MITCHELL KERNELS
Mitchell Kernel softball team’s season opener is April 7th at Pierre. The home opener will be on April 9th against Aberdeen Central.
The Mitchell track and field teams return to competition on Friday, April 10th for the Huron Invite. The Corn Palace Relays will be held on Saturday, April 18th.
The Mitchell Kernel boys’ tennis team opens the season with a home dual against Huron on Thursday, April 9th at 1 p.m. Mitchell will host Rapid City Central for a dual on Friday, April 10th at noon.
DAKOTA WESLEYAN
The Dakota Wesleyan softball team, 26-11 overall, 9-1 in the GPAC and winners of eight straight, is off until April 8th when travel to Forest City, Iowa to play Waldorf. Game one will start at 2 p.m. The Tigers will then play two games at Doane on April 11th.
The DWU baseball team, 14-15 on the season and 5-7 in the GPAC, is off until Monday when they take on Briar Cliff for four games. The Tigers open the set of games in Sioux City on April 6th at 1 p.m. DWU will host the final two games of the series on April 7th. Game one is scheduled for a 1 p.m. start. The Tigers host Dordt for doubleheaders on April 10th and 11th.
Allison Meyerink of Dakota Wesleyan University is the GPAC/Hauff Mid-America Sports Women’s Golfer-of-the-Week. Meyerink, a sophomore from Mitchell, South Dakota, won her fourth meet of the season individually at the Bethel Spring Invitational in Kansas. She finished five strokes ahead of the next-highest golfer, recording a 77 in the first round of competition and an 81 in the second round.
The DWU women’s golf team is scheduled to play in the Augie Spring Invite Monday and Tuesday at Elmwood Golf Course in Sioux Falls. The DWU golf teams host the DWU Spring Invite on April 12th and 13th at Lakeview Golf Course.
DWU Track & Field will be back in action at the USD Early Bird meet starting on Friday.
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE
With inclement weather in the forecast for the remainder of the week, a number of adjustments are being made to South Dakota State’s baseball schedule. Tuesday’s home game against Briar Cliff was rescheduled to April 22 and will replace a previously scheduled contest against Dakota Wesleyan. The format and schedule for the Jackrabbits’ home Summit League series against Omaha, originally slated for Thursday through Saturday, has yet to be determined. No games will be played on Thursday or Friday, with the final determination of a series schedule to be made later in the week. The Jackrabbits are 9-19 overall and 4-5 in league play.
South Dakota State softball continues its Summit League schedule with an adjusted slate as the Jackrabbits head to Kansas City to take on the Roos. The series begins with a 3 p.m. doubleheader on Thursday, then wraps up with an 11 a.m. game on Friday. The series was originally set to be played in Brookings but was changed due to the anticipated weather conditions in the region. The Jacks now have one remaining home series this season with SDSU scheduled to host St. Thomas in Brookings from April 24-26. Following the series against Kansas City, SDSU will be at the midway point of its Summit League slate of games. The Jackrabbits are still scheduled to play at Omaha (April 17-19), versus St. Thomas and at North Dakota State (April 30-May 2). Following the series against Kansas City, SDSU will be at the midway point of its Summit League slate of games. The Jackrabbits are still scheduled to play at Omaha (April 17-19), versus St. Thomas and at North Dakota State (April 30-May 2).
South Dakota State senior Brooklyn Meyer has been named the 2026 Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year. The Becky Hammon Award, in its seventh season, recognizes the best mid-major player in the country. The award is named for Rapid City native and current Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon. Meyer, a Larchwood, Iowa native, averaged 22.6 points per game, the second-highest mark in program history and the highest in SDSU’s Division I era. She also set new program highs for points this season and field goal percentage. Meyer led the Jackrabbits to a fourth consecutive Summit League Tournament title in her senior campaign and was named Tournament MVP. Meyer ranks third in program history in career points (2,097), fifth in career rebounds (850), and is tied for second in career blocks (174). Her career field goal percentage of 60.9% shattered the previous program record of .572 set by Melissa Pater (1999-02). South Dakota State’s Brooklyn Meyer has accepted an invitation to participate in the Women’s College All-Star Game presented by Lilly, which will be played Saturday at Global Credit Union Arena in Phoenix. Meyer, selected by a panel of national media experts, is one of 20 athletes from across the country who will compete in the All-Star Game.
The South Dakota State wrestling team is leaving the Big 10 and will begin competition in the Pac-12 Conference starting with the 2026-27 school year. The Pac-12 Conference announced on Wednesday the addition of four new affiliate members in the sport of wrestling, beginning with the 2026-27 season and coinciding with the new Pac-12’s launch. The others joining the league in wrestling will be Air Force, Northern Colorado, and North Dakota State.The four will join Northern Illinois, which was previously announced as a Pac-12 Wrestling affiliate member in October, as new members of Pac-12 Wrestling next season. The Pac-12 will have nine teams competing in wrestling beginning with the 2026-27 campaign. The league’s total wrestling membership now meets the minimum of six members required for the sport to retain NCAA automatic qualification for its annual league champions.
SOUTH DAKOTA
South Dakota women’s basketball team fell to Illinois State 67-60 in the WNIT Fab Four in the Sanford Coyote Sports Center Wednesday night. South Dakota outscored Illinois State in the first and fourth quarters, but the Redbirds’ advantage in the middle two quarters were too much. Illinois State outscored the Coyotes by seven in each quarter. Mollie Joyce led the Coyotes in scoring with 16 points, joined in double figures by Angelina Robles with 14. South Dakota’s run to the Fab Four is the second-best finish in seven trips to the WNIT in program history. The 26 wins is one of nine 25-plus win seasons in program history and the 15-win improvement from last season is tied for the second-best turnaround in Division I.
South Dakota softball is off until next Tuesday when they travel to Omaha to play Creighton at 6 p.m.