 career games.
May 25: Texas Tech junior Kim Kaufman of Clark finished tied for eighth in the NCAA Division I championships. The now-senior ended the fall season as the nation's top-ranked women's collegiate golfer.
May 31: Northern State athletic director Bob Olson retired after a 37-year career at NSU that saw him fill the roles of student, athlete, professor, coach and administrator.
June 3: Canistota's amateur baseball team defeated Humboldt-Hartford in a doubleheader to end a 71-game losing streak that lasted over three seasons.
June 9: Aberdeen Pure Stock driver Brandon Moser won back-to-back feature races after going nearly a year without one. Moser won a feature race in Wishek, N.D., on June 8 and followed that up a night later by winning a feature at Brown County Speedway in Aberdeen.
June 9: The USD track and field indoor and outdoor teams set school records in 20 different events this season.
June 10: Ben Leber of Vermillion retired as a NFL linebacker after his 498 total tackles, 24 sacks and five interceptions in 10 seasons.
June 12: The South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department recaptured and refitted a familiar old lion in Custer State Park - an estimated 12-year-old female that was first captured and fitted with a radio collar in January 2004 in a Black Hills lion research program that began in the late 1990s. The cat - weighing in at a healthy 101 pounds in 2012 - was captured in April 2008 as well and had its collar replaced.
June 16: Black Hills State junior Joey Painter of Buffalo won the breakaway roping national championship at the College National Finals Rodeo.
June 17: USD's Emily Grove pole-vaulted 13-11 to win that event at the USA Junior Outdoor Championships.
June 19: Almost 4,000 fans nearly filled Fitzgerald Stadium in Rapid City to watch Post 22 defeat Post 320 8-3 in the first-ever regular-season meeting between the two rival American Legion baseball teams.
June 20: Recent Faith High School graduate Alana Gray and Faith senior teammate Tearnee Nelson played in four state tournaments during the 2011-12 season. They were mainstays on the Longhorns' State B volleyball and basketball teams; they placed fifth and sixth in the pole vault in the state track meet, and both qualified for the high school state finals rodeo.
June 21: Mitchell native Mike Miller scored 23 points, making seven of eight three-pointers, as he helps Miami win the NBA title in the deciding Game 5.
June 24: Gary Brown Jr. of Brandon set a Huset's Speedway record for career wins in the Street Stock division with his 51st feature victory at the track in Brandon.
June 24: Drew Cowan of Highmore edged his cousin, Tate Cowan of Fort Pierre, by 9.5 points to win the 2012 boys' all-around title at the South Dakota High School State Finals Rodeo.
June 24: In his last two outings in Sunshine League amateur baseball games for Alexandria, former South Dakota State pitcher Trever Vermeulen was one out away from back-to-back perfect games. He got two wins, threw one no-hitter, gave up only one hit and one walk and struck out 32 in the two games.
June 28: Retired veteran Rapid City Post 22 coach Dave Ploof was honored at the 51st annual Democrats vs. Republicans Roll Call Congressional Baseball Game in Washington at Nationals Park.
June 28: Pole-vaulter Derek Miles of Tea qualified for his third Olympics.
July 7: Three members of a Mitchell drag racing family each recently pulled off a rarity.
A perfect reaction time is .000 on the computer-generated stats that are produced after each race. So that means a driver would take off at the exact moment the Christmas tree lights that start a drag race turn green. The odds of doing so are 1 in 3,458, according to the National Hot Rod Association.
The father of the Mohr Family Racing Team, Dan, scored his perfect triple zero light June 23 at Oahe Speedway in Pierre. His son, Austin, accomplished the feat in the (age) 15 Junior Dragster division June 30 at the Western Conference Junior Finals at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colo. Then 8-year-old Chelsey, daughter of Dan and sister to Austin, did it in the Junior Minor Shootout July 7 at Oahe Speedway - in just her fourth shot ever at the Christmas tree.
July 13: Lake Norden Lakers amateur baseball manager Burt Tulson got his 700th win in 37 years with the Lakers. It also was his first ever win by forfeit as the Watertown Lake Sox weren't able to field a full squad for a game against the Lakers.
July 13: A 19-year-old Pure Stock auto racer from Hecla, Ashley Wampler, won her third feature race at Brown County Speedway in Aberdeen in four weeks after winning her first-ever feature June 22.
July 21: Drew Cowan of Highmore won the tie-down (calf) roping in the National High School Finals Rodeo. South Dakotans have now have won 50 national titles in the 64 years of the event.
July 26: Spearfish Post 164 defeated Post 22 14-11 for the Rapid City's first lost in the Region 3A Tournament since 2004.
Aug. 1: The 80th annual South Dakota Amateur Baseball State B Tournament started without Dell Rapids Pabst Blue Ribbon, which qualified but was disqualified for accidently using an ineligible player. PBR had reached the state tournament 26 straight years, capturing nine Class B titles during that stretch.
Aug. 5: Brookings won its first American Legion Baseball state title ever.
Aug. 10: Dale Ames of Huron won the WISSOTA Modified feature at Miller Speedway. It is only the fourth time Modifieds have raced at the track. Lorin Johnson of Miller, who won the last time Modifieds raced there on July 4, 1988, finished sixth.
Aug. 17: The Aberdeen Central boys defeated St. Thomas More 4-0 in the first South Dakota High School Activities Association sanctioned high school soccer match.
Aug. 25: Watertown won its football opener 22-14 under Eureka native Steve Svendsen. The former Northern State standout is only the 11th head coach in Arrow school history since 1930.
Aug. 26: Jona Leo of Sioux Falls won the USA Powerlifting Bench Press Nationals in Palm Springs, Calif. His winning lift in the 265-pound weight class was 689 pounds.
Aug. 31: With lots of top five finishes, Super Stock race car driver Shane Brick of Aberdeen won the track championship at Brown County Speedway in Aberdeen without winning a feature race during the season.
Sept. 1: The University of Oklahoma men's and women's cross country teams open their seasons with 30 percent of the Sooners top 10 runners from South Dakota: Hilary Krein of Eureka and Jessica Engel and Bill Kogel of Sioux Falls Roosevelt.
Sept. 1: Michael Varilek of Geddes and Thomas Jones of Viborg captured the reserve world championship title in ranch cattle sorting at the Adequan Select American Quarter Horse Association World Championship Show in Amarillo, Texas.
Sept. 1: Sioux Falls O'Gorman senior Michael Reichelt tied for second in the 231-pound weight class at the Junior World Powerlifting Championships in Szczyrk, Poland.
Sept. 8: Two Minnesota bowlers who forged a marriage certificate to enter a couples' tournament in March in Aberdeen are banned from South Dakota bowling tournaments for a year. They had won the tourney, but had to return the $326 in prize money, write a letter of apology to the bowling alley, pay a $270 fine each and spend a year on probation as well as the year-long ban.
Sept. 14: Former Rapid City Post 22 MVP and Los Angeles second baseman Mark Ellis was honored as American Legion baseball's Graduate of the Year at Dodger Stadium.
Sept. 15: Lorin Johnson of Miller had one of the best 90 minutes of his life Saturday at Dakota State Fair Speedway in Huron. The veteran auto racer won the $3,000 Super Stock feature championship at the WISSOTA 100 and a drawing for $10,000 several minutes before his race.
Sept. 15: In SDSU's home football opener, quarterback Austin Sumner, center Will Castle and punter/place kicker Ethan Sawyer were starters while Ryan Ode was the back-up right tackle Chase Douglas the backup nose tackle. All are from Brandon. Last year, Dale Moss of Brandon was a standout wide receiver for the Jacks.
Sept. 15: Sept. 17: For two weeks in a row, SDSU football has had national players of the week: sophomore running back Zach Zenner last week and freshman linebacker T.J. Lally this week.
Sept. 28: The Potter County football team played in its fourth homecoming game in a row, going 3-1 over the stretch.
Sept. 28: Douglas defeated Rapid City Stevens for its first-ever football win over the Raiders.
Sept. 29: Football official Scott Hoeke of Milbank worked three games in 24 hours: a night high school doubleheader in Aberdeen Sept. 28 followed by an afternoon college game in Bemidji, Minn.
Sept. 29: The 121-year-old Mitchell Corn Palace (it has been rebuilt two times since 1892) hosted its first ever bull-riding competition.
Sept. 29: There were 15 touchdowns and 11 one- or two-point conversions in Timber Lake's 58-50 win over Bison.
Oct. 3: The Aberdeen Christian boys' cross country team finished third in the team standings at the Lake Region Conference meet despite having 40 percent of the all-conference members. The Knights placed four members among the top 10, but champion Ipswich had runners place first, fourth and ninth to score 14 points and runnerup Warner had runners place scond, fifth and eighth to score 15 points. Meanwhile Christian had runners who were third, sixth, seventh and tenth, and finished with 16 points.
Oct. 5: Terry Dosch of Aberdeen Roncalli became the 14th high school football coach in South Dakota history to win 200 career games.
Oct. 6: Laurie Boynton Baily is inducted into the South Dakota Amateur Softball Hall of Fame to complete the first mother-daughter duo ever to be inducted. Her mom, Nancy Boyton of Bath, was inducted in 1990.
Oct. 6: All but one Warner varsity volleyball player marched in the high school band in the NSU Gypsy Day parade in Aberdeen in the morning, and then later played in the Chester Classic. Some Northwestern players did the same as did their assistant coach Doug Duncan, also the Northwestern band director.
Oct. 10: Aberdeen senior basketball standout Dominic King was elected lord of the Roncalli homecoming ceremonies. Five of the six children of Rory and Susan King were either homecoming lord or lady at Roncalli.
Oct. 10: Alex Marsh finished sixth in the Region 4B Cross Country Meet to help Ipswich win the boys' team title. Two days later, he rushed for 204 yards and four TDs and had eight tackles in Ipswich/Edmunds Central's 64-40 football win over Northwestern. All the points, 15 TDs and seven conversions, in that football game were scored on running plays despite that the two teams combined for more than 200 yards passing.
Oct. 10: Dirt-track auto racer Chad Becker of Aberdeen won the WISSOTA Late Model national title.
Oct. 13: In a nine-man football win, Daniel Chapman of Bison threw for 424 yards and eight TDs.
Oct. 13: Even though the teams combined for more than 200 yards passing, all 15 TDs and seven conversions were scored on runs in Ipswich/Edmunds Central's 64-40 win over Northwestern.
Oct. 18: Rapid City Christian won its last four games of the season after an 0-4 start to secure its first-ever football playoff berth.
Oct. 18: After losing all its football games in 2010 and 2011 and starting the 2012 season 1-4, Douglas rallied to win its last four games to qualify for the Class 11AA playoffs.
Oct. 18: The Sioux Falls Christian football team snapped a 25-game losing streak with a win over Sioux Valley.
Oct. 19: SDSU volleyball seniors Kelly Herrmann (1,000 digs) and Kaitlin Klingemann (1,000 kills) reached milestones to lead the Jacks to a 3-1 win over Western Illinois, including a 35-33 battle in the fourth set.
Oct. 20: With 37 seconds left, the NSU football team went on a six-play, 64-yard drive that ended on a 34-yard TD pass from Jared Jacobson to Mark Hanley to tie the game. With no time left, Felipe Alfaia kicked the game-winning PAT to give NSU a 28-27 win over St. Cloud - the Wolves first win over the Huskies in 65 years.
Oct. 20: In probably the shortest road college football road trip in the nation in Sioux Falls, the USF football team went six blocks south to the Augustana field where the Cougars defeated the Vikings 32-31 in double overtime in front of a Kirkeby-Over Stadium record 7,120 fans for the first time ever in a 19-game series that started in 1922. In the second OT, USF blocked the Augie PAT and then Braden Wieking provided the game-winning PAT.
Oct. 20: McLaughlin sophomore Jeremiah McCauley lost his shoe shortly after the gun went off in the boys' 5,000-meter State B cross country championship. He grabbed and ran most of the Huron course with one shoe on and holding the other shoe to finish 110th.
Oct. 21: Rapid City Stevens junior Tamara Gorman finished third in the World Triathlon Junior Championships in New Zealand, just six seconds behind the winner.
Oct. 22: Washington High fast pitch pitcher Katie Johnson is featured in Faces in the Crowd section of Sports Illustrated.
Oct. 27: Rapid City native Shane Van Boening won his second U.S. Open title at the 37th Annual U.S. Open 9-Ball Championships in Virginia Beach, Va. He won the 2007 title as well.
Oct. 28: SDSU athletic teams did their part to make the 100th Hobo Day weekend successful: women's soccer defeated Nebraska-Omaha 6-1; football defeated Youngstown State 41-28; volleyball defeated Fort Wayne 3-2 (25-20, 22-25, 26-24, 26-28 and 15-11); men's cross country won the Summit League championships; and women's basketball defeated Minnesota-Crookston 86-43 in an exhibition.
Oct. 29: Warner won its quarterfinal football game by ending it on the mercy rule on the final play of a first half that lasted 100 minutes.
Nov. 3: The SDSU football team drove 94 yards in the final three minutes, ending with a 5-yard touchdown pass from Austin Sumner to Trevor Tiefenthaler with seven seconds to give the Jacks a 16-12 win over Southern Illinois. It was career win No. 100 for SDSU coach John Stiegelmeier.
Nov. 3: Oklahoma defeated Iowa State 35-20 in college football. Sioux Falls Washington graduates and brothers Derek Farniok (6-9, 319 for Sooners) and Tom Farniok (6-4, 290 for Cyclones) played as offensive linemen.
Nov. 3: Warner defeated Herreid-Selby Area in the football semifinals. Warner coach Tom Kulesa got his 100th career win in the quarterfinals and HSA coach Jeff Kosters got his 100th in the first round.
Nov. 5: SDSU senior men's basketball player Nate Wolters is featured in Sports Illustrated, touted as a possible first-round NBA draft pick.
Nov. 6: The Summit volleyball season started and ended with a loss to Warner in the Region 1B championship. In between, Summit won all of its 26 other matches.
Nov. 8: The Canistota football team won its third straight state title and its 36th game in a row. The Hawks lost 39 in a row from 1972-77.
Nov. 10: Timber Lake freshman Tatum Ward and her horse Scooter won the Junior Barrel Racing title at the 2012 Indian National Finals Rodeo World Championships in Las Vegas.
Nov. 10: At season's end, NSU senior football player Mason Thorstad had two game-winning blocked PATs.
Nov. 16: At 174 pounds in a Big Ten wrestling dual, No. 5 Logan Storley of Minnesota defeated No. 7 Robert Kokesh 3-1 in a battle of two former South Dakota high school champions. Storley (Webster) won six state prep titles and Kokesh (Wagner) three.
Nov. 17: The Warner volleyball team won the State B title with a 34-0 record, winning all 90 of its individual games on the season.
Nov. 17: Playing for the 105th time and the first in nine years, SDSU beat USD 31-8 in football.
Nov. 18: It was a weekend of upsets for the SDSU women in Brookings. The basketball team defeated No. 15 Nebraska and the equestrian team rode to upsets over No. 3 Georgia and No. 9 New Mexico State.
Nov. 19: Aberdeen bowler Cliff Kuckelburg rolled back-to-back 300s at his home lanes of the Village Bowl as part of a four-game 1,053 series (220-233-300-300). He ended with 28 strikes in a row.
Nov. 26: Tom Prendergast, 87, of Sisseton retired from his 62-year high school coaching career.
Dec. 1: NDSU defeated SDSU 28-3 in the second round of the FCS playoffs. It was the 100th football meeting between the schools, but the first one in the playoffs.
Dec. 2: Two South Dakotans won titles at the 2012 Winter Airgun Championships in Colorado Springs, Colo. Former Olympian Brian Beaman of Selby won men's 10-meter air pistol and Dempster Christianson of Sioux Falls won men's air rifle.
Dec. 11: Four Watertown graduates and two sets of brothers coached against each other in boys' basketball games in Aberdeen. Varsity coach Brian Norberg (1995 WHS grad) and his Arrows won 70-53 over Aberdeen Central, coached by Brent Norberg (1991 WHS grad). In the junior varsity game, coach Matti Kranz and his Arrows won 47-43 over Aberdeen Central, coached by Mitch Kranz.
Dec. 11: The Ipswich boys' basketball team scored 17 points in each of the four quarters in its 68-63 win over Eureka-Bowdle.
Dec. 15: The South Dakota saddle bronc horse Chuckulator dominated the 2011-12 pro rodeo season. The 8-year-old bay stallion bred by Sutton Rodeos of Onida was voted the top saddle bronc horse at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. On Oct. 23, the horse was named the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association Saddle Bronc Horse of the Year. It marked the first time in eight years that a saddle bronc horse has won both honors in the same year and just the seventh time in the 54-year history of the NFR.
Dec. 16: With 8.9 seconds left in the second overtime SDSU senior captain Tony Fiegen of Madison made two free throws to give the Jackrabbit men a 68-67 win over Montana. Five of the Jacks' first 12 games were decided by last-second shots, including four by three-pointers. The Jacks won three of them. On Nov. 28, Chad White - from Madison like Fiegen - made a three-pointer at the buzzer to give the SDSU men's basketball team a 71-70 win against North Dakota. On Nov. 17, White made a three-pointer with two seconds left to give SDSU a 78-77 win against Marshall.
Dec. 20: Manato junior bowler Dale Boynton Jr. of Aberdeen bowled an average of 215 for nine games, including a 300, to finish second at the Glen Carlson Invitational in Las Vegas in a field of 250 bowlers from colleges across the country.
Dec. 20: Braxton Carlson's game-winner as time expired gave the Brookings boys' basketball team its second win over a top-three opponent in three days as the Bobcats downed then third-ranked Pierre 64-62. The Bobcats outscored host Pierre 21-10 in the fourth quarter. On Dec. 18 in Brookings, Tyler Nagy drained a three-pointer from 25 feet out with 3.2 seconds remaining to give the Bobcats a 42-39 win over then second-ranked Brandon Valley 42-39. Nagy, who finished with 18 including a three-pointer to beat the first-half buzzer, scored with 2:08 left to tie the game at 39. Brookings held the Lynx scoreless for the final 6½ minutes of the game.
Dec. 21: The women's basketball teams from Presentation College and Knox College of Galesburg, Ill., combined for 97 rebounds, 165 field goal attempts and 27 made three-pointers out of 73 attempts. PC did not attempt a free throw in its 106-68 loss.
Dec. 21: In its first three games of the season, the Elk Point-Jefferson boys' basketball team scored 44 points.
Dec. 22: The South Dakota State men's basketball team stunned No. 16 New Mexico 70-65 Saturday in front of 15,278 fans inside The Pit in Albuquerque, N.M. The Lobos dropped to 12-1. Adding to the storyline was that it was SDSU's first win over a ranked Division I opponent and the Jackrabbits had to take a 1,220-mile bus ride from their last game Wednesday in Nashville, Tenn., to New Mexico because weather problems canceled their flights on Thursday. They didn't arrive until Friday evening for the 1:30 p.m. Saturday game. Nate Wolters led the Jackrabbits with 28 points, five rebounds and seven assists. Chad White added 13 points, including four clutch free throws late in the game.
Dec. 23: The Pierre varsity girls' hockey team Oahe defeated Aberdeen 5-1 for the second day in a row. Aberdeen goalie Hailey Huff had the same stats in both games, facing 28 shots and making 23 saves.
Dec. 27: A North Dakota boys' basketball player, Jake Hagler of North Star (Cando, N.D.), scored his 2,000th career point in South Dakota during the NSU Classic in Aberdeen.
Dec. 28: The Elk Point-Jefferson boys' basketball team averaged 44 points a game in its first five contests, scoring 44, 44, 44, 41 and 47.