Catching up with former area athletes: Three Coyotes land on academic all-Summit teams with perfect GPAs

VERMILLION — Three University of South Dakota athletes with Mitchell area connections have been commended by The Summit League for their academic achievement.

Coyote track athlete Carly Haring, a native of Mitchell, was awarded the Summit League Scholar of the Championship honor at the conference’s indoor track and field championships in February.

(USD Athletics)

The honor goes to the participating athlete with the highest undergraduate cumulative grade-point average and each institution that is participating in a Summit League championship event is eligible to submit one nominee for the Scholar of the Championship award. A medical biology major, Haring boasts a perfect 4.00 GPA.

Haring finished runner-up in the high jump at the Summit meet, clearing a season-best mark of 5-8 ¾ inches (1.75 meters).

Earlier in March, Haring was honored as an academic all-Summit selection, honoring the top students in each conference sport. This is her fifth career academic all-Summit honor.

Joining Haring on the academic all-Summit list is Salem native Jacy Pulse, who took gold in the 400 meters and anchored the gold medal 4x400-meter relay at the Summit League Championships. Pulse clocked 54.48 seconds in winning the 400 meters to break the DakotaDome record for the event.

(USD Athletics)

She added an all-Summit performance in the 200 meters and ran on USD's distance medley relay to tally 19.75 points during the meet for the Coyotes, who won the team championship for the second consecutive year with 214 points, well ahead of second-place North Dakota State at 166 points.

This marks Pulse’s first career academic all-Summit recognition. Pulse carries a perfect 4.00 grade-point average while majoring in nursing.

USD Athletics

On the Coyotes swim team, Caleb Swanson was also an academic all-Summit selection. Swanson, from Mitchell, owns a 4.0 grade-point average as a double major in sustainability and political science/legal studies.

He competed in three events at the Summit League championships, the 200 IM, 400 IM and 200 fly. He is a student representative to USD's University Sustainability and Athletic Board of Control Committees and serves as the USD Environmental Club president.

MADISON — Dakota State senior forward Elsie Aslesen finished a standout senior year for the Trojans, who reached the NAIA women’s basketball national semifinals and set a school record for wins in a season.

Aslesen, who graduated from Elk Point-Jefferson and transferred to DSU to Concordia (Neb.), calls Howard her hometown now. Aslesen, a 6-foot-1 senior forward/center, led the team with 13.5 points (433 points) and 2.8 blocks (88 total blocks) per game (433 total points). She also averaged 7.1 rebounds per game (227 rebounds).

Photo courtesy of Alexander Archer, via Dakota State University athletics

For her efforts, she was selected to the NAIA All-America third team and was a second-team all-national tournament selection in Sioux City, Iowa. She was a three-time North Star Athletic Association all-conference selection, most recently as first team selection in February. She was voted the league's defensive player of the year and to the NSAA’s all-defense team. Aslesen finished second in the NAIA in total blocks and ranked 27th in the nation in field goal accuracy at 56.3%.

Aslesen finished 15th all-time in DSU women's basketball scoring list with 1,118 points, seventh all-time in field goal percentage with 51.6% (404-of-782 field goals) and fifth in free-throw percentage of 76.9 percent (240-of-312 free-throws). Her 240 free-throws made is 10th all-time in Trojans history.

Aslesen is the daughter of Travis and Janna Aslesen of Howard, and she is a senior biology major at DSU. Aslesen was one of three players with area connections who regularly started games, alongside Corsica's Courtney Menning and Alexandria's Morgan Huber.

Dakota State finished at No. 24 national ranking in the final NAIA women’s coaches top-25 national poll with a school record of 29 wins. The Trojans had set a pair of winning streaks in the school record book, including the second-longest in school history of 15 consecutive wins. In addition, DSU was the first NSAA member to advance to the NAIA women's basketball national tournament semifinals since the league was formed in 2013-14.

The Trojans' run came to an end in the national semifinals to Clarke by the score of 79-69 on March 17. DSU finished with a school-record 29 victories (29-7 overall record), breaking the previous school record of 27 victories in each of the past two seasons.

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. — Mitchell native Ethan Huber was among four St. John’s University (Minn.) athletes who were named to the College Sports Communicators (formerly College Sports Information Directors of America, CoSIDA) academic all-district swimming and diving team on Tuesday, Feb. 28.

Saint John's University

Under a new format for the 2022-23 academic year, each institution may nominate up to four student-athletes for academic all-district recognition in swimming and diving. Nominees must be a sophomore or older with a 3.5 cumulative GPA or higher.

A senior, Huber is a biochemistry major with a 3.89 GPA and is a five-time all-MIAC (top three) honoree. He earned the distinctions as a relay team member, including as part of the Johnnies' back-to-back, second-place quartet in the 800-yard freestyle. Individually, Huber recorded the program's third-fastest time in the 400-yard individual medley at the 2023 MIAC championships. He is SJU's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee president this academic year.

For the second-straight season, SJU finished second out of six teams at the MIAC men’s swimming and diving championships.