Becka Mansheim runs. She runs to compete, to maintain a 4.0 grade point average in nursing, to break records.

It is amazing that she pauses long enough to sleep. When Becka Mansheim steps out of bed, she steps into a pair of running shoes. She begins with an early morning workout run, then she runs to nursing class or clinicals and then it’s on to practice. After practice, she might pause long enough to catch the latest episode of “House,” her favorite TV program, before hitting the books. And that’s on a day off.

Other days, she competes at meets for SDSU’s cross country or indoor and outdoor track teams. While she is there, she might as well break a school record. Recently she broke the women’s indoor record in the mile run at a meet at Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind.

Head Track Coach Rod DeHaven said the Mansheim has “become one of the better distance runners in the region, regardless of division.”

It is difficult for Mansheim to stop and catch her breath. Not because she doesn’t stop running, but because Mansheim struggles with asthma. Yet she will not even let asthma slow her down.

“After high school, I found a doctor that really took me under his wing and we found the right combination of medications. Since then, I haven’t had a problem at a meet and I’ve had only a few problems at practice,” Mansheim said.

Being probationary members of Division I and without a conference, SDSU’s cross country and track teams have been unable to compete for any championships. Thus, Coach DeHaven has pushed his athletes to compete against themselves, the clock and past school records.

Mansheim said, “Breaking the indoor mile record is something that we were thinking of last year as being possible.”

Prior to the meet at Notre Dame, Mansheim got sick. It set her training back weeks, and she lost vital opportunities to break the record.

“Notre Dame was really my last chance to break the record, and running against that caliber of competition really helped me,” Mansheim said.

Next on the checklist of her collegiate career, Mansheim looks to break the women’s outdoor record in the 1500 meter run.

“We’re really going to try to break the 1500-meter record, but it’s going to be tough. The outdoor season is short and the weather really has to cooperate,” said Mansheim.

Coach DeHaven said, “We’d like her to get some fast times in the 1500 meters early so she can compete in some of these higher-level competitions and, hopefully, break the school record in the 1500 meters.”

Mansheim came to run at SDSU because of the university’s tradition of turning out great distance runners. However, for the Brookings native, that was not always her plan.

“When I was young, I thought I would never go to SDSU, but now I know it’s the best thing I could have ever done,” Mansheim said.

In high school, Mansheim participated in everything from swimming to cheerleading. She came to college as an under-trained runner. When she arrived at SDSU, she was able to focus on her running and realize her full potential.

For Coach DeHaven, Mansheim has blossomed into a competitive runner and one of the leaders of his women’s track team.

“She not only leads by example, but also encourages her teammates and always carries a positive attitude,” DeHaven said.

Mansheim is driven to succeed and unwilling to fail on and off the track.

“She’s a very well-rounded individual; a 4.0 student who’s never gotten less than a ‘A’ in her life. Becka has a lot going on besides running,” DeHaven said.

The impact running has made in Mansheim’s life displays itself more in her personality than it does in the record books and trophies on her walls.

“Running really teaches you to stay focused and it forces you to be self-motivated and know that there’s always more,” Mansheim said.

There is no doubt that there is more to be accomplished for Mansheim, and there is no doubt that she will succeed because she approaches life the same as she approaches the starting line before a race.

She said, “Every time I step on the line, I act like it’s my last time.”

With the recent end of the indoor season, attention immediately turns to the upcoming outdoor season for Head Coach Rod DeHaven and the men’s and women’s track and field teams.

The outdoor season begins March 24 and 25 with the Raleigh Relays in Raleigh, N.C.

Reviewing the women’s performances this past indoor season, DeHaven said, “We’re a young team and everybody improved with every meet. The indoor season really set us up for what I think is going to be a really exciting outdoor season for the women.”

Young, but talented, the women’s indoor team ran for three school records.

Becka Mansheim and Cameryn Christion added their names to the SDSU record books. Mansheim, a junior from Brookings, broke the school record in the mile, a record previously held by Jodi Smith. She ran a breathlessly fast time of 4 minutes, 51.57 seconds at the Alex Wilson Invitational hosted by Notre Dame in South Bend, Ill. Sprinter Cameryn Christion, a sophomore from Parker, broke her own record in the 200 meters, clocking in at 25.16 seconds at the Iowa State Classic. She accomplished this just weeks after setting a new school mark in the 400 meters, running a time of 57.01 seconds.

On the men’s side, “Losing a few guys to graduation and having a couple injuries, I think we’re really in a rebuilding year, but the indoor season gave our young guys a chance to gain some good experience coming into the this spring,” said Coach DeHaven

“Going Division I, these younger guys coming into these larger meets can sometimes be intimidated by the name on the front of the jersey, that’s something that will change with experience.”

Nick Schanaman’s performance in the hurdles has been a bright spot for the Jackrabbits.

Coach DeHaven said, “I think the hurdles are definitely one of our strengths and Nick is becoming one of the better hurdlers around.”

With the return of throwers Carson Aune, a junior from Oaks, N.D., and Sean Donahoe, a senior from Chatfield, Minn., the throwing events should be a strong point for the Jackrabbits men’s team.

Bad weather, scheduling conflicts and lack of decent track facilities make preparing for the upcoming outdoor season difficult for the Jackrabbits. However, DeHaven remains optimistic and is looking forward to both the men’s and women’s spring season.

“College track is a yearlong sport and that’s something different for these younger kids to learn to deal with, both mentally and physically, but as long as we keep competing it’s going to be an exciting spring,” DeHaven said.

Rarely, when entering the confines of Frost Arena, Coughlin-Alumni Stadium or any of the other fields, courts or arenas that comprise SDSU’s athletic facilities, does one stop to think of the amount of effort spent staging a successful event. Watching a game, fans can witness and appreciate the hard work and talent of the athletes, but what of those behind the scenes?

To stage a single athletic event at Frost Arena requires weeks of preparation by the SDSU Athletic Department, specifically the promotions department. The advertising seen on the scoreboard in Frost Arena must be secured and planned one year in advance. Running the system of scoreboards and public address systems requires skill, knowledge and timing. The advertising, announcements, highlight videos, special promotions, introductions and anything else that happens before the game, after the game and any time a whistle blows is meticulously scripted weeks in advance.

The ringmaster of this circus is head of promotions Micah Grenz, who completely scripts every athletic event, unable to leave anything to chance.

“There’s a lot of people that show up for a game and think we just put all this together today, when in reality we’ve been planning this for a year,” Grenz said.

During the game, Grenz works as part-time DJ and full-time director, managing the roughly fifteen people needed to put on an event. Under Grenz’s direction, the game works like a well-oiled machine, running quietly in the background, going completely unnoticed.

Grenz is happy that what he and the others do garners little attention.

“If no one notices we’re here that means we’ve done a good job,” he said.

Although Grenz prepares for perfection, it remains difficult to attain.

“We’re looking to make this event as good as it can be ? we haven’t had a perfect event yet this year. We may never have one, but perfection is our goal,” he said.

New this year to Frost Arena and Coughlin-Alumni Stadium are the $3 million scoreboards built and installed by Daktronics.

A 6-by-12-foot room located in the Athletic Department offices in the HPER Center houses the brains and controls that run all the operations for both the scoreboards at Frost and Coughlin. From this small room, five people control the behemoth scoreboard at Coughlin, the equally impressive center-hanging scoreboard in Frost Arena, the east and west side boards in Frost and the scoreboard in front of the scorer’s table.

On the west wall of the control room stand two 6-feet-high computer towers, and located to the north are three computer monitors. Dominating the two normal sized monitors is the 40-inch LCD monitor mounted in the middle that displays everything portrayed on the scoreboard. Under these monitors rest all the controls needed to operate everything short of a space shuttle launch.

The man with his fingers on the plethora of buttons is Eric Ray, a Daktronics employee who the University pays Daktronics to provide. Ray, as game-day producer, is responsible for managing everything from the “I got a fever and the only prescription is more cow bell” skit, to inserting the proper amount of delegated advertising.

Of the upgraded scoreboards and computer systems, Ray said, “I think people here, the fans and the Athletic Department, have been really happy with what we’ve done? it’s a major upgrade and now that people can see what we can do, it’s been nothing but positives and we look forward to the coming year.”

Entering the cramped control room during a game is akin to entering mission control. It requires five people working with timing and precision to operate the various controls during the game. With most of the space in the room occupied by whirring machinery, five people is all that space will allow.

The control room provides a hands-on learning environment for both Daktronics employees and SDSU students. A new class at SDSU requires students to spend a certain amount of time in the control room. Daktronics employees volunteer their time to learn more about the products they make and sell. Working with Ray and those from SDSU and Daktronics are the husband and wife duo of Kelly and Tami Watson, who work as director and technical director.

This year has been a work-inprogress for Grenz, Ray and the rest who work to stage an athletic event at SDSU. March 3 was the final home basketball game for the season.

Grenz and his team began 12 hours before the game started and did not finally walk out the door until after 11:00 p.m. No sooner had the final buzzer sounded than thoughts of improvements moved to next year.

“Next year will be a lot better than this year and hopefully the year after that will be even better? we’re always trying to improve,”

Upon the snow, slopes and ice of this year’s Olympics, golden performances and muddled disappointments were provided for those who cared enough to watch the games.

The United States finished second in the total medal count with 25, behind Germany’s 29 medals. One of the U.S.’s medals was from Julia Mancuso’s stunning gold-medal victory in the women’s giant slalom.

Although Mancuso was able to capture gold, the first medal for a U.S. woman’s skier in eight years, the U.S. ski team’s performance in this Olympics can only be described as a disappointment. With Mancuso’s gold and Ted Ligety’s surprise gold in the combined slalom and downhill event, the U.S. ski team garnered only three medals. Just weeks prior to the start of the Olympics, the U.S. ski team projected they would bring home as many as eight medals.

The most notable disappointment in skiing was the disastrous performance of the hyped “bad boy” of skiing, Bode Miller. Miller’s behavior earned him considerable pre-Olympic buzz. He placed no higher than fifth in this Olympics. He also was disqualified and did not finish a race, yet claimed he could have won them all.

Also disappointing was the play of the U.S. hockey teams. The men played uninspired and failed to even play for a medal. Add in the fact that the U.S. women’s hockey team, a gold medal favorite, was only able to achieve the bronze, it may seem like the U.S. national anthem was played less than a Snoop Dogg record in a country bar.

Yet amid negative media views and the un-exciting manner of tape-delayed broadcasts, in the spirit of the Olympics, several tear-welling, shining moments took place.

Shuan White was visibly shaken after falling in his preliminaries. He pushed fear aside to make it into the medal round in the men’s snowboard half-pipe. Then, having captured gold, the seemingly ultra-cool snowboarder was reduced to tears by the sight of his family.

Also impressive was the complete dominance of the U.S. women in the snowboarding events. Watching a truly original sport, one many people do not understand, and seeing action and athleticism that most people cannot even fathom, is a cause for great awe.

Another shining moment in the plethora of Olympic images, in an equally confusing sport, was the bronze-medal winning performances of the U.S. men’s curling team. The U.S. won their first Olympic curling medal in an 8-6 victory over Great Britain.

During the U.S.’s bronze medal match, a man avoided Olympic security and slid onto the ice wearing nothing but a smile and a strategically-placed rubber chicken and displayed the type of enthusiasm that only a sport like curling can inspire. No one appeared overly concerned, for the man was unable to conceal anything and, as some may know, ice is extremely difficult to run on, even more so when naked.

Bringing the Winter Olympics closer to home was the debut of Black Hawk native Jana Lindsey. Lindsey was one of two U.S. women to compete in women’s aerial skiing at the Turin Olympics. She placed 15th on her first jump and was unable to improve her score in her second jump. She placed 16th overall in her Olympic debut.

Lindsey became interested in skiing aerials as a young girl, when she saw an aerials demonstration at the 1988 Calgary Olympics. After that, she entered an aerials camp in Park City, Utah. She qualified for her first jump in competition at age 11.

This past year, Lindsey battled to return from a torn ACL suffered in the 2003-2004 season. While recovering from her knee injury, Lindsey taught tap dancing to children in Spearfish. She currently splits time between Rapid City and training facilities in Park City.

Lindsey’s Olympic performance gave many people at SDSU an added reason to watch the Olympics, especially those who knew her.

“It’s pretty cool she made it. She was always such a down-to-earth person,” said Trisha Schmelz, a junior art major from Rapid City.

Beginning her Olympic dreams at an early age meant that considerable time was spent away from school and friends in Rapid City. Yet, her talent was recognized and people understood.

“She was always gone for a long time and then she would have to come back to school and catch up? but I think everyone knew she was special, even then,” Schmelz said.

In the midst of recent controversy, the Jackrabbits (6-15) defeated the Mustangs of Southwest Minnesota State University (10-8), in a closely contested battle Thursday night, 70-66. SMSU is the Jacks’ only Division-II opponent of the year.

The Jackrabbits played the game on the heels of an announcement that junior Mohamed Berte and redshirt freshman Andre Gilbert would be suspended from the team indefinitely, following allegations of sexual assault.

Needing help filling his roster, Head Coach Scott Nagy looked to the SDSU football team to fill the gaps left by Berte and Gilbert. The three football team converts playing and contributing to the win were Glen Fox, a freshman defensive back from Fairfax, Iowa, Mike Steffen, a freshman wide receiver from Mount Vernon, and Chris Wagner, a sophomore tight end from Brookings. Brock Campbell, redshirt freshman from Cherokee, Iowa, dressed for the game, but did not play.

Of his newly-borrowed players, Nagy said, “They were just great. They had fresh legs and great energy ? It wasn’t my intent to make it a circus out here. I needed them to help us win a basketball game, and they all gave us good minutes.”

The three football players combined for seven points, nine rebounds and zero turnovers in 15 minutes of action. Steffen hit a crucial shot down the stretch to help preserve the win for the ‘Rabbits.

Thursday night’s game opens a three-game home stand for the Jacks, who lost their last three games on the road.

A crowd of 2,117 watched as SMSU handled the disorganized Jackrabbit team through most of the first half. SMSU junior forward Chad Orum led all first-half scorers with 10 points.

The Jacks rallied towards the end of the first half. With six minutes left, junior guard Eric Heien dropped in a pair of threes, and sophomore post player Wagner, in his basketball debut, put in a pair of layups late in the first half. Capping the rally was sophomore Michael Loney. He took the ball away on a Matt Fletcher turnover, which led to redshirt freshman guard Matt Cadwell getting fouled while slashing into the lane. He converted one of two from the line, leveling the score at the end of the half at 30 apiece.

Early in the second half, SMSU was once again able to control the game, taking the lead on a jump shot by senior guard Undre Ellis. The Mustangs held the lead until 15 minutes to go in the second half, when junior Andy Kleinjan laid one up for two, tying the game at 38.

The Jackrabbits managed to control the rest of the game, relying heavily on the scoring of Cadwell. Time and time again, he flew by, beat and bullied his defender to the basket, garnering most of his points from the free-throw line on his way to a game-high 24.

Yet, SMSU managed to hang around in the closing minutes, when sophomore guard Fletcher poured in two three-pointers.

Still, Nagy’s team managed to hold off the Mustangs, even though Cadwell fouled out of the game with about one-and-a-half-minutes remaining. The Jacks were also without sophomore Mackenzie Casey for the last minute. He flew off the bench defending his teammate, Kleinjan, who was fouled hard by guard Andy Beilke. In the aftermath, the referees hit Mackenzie with a technical foul and an early trip to the locker room. Forty-five seconds after the skirmish, Kleinjan iced the game by converting a pair of free-throws with four seconds left, giving the Jackrabbits the victory.

Rebounding seemed to be the deciding factor in the game as SDSU out rebounded SMSU, 43-27. Impressive in limited action was tight-end, now post player, Wagner. Wagner, like concrete, never gave an inch while pulling down five boards in six minutes, tying him for third on the team in rebounds.

“He’s a horse. He’s exited to play and he’s tough, that’s why I like to recruit football players, because of that toughness,” said Nagy.

Whether or not Nagy’s players-on-loan will remain in basketball shorts rather than football pads is questionable. Nagy explained that it’s a week-to-week and game-to-game decision.

Eight games remain on the Jackrabbits’ schedule. Looking ahead, Coach Nagy said, “I don’t know how these last few games will play out, but I know we’re going to finish them with class.”