By the South Dakota Sportswriters Association

When Tanner Berg showed up at Northern State as freshman, he thought a hammer was something used to pound nails.

Now, five years later, the Watertown native has become an NCAA Division II national champion in the hammer throw and is going to make a serious run at qualifying for the 2024 Olympic Games in the event.

Berg has been named this year’s College Male Athlete of the Year by the South Dakota Sportswriters Association.

“It’s something I never would have thought happening, especially in the hammer,” Berg said of his national title, “because when I started track, I didn’t even know what it was.”

While Berg had instant success in the event – his first throw in a competitive meet set a school record – things were far from smooth when he started to learn to throw the hammer under the guidance of Northern throws coach Mariah Mougey.

“I fell down a lot to start. There was plenty of days, that I said to Coach Mariah, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore. This isn’t what I signed up for.’ I didn’t want to fall down. I didn’t want to feel like a dummy every day in practice,” Berg said. “She helped me through it. She was almost a therapist my freshman year.”

Berg, kept building upon his school record through the years and capped off his collegiate career by throwing the hammer 69.61 meters (228-feet 4-inches) to win the national championship.

Berg is currently a volunteer assistant coach and working out at Kansas State in preparation for the US Olympic Trials.

He said he planned to continue throwing no matter how he finished at nationals.

“Whatever the season ended up being, whether I won a national championship or not, I still would have wanted to throw,” Berg said. “I feel like I have a lot more I could do.”

He said winning the College Male Athlete of the Year award is an honor.

“It means a lot. I know South Dakota isn’t the biggest state, but we did certainly have a lot of college athletes, and some pretty good ones at that,” Berg said. “I definitely couldn’t have done it without my wife, my family, my coaches. They all pushed me to the best me I could be.”

Here is a look at the other honorees, as chosen by members of the SDSWA:

Celebrity

Becky Hammon, Las Vegas Aces

For the fourth time in her professional career, Rapid City native Becky Hammon has been recognized as South Dakota’s “Sports Celebrity of the Year.”

Hammon was previously recognized as the Sports Celebrity of the Year in 2005, 2014 and 2015.

She was also named the state’s Independent Female Athlete of the Year in 1996 and 1999.

After becoming the first female acting head coach in the NBA, Hammon accepted a job as the head coach of the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, signing the largest WNBA head coach contract in league history.

The Rapid City native and Rapid City Stevens graduate guided the Aces to the best record in the WNBA this season, a 26-10 mark, and went on the win the WNBA Championship in September, going 8-2 in the postseason.

For her efforts, Hammon was named WNBA Coach of the Year, while Aces forward A’ja Wilson was named MVP.

Independent Male Athlete

Shane Van Boening, Rapid City

The Rapid City native rose through the ranks of professional pool and became the No. 1 ranked player in the world by the World Pool-Billiard Association.

The 39-year-old has won over 100 titles in his career, and in April won the 2022 WPA World Nine-ball Championship in England.

Independent Female Athlete

Reese Jansa, Sioux Falls

In early June, Jansa came back from five shots down to win the Class AA individual state championship by three strokes. She owns the South Dakota state tournament record of minus-8 last year, but even falling short of that, she finished the season at the top. Her efforts helped the Tigers win a Class AA girls golf team championship.

Individually, it was Jansa’s second-straight Class AA state title. She continued her success in the amateur ranks. She became the first woman to win both the SDGA Girls Junior Championship and the SDGA Women’s Amateur in the same year and was second at the state match-play tournament.

Jansa competes at the University of Toledo, where she had the four-best finish on the team with a plus-6 finish in her freshman fall season.

Independent Team

Rapid City Rush Hockey

Under first-year head coach Scott Burt, the Rapid City Rush snapped a seven-year playoff drought by reaching the Kelly Cup Playoffs this spring. They won their first-round, best-of-seven series, becoming one of the final eight teams remaining before falling in six games in the Mountain Division Finals series.

The Rush, who finished second in the Mountain Division, set a franchise record for single-season ECHL points with 83, accumulating a record of 36-25-11.

College Men’s Coach

Ryan Thompson, Black Hills State

Black Hills State men’s basketball head coach Ryan Thompson and his team burst onto the scene during the 2021-22 season.

The Yellow Jackets finished last year’s campaign 26-8 overall and 17-4 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play. Under Thompson’s direction the team claimed a regular season RMAC championship, first-ever RMAC Tournament title, first-ever NCAA DII Tournament bid, South Central Regional Championship and Final Four appearance.

BHSU entered the holiday break 11-0 overall, 5-0 in conference play and ranked 4th in the D2SIDA Media Poll. Thompson is currently in his fifth season as the Yellow Jacket’s head coach.

College Men’s Team

South Dakota State Basketball

It was a historic season for the South Dakota State men’s basketball team.

Entering the season looking for their first NCAA tournament berth under coach Eric Henderson, the Jackrabbits went out and put together the best regular season ever by a Summit League basketball team.

SDSU went a perfect 18-0 in conference play, running the table from front to back. Home or away, in front of fierce rivalry crowds or sparse and indifferent road gyms, the Jacks just kept winning and winning from November to March.

There were quality non-conference wins against the likes of Bradley, Nevada, George Mason and Washington State, and then league play started and the Jacks started rolling. Eighteen straight behind the nation’s most efficient and best 3-point shooting offense, the Jacks didn’t just win – they won in style, playing an exciting and fast-paced style of basketball that drew national attention. Point guard Baylor Scheierman, forward Doug Wilson and freshman Zeke Mayo led the way, but it was a total team effort all year long.

After competing the 18-0 regular season they then won three more in the conference tournament to run their winning streak to 21 straight before the Jacks fell in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Providence.

College Women’s Athlete

Elizabeth Juhnke, South Dakota

Elizabeth Juhnke continued to lead the way for South Dakota volleyball in 2022, earning a second straight honorable mention selection to the American Volleyball Coaches Association All-America team.

Juhnke, a three-time Summit League Tournament MVP, led the nation in kills (677), points (757.5) and total attacks (1,673). She also led the Summit League in kills per set (5.33) and attacks per set (13.17).

With Juhnke leading the way, USD (29-4) made its third straight NCAA Tournament appearance, where USD dropped a 5-set decision to Houston after Juhnke was injured in the fourth set. The fourth-year senior is the first Coyote with over 2,000 kills (2,004).

College Women’s Coach

Lindsay Wilber, Dakota Wesleyan

Wilber, in her ninth season as DWU’s volleyball coach, guided the Tigers to the NAIA national quarterfinals for the first time in program history, finishing with a 25-8 record, including three wins in NAIA tournament play.

As has been the case throughout Wilber’s tenure, DWU continued to show improvement year-over-year, building on DWU’s first national tournament appearance in 31 years from 2021. The 2022 campaign included a DWU-best 11-5 regular-season record in the Great Plains Athletic Conference, which is the NAIA’s top volleyball league and DWU was 14-3 against non-league opponents. The season also included eight wins over ranked opponents, including five against teams ranked in the top-10 at the time, and the Tigers finished the season ranked No. 6 in the country, which is a new DWU record.

Junior middle blocker Ady Dwight and senior setter Madeline Else were NAIA All-American selections. Dwight is the only player in DWU history to be named an NAIA All-American in three consecutive seasons. Dwight and Else were all-conference selections, along with Hanna Reiff, Mackenzie Miller, Mariah Gloe and Tya Weideman. Fourteen of the Tigers’ 18 varsity players are South Dakota natives.

It continues an impressive climb for Wilber and the DWU volleyball program, which has had 10 winning seasons since its inception in 1974, with six of them coming in Wilber's tenure. Her 152 coaching wins makes her the winningest coach in DWU volleyball history.

College Women’s Team

South Dakota Basketball

The Dawn Plitzuweit era of South Dakota women’s basketball ended with a historic splash.

The USD women started the season just 2-4 thanks to a challenging early schedule. From there the Coyotes exploded for 27 wins in 28 games, including a 17-1 record in Summit League play, a Summit League Tournament title and the program’s first-ever berth in the NCAA Sweet 16.

The Coyotes’ NCAA tournament run opened with a 14-point win over Mississippi, followed by a 14-point win over Baylor on its home floor. From there, the Coyotes went to Wichita, Kansas, where Michigan escaped the Coyotes 52-49.

From there, the Coyotes went their separate ways. Plitzuweit was hired as the head coach at West Virginia, taking starter Kyah Watson with her. Maddie Krull, the other underclassman starting for USD, left for the University of Nebraska. Hannah Sjerven, Chloe Lamb and Liv Korngable each graduated from USD.

Prep Boys’ Athlete

Simeon Birnbaum, Rapid City Stevens

The Rapid City Stevens senior recorded one of the best years of athletic performance in state history in 2022. Birnbaum’s performance led him to continue his track and cross country careers at the University of Oregon next fall.

On the track, Birnbaum set state records in the mile run, 3,200-meter run and record in the 800.

He also became the 17th high schooler and third junior to break four minutes in the mile at 3:59.51 at the Brooks PR Invitational in June.

This cross country season, Birnbaum claimed a second consecutive individual and team title for the Raiders at the Class AA State Cross Country Meet. He capped the season with a sixth-place finish (14:55.5) at the Nike Cross Nationals and a fourth-place finish (15:11.3) at the Champs Sports Cross Country National Finals.

Prep Boys’ Coach

Jake Terry, Elk Point-Jefferson

In the first season that Jake Terry led the Elk Point-Jefferson program, the Huskies went 0-7 and scored a total of 13 points.

Eight years later, it took the Huskies seven games to allow 14 points on the way to a dominant 12-0 season and the program’s first state title.

Terry’s squad capped the perfect season with a 21-14 victory over perennial power Winner, just over a year after Winner trounced the Huskies in the 2021 semifinals.

The season capped a building program that saw the Huskies score 117 points in four seasons.

This season they scored 105 points in the first two games and finished with 550 points scored.

Prep Boys’ Team

Wall Football

Wall capped off a perfect 12-0 season by winning the Class 9AA state championship, earning their first state title since 1994. The Eagles dominated opponents en route to the championship, beating other teams by an average of 46-7, which included five shutouts.

For their efforts, running back/defensive back Cedar Amiotte was named an All-American and headlined Wall All-State selections, which included quarterback Burk Blasius, wide receiver Rylan McDonnell, defensive lineman Norman Livermont, linebacker Blair Blasius and defensive back Brodi Sundall. Mason Heath was also an honorable mention.

What makes the Eagles’ state championship run special is how they overcame recent years of heartbreak, falling one game shy of the Dome the previous two years. Their trip to Vermillion marked their first state title game berth in 11 years.

Prep Girls’ Athlete

Bergen Reilly, O’Gorman

Bergen Reilly has been winning almost every major volleyball award available in South Dakota each of the last three years, yet built upon her already-historic career as a senior by adding another 440 kills (4.7 kills per set), 26 blocks, 338 digs (3.6 digs per set) and 60 aces (97.5% serve percentage while posting a .307 hitting percentage in her senior year.

A natural setter, and one of the best in the nation at the position, Reilly stepped into the outside hitter role for O’Gorman this season and once again thrived. She’s played all over the court in her career with the Knights, and has been among the best in the state in whatever role she’s in.

Reilly, who last year made her first-ever Team USA National Team during O’Gorman’s 2021 season, has played in two more national tournaments since. Early in the Knights’ schedule this year, she was the only minor to play for Team USA’s Senior National Team in Pan American Cup Final Six in the Dominican Republic. As she heads to Nebraska this upcoming year, she’ll graduate high school as the greatest volleyball player in South Dakota history.

Prep Girls’ Coach

Molly Mason, Viborg-Hurley Basketball

The Viborg-Hurley Cougars were “supposed” to be a year away.

They had a ton of talent, but most of that talent was juniors or younger. They had a 19-4 record, but they opened the state tournament with an Aberdeen Roncalli squad that had won Class A the year before and had been already crowned by many as the Class B champion.

Molly Mason and her Cougars didn’t care.

“Even though we’re the eighth seed, our strength of schedule has prepared us to play anybody,” Coach Mason said before the state tournament. “Those games against Dakota Valley, St. Thomas More and Parkston taught us a lot. They also gave us confidence.”

The Cougars lived up to their coach’s words. They rolled past Roncalli 69-58, then outlasted Corsica-Stickney 43-38 before beating DeSmet 58-53 in the championship.

Prep Girls’ Team

Pierre Wrestling

The Governors won the first-ever South Dakota girls wrestling state championship to cap off their 2021-22 season. Pierre secured the inaugural state title after scoring 146 team points.

The Govs sent 10 state qualifiers and of those, seven made it to the semifinals. Ciara McFarling took home the lone individual title for Pierre, winning the 285-pound division. Eight Govs received All- Eastern South Dakota Conference honors.

Pierre could very well repeat as state champs since all of its wrestlers returned for another season. And with more matches under their belts, the Govs will only get better and be the team to beat in 2022-23.