Catching Up: A Look at Former Area Athletes

Talk about it

Parkston native Jeremy Sudbeck was voted the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference’s Newcomer of the Year, it was announced recently.

Sudbeck transferred to play baseball at Minnesota State University-Mankato from Iowa Western Community College. He has played in 41 games and started 35 for the Mavericks, who opened play in the NSIC tournament Wednesday as the top seed.

Sudbeck, a junior, has a .398 batting average, which includes 14 doubles, two triples and two home runs. He has driven in 31 runs and has not committed an error in 182 chances at first base this season. He has driven in two or more runs in nine games, has 13 multi-hit games and had an eight-game hit streak earlier this season.

The Mavericks also had the league’s Pitcher of the Year (junior Blake Schwartz), Freshman of the Year (Bryce Bellin) and Coach of the Year (Matt Magers). The team earned the top seed in the NSIC tournament by posting a 31-3 record during the conference’s regular season. It went 39-8 overall.

Brandi Gau, an Avon native who now runs track at Dakota State University, recorded a time of 59.69 seconds in the 400-meter dash over the weekend at the Howard Wood Dakota Relays in Sioux Falls.

The time was good enough for ninth place in the race and is the fourth-fastest time in DSU school history in the event. Gau, a senior for the Trojans, also placed 16th in the 200 in a time of 26.49 at Howard Wood.

Mitchell native Steph Uher, who is a sophomore at DSU, placed 11th in the 400 in a time of 1 minute, 1.02 seconds. Nicole Jurrens, also an Avon native, took 17th in the 400 for the Trojans. Former Howard star Jared Mengenhausen, a senior for the DSU track team from Howard, finished 12th in the men’s 200 at Howard Wood.

Gregory native Alexa Duling, now a sophomore on the University of South Dakota track and field team, ran a pair of personal-best times over the weekend at the Howard Wood Dakota Relays in Sioux Falls.

On Friday, Duling won the women’s 200-meter dash in a time of 24.43 seconds. Saturday, she won the 100 hurdles in a time of 14.32 seconds.

Lyman High School graduate Haley Juhnke, a senior for the Coyotes, earned a pair of second-place finishes at Howard Wood. She finished second to Duling in the 100 hurdles in a time of 14.70 and second in the 400 hurdles in a time of 1:02.88.

— “Catching Up” runs Thursdays in The Daily Republic. Send your nominees to sports@mitchellrepublic.com.

Tags: catching up, track and field, sports, baseball, parkston, gregory, avon, howard, kernels