Oct. 4: The 140th Black Hills Brawl football game between rivals South Dakota Mines and Black Hills State drew national attention on ESPN College GameDay. Mines drew on a pair of running backs to defeat the Yellow Jackets 27-13 to win the Homestake Trophy in a cold, driving rain in Spearfish. Hardrockers Ty Harris and Dawson Dunbar combined for 237 yards rushing and three TDs. Mines now leads the series 67-62-11.
Oct. 4: The Augustana football team (6-0) nipped its next-door neighbor and rival University of Sioux Falls 29-28 in the 13 th annual Key to the City game in Sioux Falls. USF dominated the first three quarters, leading 28-10 late in the third with a first and goal inside Augie’s 5-yard line. However, the Cougars didn’t score, and the Vikings outscored them 19-0 in the final quarter. Augie was led by Breylon Blount (two TD runs, including a 75-yarder), Jake Pecina (47- and 52-yard FGs) and Richard Lucero Jr., who threw two TD passes in the fourth quarter, including the last one with 1:18 left from 24 yards out to Isaiah Huber. The Vikings also got two fourth-quarter two-point conversions from Jacob Remmert from Lucero and a run from Sam Scholten (the game-winner).
Oct. 4: SDSU defeated host Youngstown (OH) State 35-30 to earn its 100 th Missouri Valley Football Conference win. The Jacks are 100-35 since joining the conference in 2008, and 24-1 since the start of the 2022 season. Julius Loughridge led the Jacks with four second-half touchdown runs.
Oct. 8: Northwestern senior Ella Boekelheide won her fifth straight Lake Region Conference cross country title in Ipswich.
Oct. 9: Barrel racer Lisa Lockhart, the winningest cowgirl in the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association, clinched her 19th National Finals Rodeo qualification tying the record. The South Dakotan from Oelrichs finished the 2025 season in the No. 6 position in the WPRA world standings with $169,467.02 in earnings from 66 rodeos. Texan Kassie Mowry is No. 1 in the world with $203,445.06 in winnings this season. Lockhart tied the most NFR qualifications record held by Charmayne James and Sherry Cervi. Lockhart had to rally to earn her 2025 entry in the National Finals Rodeo Dec. 4-13 in Las Vegas. Lockhart and Rosas Cantina CC won the 2025 Cheyenne (WY) Frontier Days rodeo at the end of July, catapulting Lockhart into the WPRA top 15. Lockhart, who will be 60 on Nov. 11, has earned almost $4 million in her career.
Oct. 10: Led by MVP A’ja Wilson, the Las Vegas Aces won their third WNBA championship in four years, winning 25 of their last 28 games. The Aces are coached by Rapid City native Becky Hammon. The Aces defeated the Phoenix Mercury, 4-0. The Mercury had a great season under second-year head coach Nate Tibbetts, a Sioux Falls Roosevelt and USD graduate.
Oct. 11: The NSU football team got one of its biggest wins in program history with a 34-31 win over No. 10 Minnesota-Duluth. The Wolves (4-2) made the most of turnovers. While NSU did not turn over the ball, Duluth (6-1) lost two fumbles and was intercepted by NSU’s Tasean Young Jr. to seal the win for the hosts and end a drive in the final minute of the game. Young also recovered a fumble and returned it 63 yards to end a Duluth drive and set up a NSU touchdown. NSU also got a fumble recovery from Andrew Ewald and 17 tackles from All-American Jake Adams.
Oct. 13: With the bases loaded, two outs in the ninth and his Los Angeles Dodgers leading Milwaukee 2-1, former SDSU standout Blake Treinen recorded a strikeout to give his team a win in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series. The right-hander earned a save for his work on the mound. A 11-year MLB veteran who is 37, Treinen is a former All-Star who has helped the Dodgers win two World Series (2020 and 2024).
Oct. 17: Groton defeated Baltic in football. Baltic now has lost 40 games in a row. Its last win was on Aug. 20, 2021, over Parker 22-6.
Oct. 18: Aberdeen native and former NSU standout Madelyn Bragg played her first basketball game for Colorado State in Sioux Falls against USD. It was an exhibition, so no stats were released. Colorado State veteran WBB coach Ryun Williams (2012-) played for USD and coached there as well as coaching at Wayne State.
Oct. 20: The Sanford Sports Academy of Sioux Falls introduced a non-contact 7-on-7 football league for boys in 2024. It has been wildly successful. Now there will be a league for girls, announced Kurtiss Riggs, the academy’s football specialist. The girls’ seasons for 10 and under, 12U and 14U will be for February through May 2026.
Oct. 20: The NSU football team (5-2) is receiving votes in the national NCAA DII coaches’ poll.
Oct. 23: Watertown outlasted the Aberdeen Central football team 33-27 in four overtimes. In the fourth OT, Watertown got a seven-yard touchdown run from Markus Pitkin to provide the winning points. Watertown sealed the win on a Cole Hansen interception. Watertown had a chance to win in regulation, but Jaxon Henley of Aberdeen Central blocked the Arrows’ field goal attempt. In the first two overtimes, Watertown’s Carson Schlaht (22 and 27 yards) and Aberdeen’s Joey Dallmann (24 and 22 yards) traded field goals. In the third overtime, the Golden Eagles’ Dallmann and the Arrows’ Kutler Swenson traded TDs.
Oct. 23 A football game between two of the state biggest high schools turned into a rare Class 11AAA shootout. Sioux Falls Lincoln defeated Harrisburg 56-49 as Patriots’ junior quarterback Brody Schafer threw for four touchdowns and ran for two more. The teams combined for 1,118 yards of offense (Harrisburg 602).
Oct. 23: In the first round of the Class 9AA football playoffs, Bon Homme defeated Gregory 48-28. It was the 200th career win for Bon Homme coach Tom Culver. Before taking over at Bon Homme in the fall of 2024, Culver spent 23 years as the Avon coach, guiding the Pirates to five state titles (2002, 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2013), and three state runner-up finishes (2003, 2009 and 2011). He also helped Wakonda/Gayville-Volin win a state title in 1995 as an assistant coach. His record is now 200-93 in 29 seasons as a head coach.
Oct. 24: Former Eureka multi-sport standout Elizabeth “Liz” Hoffman Nicholas was inducted into the USD Hall of Fame. She was one of the top swimmers in USD history, helping the Coyotes re-establish their program in the Division I era. She swam for USD from 2008-12, and was a three-time Summit League champion and four-time All-Summit League swimmer. She left USD with five school records, and her name remains prominent in the Coyote record book.
Oct. 25: Northwestern senior Ella Boekelheide won her third State B cross country title (2025, 2024 and 2021). She was the state runner-up in 2022 and 2023, and finished sixth as a seventh-grader in 2020. Ipswich nipped Northwestern for the team title, with the Tigers’ Isabella Galbraith and Jayla Stiles finishing third and fourth.
Oct. 25: One of ESPN College GameDay’s main segments focused on the upcoming SDSU vs. NDSU game. In all nine national shows of the 2025 season, South Dakota either has been talked about directly or indirectly: players/coaches from the state interviewed/mentioned; SD signs in the crowd; or games involving SD colleges were pointed out. It helps when you have coaches from the state such as head coaches of two of the nation’s biggest college football programs in Alabama (coach Kalen DeBoer) and Tennessee (coach Josh Heupel). But along with SDSU and USD games being mentioned, so has South Dakota teams such as the 140th annual Black Hills Brawl between South Dakota Mines and Black Hills State. Pierre native and Ohio State quarterback Lincoln Kienholz has been talked about as has former SDSU and now Iowa quarterback Mark Gronowski and former SDSU and now Washington coach Jimmy Rogers.
Oct. 25: In a matchup of unbeatens and No. 1 vs. No. 2, the NDSU football team (8-0) cruised past SDSU 38-7 to end the Jackrabbits’ 33-home winning streak and retain the rivals’ Dakota Marker trophy. NDSU quarterback Cole Payton rushed for four touchdowns and racked up 380 yards of total offense in front of a Dana J. Dykhouse record crowd of 19,477. The Bison lead the overall series 66-47-5.
Oct. 25: NSU’s Graham Borden broke up Moorhead’s two-point conversion in overtime to seal NSU’s 49-48 wild win over the Dragons. Coach Mike Schmidt and his Wolves (6-2) are enjoying one of NSU’s best seasons in several years. NSU trailed 42-31 in the final four minutes of regulation but would tie the game on a Daniel Britt nine-yard TD pass to Trey Birdsong, a two-point conversion run by Wyatt Block and a 23-yard field goal by Jeremy Caruso. Block and Caruso gave the Wolves the seven points they would need in OT for the win. Block ran for 192 yards while Cooper Logan led the NSU defense with 10 tackles.
Oct. 25: The Aberdeen Central volleyball team defeated Pierre. Golden Eagles standout Lauryn Burckhard registered her 1,000th career kill. Eight years ago on Oct. 23, 2017, Aberdeen Central standout Paiton Burckhard (Lauryn’s sister) registered her 1,000th career kill in a loss to Harrisburg.
Oct. 26: American Patrick Kypson won the second annual pro tennis tourney in Sioux Falls, earning $22,730 of the $160,000 prize money awarded during the 32-man tourney. The Durham (NC) native defeated Johannus Monday of Great Britain in a three-set thriller of a finale at the Marketbeat Open in
front of a full house at the Huether Family Match Pointe. In the first round, Monday defeated reigning NCAA champion Michael Zheng of Columbia University. Winning the doubles title and $7,960 was University of North Carolina teammates Rinky Hijikata and Mac Kiger over Juan Jose Bianchi of Venezuela and Andrew Fenty of Washington (DC).
Oct. 26: On national tight end’s day, South Dakota, SDSU and Timber Lake got a lot of national TV time. On Sunday Night Football, Green Bay defeated Pittsburgh 35-25. Packers’ TE and Timber Lake native Tucker Kraft had one of the best games (143 yards receiving and two TDs) of his career, and Timber Lake was featured several times during the national telecast. Plus, SDSU got great exposure during the day with alumni Kraft, Mason McCormick (Sioux Falls Roosevelt graduate) of the Steelers along with Dallas Goedert (Britton-Hecla graduate), who got two TDs for the Philadelphia Eagles in their 38-20 win over the NY Giants.
Oct. 26: In his first game as head coach of Murray (KY) State, coach Ryan Miller and his Racers defeated the NSU men’s basketball team 112-74. Miller is a former standout for the Wolves.
Oct. 27: NFL veteran and former USD standout Jack Cochrane got his first career interception to help the the Kansas City Chiefs defeat Washington 28-7 on Monday Night Football.
Oct. 30: In the Class 11AA football quarterfinals, Huron held off Brookings 7-2. Brookings fumbled on the Huron two-yard line with five seconds left. The Huron offense then took a safety to run out the clock.
Oct. 31: Tied for first for the most NFL touchdowns by tight ends this season with seven is Dallas Goedert (SDSU and Britton-Hecla). Tied for second with six is Tucker Kraft (SDSU and Timber Lake).
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.
