The Jackrabbit track and field teams closed out their indoor season in Ames, Iowa, at the ISU Last-Chance meet.

Sophomore Becka Mansheim clocked a season-best time in the women’s mile run. She finished in third place. Freshman Shannon Hattervig finished fourth in the event. Sheena Dauer turned in a sixth-place effort in the 5,000-meter run. In field events Michelle Carter set a season-best mark in the shot put, finishing fifth.

On the men’s side, Josh Klawitter, Ricky Furseth and Clayton Lang finished eighth, ninth, and 10th in the 3,000 meter run.

Distance runner Brad Lowery and the women’s distance medley relay team competed in the USA Indoor Championships in Boston during the last weekend in February. Lowery, a senior from Pierre, placed eighth out of 11 runners in the 1,500-meter run. The women’s relay team of Mansheim, Ashley Adams, Hattervig and Dauer took home a strong second place finish.

On March 25, Lowery and fellow distance runner Dauer kicked off the 2005 outdoor track and field season competing in the 5,000-meter run at the Stanford Invitational. Lowery finished 25th in his section of the men’s 5,000 meter and 43rd overall out of 126 runners. Dauer finished 23rd in her section and 46th out of 82 runners in the women’s division.

The teams now focus their attention onthe outdoor season and head to Sioux Falls for the Augustana Invitational on April 8th.

The men’s basketball team faced one of its toughest seasons ever this year. The team’s successes were partly due to the leadership of the seniors.

Luke Geiver, Jared DeJong and Brady Hokenson were the only seniors on this year’s men’s basketball team. They have been a part of the team for the last four years and have seen considerable game time since their sophomore years. The trio’s friendship stands out on and off the court and helped keep the team together with strong teamwork. They are also roommates and have enjoyed many of their experiences at SDSU.

“It was tough playing so many different teams and so many different places and to get ready for game after game,” Geiver, an English major from Sioux Falls, said.

The team traveled a lot, from New York to California to Florida.

“Having a really young team, having lost a lot of older guys and playing a much tougher schedule made this season very challenging,” DeJong said.

They also faced some challenges over the course of their college basketball careers. They agreed that one of the biggest challenges was competing for playing time in such a good program with so many great players. It also became a challenge to juggle schoolwork and basketball.

“As much as we traveled, this year especially, it was a little tough,” DeJong, a business economics major from Orange City, Iowa, said.

They were gone for a week in Florida playing three games in the National Independent Tournament and one game against Central Florida. Their hard work on the court carried over to off the court, enabling them to keep up with homework.

“We always had friends that let us borrow notes,” Hokenson said. “And the professors have always been very helpful in keeping us up with classwork.”

Most of their career highlights came this year, when they had to step up and take the leadership role for the team. For the first time in their careers, they ended the season with a victory by defeating rival North Dakota State University in Fargo.

“It was great to finally end the season with a win, especially against NDSU, who has sort of become our new rival, the crowd was really into it and it was a really exciting game,” Geiver said.

Another highlight came earlier in the season when the Jacks collected their first D-I win against Tennessee State in Memphis.

“The team was really excited when we got that win, it was really one of the highlights of the season,” DeJong said.

Although at times they grew travel weary, they thought it was a great experience to see so many new places.

“I really enjoyed getting to travel, you can’t complain about spending a week in Florida in February when you live in South Dakota,” Hokenson said.

All three seniors plan to graduate in April and will go their separate ways.

“I’ll really miss the games and my teammates,” Hokenson, a mechanical engineering major from Watertown, Minn., said.

“I’ll miss all the competition and the relationships that you develop throughout the season,” Geiver said.

“I’ll really miss hanging out with the guys and the friendships that have developed,” DeJong said.

#1.885234:2858479745.jpg:bb seniors, miike.jpg:Luke Geiver, Jared DeJong and Brady Hokenson spend time together on and off the basketball court.:

You can go anywhere from here and the Career and Academic Planning (CAP) Center can help you do so.

The CAP Center offers services that are focused on helping students prepare for academic and career transitions. The CAP Center is a place students can go to improve academic success and help with career and employment planning. The CAP Center offers a wide variety of services, most free of charge, to students attending SDSU.

Dianne Nagy, a recruiting coordinator at the center, said, “We prepare students to enter the workplace and help them in their job search. We help students to develop skills to find a job they want and work as a liaison between employers and students.

The first major way the CAP Center can help students is in choosing a major. Many students come to college unsure of what they really want to be or what they want to do with their life. The center offers career counseling and career planning, where the student meets with a career counselor and decides on a major or other options if they want to change majors. A student may take assessments via computer that are designed to help identify skills, interests and values in relation to the world of work and employment options within your major or desired major.

The CAP Center also helps students with career and employment planning. The center helps students with different job-seeking strategies and writing their resume and cover letter. Students can set up mock interviews, some with local businesses, where the interview is videotaped and critiqued by a CAP Center employee.

The CAP Center also has a web-based system that offers a free service for students to post resumes online and for employers to post job positions.

Employers are able to post interview schedules. Students are offered an e-mail notification system to update them on job opportunities and a reference file system that, at the request of the student, sends a letter of reference to the employer.

The CAP Center is located on the second floor in Medary Commons and can be contacted at 688-4153 or on the web at careercenter.sdstate.edu.

#1.885283:3649178183.jpg:CapCenterAa.jpg:The CAP Center provides many services and helps students make plans for the future.:

Everyone notices the fans that get the courtside seats for the men’s and women’s basketball games, but who exactly are these people and how did they get the best seats in the arena?

Most of them are season ticket holders and have contributed to the university for a long time. Priority points built up from contributions to SDSU give season ticket holders courtside privileges at Frost Arena.

You might think after hearing how they landed the seats that they are only there because they have courtside seats. That isn’t the case with these die-hard fans.

They are there for the same reason as most of the devoted students. They simply love the game of basketball and supporting the teams. At every game, the same fans are recognizable and are sure to fill the arena with their support. Most of the fans are lifelong Jackrabbit fans. They have been coming to games for as long as they can remember.

Brookings resident Bert Neiber has been coming to games for the last eighteen years and has been sitting in the front row for the last five.

“I just love basketball and women’s sports and love being able to be this close and support the team,” Neiber said.

Many of the players recognize and talk to the fans sitting courtside. Some even made their way over to Neiber during warm-ups to visit for a few minutes.

Mike Carlson, life-long Brookings resident and Jackrabbit fan, has been attending games since he was a student and has been a season ticket holder since the 1983-84 season. He loves having courtside seats to all the games.

“I love being up so close and feeling the emotions of the players and the spirit is felt so much more when you are this close to the action,” Carlson said.

He enjoys supporting the players with high-fives as they go on and off the court. He said it’s important to show appreciation to the athletes for all of their hard work.

These fans come to games a half-hour or more before the game begins. Some fans have even missed important events just so they wouldn’t miss a game. One fan missed a recognition banquet for work because he would rather come and support the Jacks than go to something that was about himself.

The fans are there for one simple reason, the love of the game and the team.

#1.885323:1864065742.jpg:diehardfans, mike.jpg:Jacks fans enjoy their seats during a basketball game.:

The Jackrabbit track and field team is off to a strong start under first year coach Rod DeHaven, with many individuals finishing on top in the first four meets of the season.The men’s and women’s teams started off the indoor season at the MSU Alumni Open on Jan. 15 in Mankato, Minn. For the men, seniors Ben Johnson, Brad Lowery and Scott Roby claimed individual titles. Brad Lowery, the 2004 South Dakota Collegiate Athlete of the Year, just missed setting a school record in the 1,000 meters, but still won the event by over five seconds. On the women’s side, Michelle Carter claimed the shot put title. The distance medley relay team of Shannon Hattervig, Kari Shaefer, Cortney Costello and Sheena Dauer also took home a first-place finish.In the second meet of the season, the Wisconsin Elite Classic held on Jan. 22 in Madison, Wis., the men were led by Lowery, who finished third in the mile run. Johnson finished fourth in the 60-meter hurdles and sophomore Craig Hill finished sixth in the 60-meter dash. In field events, Matt Olsen finished fifth in the triple jump and Jared Schwader finished fifth in the shot put.On the women’s side, Erin Zempel led the effort with a third place finish in the 60-meter hurdles. Freshman Cameryn Christion placed fifth in the 60-meter dash and sixth in the 200-meter dash. Hattervig finished fourth in the 800-meters.For the third meet of the season the team traveled to USD for the John Dalton Open on Jan. 29. Michelle Carter, who took first place in the shot put, and Jona Kulesza, who finished first in the triple jump, led the women. Christion continued her strong freshman season with second place finishes in the 60-meter dash and the 200-meters. Krystie Ratzlaff finished second in the mile run, Erin Zempel second in the 60-meter hurdles, and Ashley Adams finished third in the 800-meter run.For the men, Shwader won the shot put and Olsen took first in the triple jump and second in the long jump. Johnson, Nick Schanaman and Jacob Steenholdt took first, third, and fourth, respectively, in the 60-meter hurdles.At the team’s most recent meet in Lincoln, Neb. Feb. 4-5 at the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational, the women’s distance medley relay team of Becka Mansheim, Adams, Hattervig and Dauer set a new school record in the event with a time of 12 minutes 5.33 seconds.Shwader led the men as he took fifth in the shot put. As the indoor season nears the end, the team turns its focus to the upcoming outdoor season. Dehaven said that the focus will be the Division I Independent Championships in Davis, CA.”It is the season ending meet and the only team scored meet of the year,” he said. “The other focus for the outdoor season is for Brad Lowery to become the first South Dakota collegiate athlete to break four minutes for the mile and the first person ever to break four minutes within the state of South Dakota. His attempt will come at the Howard Wood Dakota Relays on May 6 in Sioux Falls.”This is SDSU’s first season in Division I. Right now the Jackrabbits won’t have an indoor conference championship like in past seasons. But, their biggest change is not being able to qualify for the NCAA regionals and possibly the Division I National Championships, because they are under a transitional status until 2009.

#1.885365:904468144.jpg:Track practice.jpg:SDSU´s men´s track team runs some laps on the HPER track during practice.: