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Tiger women picked 4th in soccer poll

By The Daily Republic

The Great Plains Athletic Conference preseason women’s soccer poll picked Dakota Wesleyan University to finish right where it ended last season, in a tie for fourth.

The Tigers received 67 points in the poll, the same amount of points collected by Concordia University. Last year the two squads, along with Dordt College, finished with similar 6-4 league records. Wesleyan finished 7-6-3 overall.

GPAC regular season and tournament champions from a year ago, Hastings College, collected first place votes from all 10 other school’s coaches to finish at the top of the poll.

The Tigers start their season on Aug. 19 in an exhibition game against Wayne State University in Wayne, Neb.

DWU volleyball slated 10th in GPAC poll

By The Daily Republic

Following a 8-26 season and 1-15 mark in conference play, the Dakota Wesleyan University volleyball team was picked 10th in the Great Plains Athletic Conference pre-season coaches poll, which was announced late Monday night.

Doane College, which finished runner up a season ago, was picked as the top squad in the 11-team league.

The Tigers begin their season at the Northwestern Tournament on Aug. 24 in Orange City, Iowa.

DWU men’s soccer team picked 4th in preseason poll

By The Daily Republic

The Dakota Wesleyan University men’s soccer team finished 9-9-1 overall and 6-3-1 in conference play last year and finished in a tie for fourth in the Great Plains Athletic Conference preseason coach’s poll for this season.

The Tigers received 71 points in the poll. Concordia University also received 71 points after a 5-3-2 conference record a season ago.

Hastings College, after a regular season and GPAC tournament championship last year, received 100 points and all 10 first-place votes from fellow conference coaches.

The Tigers season starts with an exhibition game against Iowa Lakes Community College on Aug. 20 in Spencer, Iowa.

Park and rec taking registration for football, soccer programs

By The Daily Republic

The Mitchell Parks and Recreation Department is taking registration for fall youth football and soccer.

Programs include third- and fourth-grade flag football (deadline Aug. 21), fifth- and sixth-grade tackle football (deadline Aug. 15) and kindergarten through sixth-grade soccer (deadline Aug. 18).

Go to cityofmitchell.org or sign up at the recreation center. Volunteer coaches are needed for football programs.

For more information, call Kevin or Jamie at 995-8450.

Jones sneaks into hurdles final race

LONDON (AP) — Lolo Jones of the United States sneaked into the 100-meter hurdles medal race at the Olympics on Tuesday, taking the last qualifying spot in the semifinals with a time of 12.71 seconds.

Jones was favored to win the gold at the 2008 Games and was leading the final when she knocked into the ninth of 10 hurdles and fell to the track. Dawn Harper of the U.S. wound up winning — and she made it back to the final, winning her heat in 12.46.

The best semifinal time was the 12.39 by Australian world champion Sally Pearson. The Aussies have had a disappointing Olympics so far with only three gold medals.

Also reaching the final later Tuesday night was Kellie Wells of the U.S.

SD pole vaulter beginning Olympics competition

VERMILLION (AP) — South Dakota pole vaulter Derek Miles begins competition at the Olympics on Wednesday.

The University of South Dakota assistant track and field coach will be competing in the preliminaries in London. If he qualifies for the finals he will compete again on Friday.

The 39-year-old Miles is competing at the Olympics for a third time. He finished seventh in Athens, Greece, in 2004, and fourth in Beijing, China, in 2008.

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