Today's briefs: 03/02/13

Court-Menendez first female indoor All-American for Dakota Wesleyan

By The Daily Republic

GENEVA, Ohio — Nicole Court-Menendez became the first female track athlete at Dakota Wesleyan University to become an track and field indoor All-American.

Court-Menendez finished eighth in the finals of 3,000-meter race walk at the NAIA track and field national championships Friday in Geneva, Ohio.

The freshman completed the race with a time of 16 minutes, 6.32 seconds.

The only other DWU athlete competing was Tamika Irvin.

Irvin, who runs the 200-meter, did not make it out of the preliminaries.

The senior finished 13th in the prelims with a time of 25 seconds.

DWU’s Paulsen, Devestern to be All-Americans

By The Daily Republic

DES MOINES, Iowa –— Dusty Paulsen and Trever DeVestern will return from the NAIA National Wrestling Tournament as All-Americans.

Paulsen (149) and Devestern (157) each won their first matches of the tournament then fell in the next round before winning matches in the consolation bracket.

Paulsen won his first match with a 4-3 decision over Campbellsville’s Shawn McGhee, then lost a major decision to Mike Vassar, of the University of Great Falls. The sophomore rebounded with a victory over Baker’s Nick Haugen.

Devestern won his opening match by major decision over Great Falls’ Chad Cebulski, then fell to Campbellsville’s Connor Young, who is ranked first at 157 pounds. The sophomore won his final match of the day with an 8-3 decision over Illinois Tech’s Adam Fahs.

This is the first time the DWU wrestling team will have a pair of All-American wrestlers since 2004, when Jared Digmann (125) and Scott Loveless (165) each earn All-American honors. Josh Geppert was DWU’s last All-American. The heavyweight finished in sixth place at the national tournament.

Kyle Gerlach (157), Richard Rios (133), Tyler Sarringar (174), Nick Hutcheson (165) and Eric Gruis (HWT) were all eliminated Friday.

Devestern and Paulsen wrestle for placings today.

SD School of Mines football joining GNAC

RAPID CITY (AP) — The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology say it has accepted an invitation to become an affiliate member of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.

The Hardrockers will join the NCAA Division II conference beginning with the 2014 and 2015 seasons. The school joins Central Washington, Simon Fraser, Western Oregon, Dixie State, Humboldt State and Azusa Pacific.

Each of the seven institutions will play a six-game, single-round robin conference schedule. In addition, the six current members will also play three non-conference games against three of the other current GNAC teams.

South Dakota Mines is in its third and final year of transition to full NCAA Division II membership.

The school will be eligible for post-season play and various academic and athletic awards starting in the fall of 2013.

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