March 22: Aberdeen native Gena Jorgenson made history for her Nebraska swimming and diving team. The junior long-distance specialist became the Cornhuskers’ first swimmer to be a two-time, first-team All-American since Elvira Fischer in 2001. Jorgenson finished sixth in the 1,650 freestyle at the 2025 NCAA Championships. That is the best showing by a Husker swimmer at the NCAA Championships since Fischer finished fifth in the 200 breaststroke in 2001. Jorgenson holds six individual school records and is part of one relay school record.
April 1: Former NSU and University of Minnesota standout Parker Fox has been developing and building a media career for himself during his time in Minneapolis. He added to his resume by sitting in for three hours to host Dan Barreiro’s Bumper To Bumper radio show on KFAN 100.3 FM in the Twin Cities. One of his guests included former USD women’s basketball coach Dawn Piltzuweit, now head coach of the Gophers.
April 2: The University of Minnesota won the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament by beating Belmont of Nashville (TN) 75-63. The Gophers were led by tourney MVP Tori McKinney and fellow all-tourney teammate Amaya Battle. The Gophers went 25-11 under second-year coach Dawn Plitzuweit, the first time the Minnesota program has won 25 games since the 2004-05 season. Minnesota finished second in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament last year, so the Gophers are 9-1 in the post-season under former USD coach Plitzuweit.
April 3: Stanley County Schools held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new track and field and football complex. The Buffaloes hope to be in their new home when the football season opens this fall. The Buffaloes renovated their basketball court last year.
April 3: SDSU’s Brooklyn Meyer was named a WBCA Coaches’ All-America honorable mention honoree Thursday. Meyer, a junior, finished the 2024-25 season averaging 17.0 points and 5.9 rebounds per game for the 30-4 Jackrabbits. Meyer ranked seventh in the country in individual field goal percentage at 62.7 percent. Meyer is the first Jackrabbit to earn All-America recognition since Myah Selland was a WBCA honorable mention in the 2020-21 season.
April 3: Roslyn native Logan “Storm” Storley defeated Joseph Luciano of Australia by unanimous decision in his first-round welterweight fight in the PFL World Tournament. He now fights Masayuki Kikuiri (11-2-1) of Japan in the June 12 semifinals. Storley won six prep state wrestling titles at Webster and was an All-American at Minnesota. He is 17-3 as a pro mixed martial arts fighter and is a former Bellator world champion.
April 4: Texas fell 74-57 to defending national champion South Carolina in the women’s Final Four. One of Texas’ starters was junior Mwenentanda Ndjakalenga, a Sioux Falls Washington graduate. She became a late-season starter, starting 15 games for the 35-4 Longhorns, who defeated SDSU 103-57 earlier this season.
April 5: SDSU dedicated its renovated softball facility, Jerald T. Moriarty Field, before a game against rival USD in Brookings. Moriarty was a 1961 SDSU graduate. SDSU raised $2.4 million to install synthetic turf on both its softball and baseball facilities. USD (21-14) beat the Jacks (18-18) 9-5 as Tatum Villotta become the 10th Coyote in school history with 200 career hits. USD, which trails in the all-time series 93-67, also got a two-run homer from Clara Edwards, who was the game’s winning pitcher as well. The turf installation at the Jackrabbit softball facility was made possible through a lead gift from Kevin (son of the late Jerald), Cynthia and Michele Morarity, along with significant gifts from GeoTek Engineering and DeBoer Construction. SDSU has spent about $160 million to upgrade its athletic facilities in the last 17 years.
April 8: One unidentified person came one first-round women’s NCAA Tournament game away from perfection in the CBS Sports Bracket Challenge. They predicted 66 of the 67 games correctly. Their one miss occurred when 10th-seeded South Dakota State defeated No. 7 Oklahoma State 74-68. Coming that close to a perfect bracket is nearly impossible. The NCAA computed the chances of getting every game correct at one in 9.2 quintillion. It didn’t compute the chances of finishing with just one loss.
April 9: It was a big day for Pierre graduate and NDSU All-American Grey Zabel. That morning, he was named the best center available in the upcoming NFL draft by the highly-regarded “The Beast” publication. Dane Brugler breaks down detailed scouting reports what the top 400 draft prospects in the nation, including ranking each position including 70 centers.
Zabel, born March 30, 2002, was a two-way starter, All-State captain at Pierre who helped the Governors go 31-5 and win three straight state championships. He also played baseball and basketball. His parents, Mark (Selby) and Tanna (Negaard, Harding County) were athletes at Northern State.
Later in the day, the 2025 national champion NDSU team was honored at the White House. President Donald Trump asked the team who their best player was, and the Bison offered up their All-American Zabel. That led Zabel to getting some special attention from the president. Zabel, who can and has played every position on the offensive line well, allowed only one sack and had only two penalties his senior year. Brugler wrote this about Zabel in “The Beast”: “Whether out in space or in confined areas, Zabel shines as a run blocker with his athletic range and grip strength to connect, strain and seal lanes. In pass protection, he can be walked back and surrender depth versus power, but he mirrors well and stays balanced through contact as he refits his hands to grind bull rushes to a halt.”
April 9: One of the greatest basketball players in South Dakota history was inducted into the University of Colorado Hall of Fame. Yankton native Lisa Van Goor was a high school All-American who led Yankton to three straight state titles. Van Goor starred for the Lady Buffs from 1980-1985. Despite missing a year and 15 games due to a season-ending stress fracture, Van Goor left Colorado as its all-time leader in points (2,067), rebounds (1,127) and blocked shots (281) in 115 career games as a four-year starter. She remains as the only women’s or men’s basketball player in Colorado history to record more than 2,000 career points and 1,000 or more career rebounds. One of Van Goor’s coaches was fellow Colorado and South Dakota Sports Hall of Famer Russell “Sox” Walseth Jr., who was born April 6, 1926, in Aberdeen and grew up in Pierre.
April 10: The Kansas City Royals defeated the Minnesota Twins 3-2. Making the biggest headlines from the game rather than the players was home plate umpire Mark Ripperger. He was credited with calling a perfect game, according to Umpire Scorecards. Umpire Scorecards compile MLB’s advanced pitch-tracking data to rate how accurate an umpire was during a given game. The system has been in place for five years, and Ripperger is only the second ump to ever achieve perfection. Ripperger made calls for 136 pitches, and each of his calls was accurate according to Umpire Scorecards metrics. Former MLB umpire Pat Hoberg is credited with the only other perfect game Umpire Scorecards has recorded. Hoberg accomplished that feat in Game 2 of the 2023 World Series. Ripperger’s grandparents were from the Webster-Bristol area and he has relatives in Aberdeen.
April 11: Led by a Jess Bellows homer, the SDSU baseball team scored five times in the third inning and Dylan Driessen pitched 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief as the Jackrabbits defeated Omaha 7-5 at Erv Huether Field in Brookings. Ceremonies were held prior to the game to dedicate the new artificial turf playing surface at the Jacks’ home field.
April 12: Pierre native and Ohio State quarterback Lincoln Kienholz had a solid spring game as he went 12 for 18 for 158 yards and two touchdowns. Kienholz and Julian Sayin have been competing for the starting job. Kienholz and the Buckeyes are the defending national champions.
April 15: The second annual MarketBeat Open will return to Sioux Falls Oct. 19-26. The Association of Tennis Professionals Tour event has been upgraded to an ATP 100 tourney, meaning the winner will earn more ranking points. The event will feature 32 of the top upcoming singles players in the world as well as 16 doubles teams. The 2025 total prize money for the MarketBeat Open will double to more than $150,000. Borna Gojo of Croatia won the 2024 singles title in Sioux Falls and the doubles title was won by Canadians Liam Draxl and Cleeve Harper.

April 17: A well-known Madison man is staying on at Dakota State University. Bud Postma had been serving as interim athletic director for the past year after Faith/NSU graduate Jeff Dittman retired. Now, Postma will become the official AD for the Trojans. In 2018, Postma retired as the athletic director and assistant principal at Madison High School. He started teaching and coaching at Madison in 1986.
April 18: A Rapid City native and a billiards world champion/legend cleaned up at the prestigious Iowa Shootout in Des Moines. Shane Van Boening not only won the 8-Ball championship, but also paired with Savannah Easton of Las Vegas to win the mixed pairs championship.
April 19: Three-time All-American senior Danielle Sievers of Gary, SD, helped the Oklahoma win its third gymnastics national championship in her four years with the Sooners.
April 22: The Gayville-Volin Raiders won their first boys’ state track meet championship in 1975. Fifty years later, the school hosted the Tri-State Invitational meet in Gayville and celebrated that 1975 championship. One of the key members of the 1975 squad is long-time Gayville-Volin educator and coach Larry Buffington, who was a multi-sport standout at NSU.
April 22: Augustana University is starting a $2.9 million project to renovate the on-campus Elmen Center, sparked by a $2 million gift from the Bob & Rita Elmen and James & Eloise Elmen Family Foundations. Built in 1989, the 81,000 square foot Elmen Center has served Vikings’ track, swimming, basketball, volleyball and wrestling as well as coach and administrative offices. In recent years, the Vikings have been hosting home games at the Sanford Pentagon due to a lack of chairback and premium seating.
April 24: It was a big month for Pierre graduate and NDSU All-American Grey Zabel. The Seattle Seahawks drafted him in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft with the 18th overall pick. He joins former NDSU standouts Carson Wentz (2016) and Trey Lance (2021) as the school’s only other first-round draft picks. Wentz’s dad Doug played football at NSU and Zabel’s parents were NSU graduates as well. Mark (Selby) and Tanna (Negaard, Harding County) Zabel also were athletes at Northern State.

April 25: The 60th running of the Watoma Relays in Watertown were cancelled for a third-straight year. Work is on-going for the second phase of upgrading the athletic facility at Allen Mitchell Field in Watertown. The meet was cancelled only three times from 1965 to 2017. It has now been canceled five times since 2017.
April 25: Augustana hosted the National Collegiate Acrobatics & Tumbling Association national championships at its on-campus Elmen Center in Sioux Falls. The Augie acrobatics and tumbling team advanced to the Final Four where it fell to No. 1 Baylor. Baylor went on to win the national title the next day by defeating the No. 2 Oregon Ducks in the finals. Hayti native, Hamlin graduate and Augustana junior McKenna Trowbridge made the All-American team.
April 26: SDSU won a race at the prestigious Drake Relays. SDSU junior and distance medley relay anchor Cody Larson of Warner teamed up with Brandon Kampsen (Sauk Centre, MN), James Pierce (Lead) and Sam Castle (SF O’Gorman) to not only win the race, but also to smash a 50-year-old school record. The team ran a full 10 seconds faster than the record, finishing at 9:37.05, the highlight of which was the final 200-meter stretch where Larson bested powerhouse Iowa State University and rival University of South Dakota to take home the gold. In 1973, the SDSU foursome of Terry Stewart, Rob Wahlstrom, Scott Underwood and Garry Bentley set the SDSU distance medley relay record in 9:47.4.
April 26: Emmit Bohle has been invited to the Chicago Bears rookie camp. Bohle, a 2018 Selby Area High School graduate, is a 6-foot-6, 310-pound offensive lineman from Arizona State, where he finished up a seven-year college football career. Bohle began at NSU where he became an all-conference offensive lineman.
April 26: Chamberlain graduate and University of Nebraska all-Big Ten nose tackle Nash Hutmacher has signed with the Baltimore Ravens as a free agent. He also wrestled for the Cornhuskers, and was one of South Dakota’s greatest high school wrestlers in history.
April 27: The Augustana women’s tennis team won its 14th straight Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference championship under coach Marc Kurtz.
April 29: One of South Dakota’s most popular, well-known and respected educators and coaches has died. Robert “Bob” Billotto, 73, of Eureka was born July 6, 1951, on Staten Island (NY). He was raised in Cherry Hill (NJ), but spent his lifetime coaching, teaching and positively influencing thousands in South Dakota.

Thursday, May 1: The Warner boys, in their first year as a golf program, defeated Faulkton on the second playoff hole to win the Lake Region Conference championship at Rolling Hills Golf Course. The Monarchs team consists of Hayden Liebl, Blake Bjorgaard, Michael Bjorgaard, and Teigan McKown.

Email us at dave@sdsportscene.com if you think we missed something or if you have an event you would like us to consider for this feature.