Shane Jackson of Livermore, Calif., has signed to play baseball for Presentation College.
The 6-foot-3, 230-pound pitcher was a two-time letterwinner and team captain at Dougherty Valley High. He led his team to a 17-8 record his senior season and helped them qualify for the NCS postseason tournament.
As a junior, he helped his team to a 14-11 mark, also qualifying for the NCS playoffs.
Staff reports
Hansen resigns, accepts position at Northern Colorado
After five years on the bench for the Jackrabbits, South Dakota State assistant men's basketball coach Austin Hansen resigned his position at SDSU to accept an assistant coaching position at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colo.
"I appreciate the opportunity coach Nagy and South Dakota State gave me to be a part of this program for five years," Hansen said of his time at SDSU. "I'm very grateful to have coached a tremendous group of guys that have worked hard to achieve a very high level of success for SDSU basketball. The efforts of these guys have provided me with this new opportunity, and I couldn't be more thankful to them. I wish them nothing but the best for continued success."
A 2003 graduate of South Dakota State, Hansen joined the Jackrabbits as an assistant coach in 2008, after five years as an assistant at Minnesota State, Mankato. In his five years at SDSU, he helped turn the program into a perennial contender in The Summit League and helped lead the Jacks to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 2012 and 2013.
"I can't express enough how much I appreciate Austin and the job he did for us," head coach Scott Nagy said. "If you track the progression of our team since he came here, you can easily see how important he has been to our program. It's very difficult for me to let him go, but I know he wants to stretch his boundaries, so I wish him nothing but the best. He is a tremendous coach and has a great future."
SDSU plans to begin an immediate national search for Hansen's replacement.
Staff reports
Area athletes compete at NSIC meet
A trio of area athletes competed for the University of Sioux Falls at the recent Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference outdoor track and field meet in Sioux Falls.
Aberdeen Central graduate Blake Stevenson placed third in the 800-meter run with a time of 1-minute and :56.47 seconds. Stevenson entered the event with the 10th-fastest entered time. Stevenson was also a member of the 1,600-meter relay team that placed fourth with a time of 3:21.37.
Aberdeen Central graduate Leah Wensmann placed second in the 200-meter dash in :25.03 seconds. Wensmann was also a member of the 1,600-meter relay team that placed third with a time of 3:56.71. Rosholt graduate Conner Anderson was also a member of the third place relay team. Wensmann also finished sixth in the 400-meter dash at the meet.
Staff reports
Area athletes compete at Summit League
Eureka graduate Jeff Mettler won the 3,000-meter steeplechase for the second year in a row at the Summit League outdoor track and field meet in Muncie, Ind.
The University of South Dakota runner repeated as league champion in the men's steeplechase with a time of 9-minutes and :5.66 seconds. He was just under four seconds off his league record time of 9:01.85 that he set a year ago. Mettler also placed fourth in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 3-minutes and :56.33 seconds.
Aberdeen Central graduate and South Dakota State runner Courtney Neubert placed eighth in the 10,000-meter run with a time of 37:42.06, while she placed 11th in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 17:48.41.
USD and SDSU will be in action at the NCAA Preliminary Round in Austin, Texas, starting on May 23.
Staff reports
Huskers to host ACC Champions in ACC/
Big Ten Challenge
Nebraska will host defending ACC champion Miami at Pinnacle Bank Arena on Dec. 4, the second night of the two-day event between the conferences.
Start time and television information will be announced at a later date, as all 12 matchups will be on the ESPN family of networks. All 12 games will also be available via WatchESPN.
The Hurricanes went 29-7 last season, winning both the regular season and tournament titles for the first time in program history before falling to Marquette in the Sweet 16. Under National Coach of the Year Jim Larrañaga, the Hurricanes reached the Sweet 16 for the second time in NCAA history.
Miami is 2-4 all-time in ACC/Big Ten Challenge games, including a 67-59 win over Michigan State last season. Nebraska is 1-1 all-time in ACC/Big Ten Challenge matchups following a 79-63 win at Wake Forest last November in Winston-Salem, N.C.
The Dec. 4 matchup will be the first between the two programs since an 82-67 Husker win on Dec. 30, 2006. The Huskers have won the last three meetings in the series, including the only matchup in Lincoln, an 85-58 win on Dec. 18, 1970, which took place at the NU Coliseum. This season, the Huskers will open Pinnacle Bank Arena, a 15,147-seat facility located blocks from campus in the Haymarket District of Lincoln. The entire arena was pre-sold for the first time, with the announcement coming on May 3, that all season tickets for the upcoming season were accounted for.
Miami is the third NCAA Sweet 16 team already on the Huskers 2013-14 schedule as two of the Huskers' Big Ten single-play opponents in 2012-13, defending Big Ten champion Indiana and NCAA runner-up Michigan, will also play in Lincoln this season.
Staff reports
Quickly
Eureka native Hilary Krein of Oklahoma finished 19th in a field of 43 in the 1,500 meters in a personal best 4:23.73 (fifth best all-time in OU history) at the Virginia Invitational.
Waubay native Jon Wieger will have two soccer seasons to play for Dakota Wesleyan this fall. The Watertown graduate played his first two seasons at Jamestown College.
College Plus is a weekly feature on Tuesdays in the American News during the college sports season. If you have news tips or suggestions, email jpapendick@aberdeennews.com or call 605-622-2323.