Great West Conference Indoor Track

University of South Dakota Men and Women both won their respective indoor track titles in their first Division I Indoor Track and Field Great West Conference Championships. There were some great races and the men definitely had their hands full to the end of the meet. The women, on the other hand, cruised to the title.



Above is Tyler Williamson of USD holding off a Texas Pan American runner and letting everybody in attendance that victory in the 4 x 400 relay and the overall meet was ours.

Final Women’s Team Scores:
1. South Dakota 271.00
2. Utah Valley 135.00
3. Texas-Pan American 87.00
4. North Dakota 77.00
5. Houston Baptist 69.00
6. New Jersey Inst. of Technology- 8.00
7. Chicago State 6.00

Final Men’s Team Scores:
1. South Dakota- 178.00
2. Utah Valley- 146.50
3. Texas-Pan American- 106.00
4. North Dakota- 86.50
5. Houston Baptist- 74.00
6. Chicago State- 32.00
7. New Jersey Institute of Technology- 30.00

Team Man Tandem and Cactus-Eyed Joe to Kearney

Team Man Tandem (CDV and myself) along with Cactus-Eyed Joe and another cyclist from here at the U are on the way to the National Championship game tomorrow in Kearney.

Warning: Cycling will be discussed to and fro.

USD Advances to National Championship Game

USD took down the #1 Delta State Lady Statesmen 68-58 to advance to the national championship game. Delta State was undefeated at 32-0. That was quite possibly the best 40 minutes I've ever seen the Coyotes play.

I was chatting back and forth with my friend Barry of Pop40 fame, and a USD Alumnus. I did a poor job of not allowing him to listen to it online with the internet streaming cache lag without playing spoiler.

I SO have to go on Saturday. I see that CDV just left a comment on my last post about a Road Trip Saturday. Does that mean you want to go? I'll ride in somebody's trunk to make this game!

Sorry for all the non biking posts as of late, but this is probably the last time you will ever see this from USD as they make the journey into Division I. If you are going to leave Division II, do so in style ladies!

Box Score: (I attempted to put up the stats but the formatting was horrible, so I put the Box Score as a picture below):

4:36 AM and the Snow Storm That Wasn't

Part II of USD Women to the Final Four

After the game we had to wait for Dan Genzler, USD Sports Information Director (aka The Minister of Information), to finish his writeup from the game and post stuff to the web page as he was riding home with us. By the time he was done and we rounded up everybody, loaded the super tanker and put gas in it, it was after midnight. Taking the short route home was still a good solid four hour trip home. I had a Monster energy drink leaving Kearney only because the station didn't have and Amp (bad station..no biscuit) and we were on our way home.

The first part of the trip went well and we had the obligatory pit stop at a little town called Clark, which amazingly still had a station open at such a late hour. I found an Amp there (Way to go Clark, Nebraska!). Not just an amp but a cornucopia of Amp varieties that I hadn't see before. I settled on Amp Revive (Orange can) and it was decent and kept me going as my usual fun loving, jumpy self.

After some Hwy 30 traveling, we turned onto Hwy 81 and started heading back towards home. After going through Norfolk, we were just a few miles north of town and it started to lightly snow. We all commented how bad the forecast was as the snow was now supposed to be below I90 in South Dakota. We decided they meant to say not south of I80 in Nebraska. The joking soon stopped as it was snowing hard, if you could call it snow. It was more like a "snush". The wind was blowing it sideways and it was sticking on the road and making things a bit treacherous. We were following a semi and talked about following it all the way to Yankton to stay in it's tracks. Then it slowed down to 45 mph. We decided that following it was not worth it and that we'd make better time going on our old route. Bad move.
We turned on Hwy. 20 and you could just hear the snow crunching under the tires. The snow flying into the headlights was starting to wear on my already tired eyes. Then to make things more interesting, all the lights that were anywhere near the road went out. The wet, heavy snow must have temporarily taken out power to the area. The excitement continued the rest of the way home as we soldiered on between 40-50 mph. Of course, when we got across the bridge back into South Dakota, it wasn't nearly as bad.
Time of Arrival at the Brady Household: 4:36 am. Time of arrival at work this morning: 7:58 am. Of course I was fabricating the whole snow storm story because the weather person is never wrong. There was no snow south of I90. The white stuff on the ground isn't snow.

USD Women to DII Final Four

What a wild, crazy trip it was to Kearney, NE to watch USD play Washburn at the Women's Division II Elite 8 last night. Due to last minute bizarre circumstances and a couple of extra passengers, I ended up driving a fairly new Excursion (aka "mini-semi") with only a little over 4,000 miles on it with four guys as we had to bring two more home. I commented that the trip to and from Kearney (right at 500 miles when all was said and done) is probably equal to the last 5-6 months of driving combined for me, if not more.

We met up with some USD Alums and faithful at a pizza joint about a mile from the game. Best part...Fat Tire baby! It is easily one of my favorite beers, and I partook in pleasing my palate with an undisclosed number of them. Okay, so I can't remember as they kept showing up in front of me magically.

We got to the game in time to watch the end of Delta State's win over Franklin Pierce. #1 Delta State won to remain undefeated and will (SPOILER) play USD tonight. I think we match up well with them and look forward to the game.

USD and Washburn played an epic game last night and SO made the trip worthwhile. Each team looked great at times and not good at others. Each team made runs during the game where they each looked like they could potentially put the other in a world of hurt for any hope of comeback. At half the Coyotes were up by 7. Washburn went on a huge run to open the second half and suddenly a 7 point lead was a four point deficit. Late in the game it looked like we had the win wrapped up and their star player hit a couple of incredible three pointers to send it into overtime.

In OT it wasn't looking great as two of our key reserves fouled out. To top it off, it went into DOUBLE OT. In the 2nd OT, USD and Washburn were both looking like heavyweight champs that just went 15 rounds pounding the heck out of each other. USD had a couple nice drives and sealed it with good foul line shooting pulling off the 85-80 win. It was an awesome atmosphere as USD had way more fans that Washburn despite being just a few miles closer to Kearney than they are. Noise levels were not even a comparison. We were 10 times louder than they were.

The game didn't end until 11:00 and we didn't get on the road home until after midnight but it was all worth it.

Upcoming post: The trip home. A bizarre end to our whirlwind day.

Road Trip to the Elite 8

After working a track meet in the dome on Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday, I need a break. Well, I'm not sure that it's much of a break as we are making a down and back trip to Kearney, NE for the Women's Division II Elite 8. Leaving at 1:00 today and probably getting back into town about 2-3 am. I figure that this may be the last chance in quite some time to see USD in a national sports spotlight with the move to Division I next year, so a road trip is in order. Go Yotes!

Saturday Fun at the Track Meet and Another Accident

Yesterday was a indoor track meet at the Dome. It seemed like everybody who normally works the track meets was gone for this one. Our announcer and our back up announcer was gone, along with many of the workers. I credit the three day weekend for so many people being gone.

Our production crew was pretty much intact, but Coach Gottsleben said that he had nobody to announce. Casually I said that it's too bad that nobody knew how to do my job. Well, we found that person. One of the workers daughters who is all of 15 years old (I think). Now EVERYBODY will know how easy my job is. I showed her how to do everything and had the ability to help her out as I announced and didn't have her do certain aspects of my job to keep it easy for her. She did a good job and I survived a full day of announcing. I don't think our main announcer, the world famous Greg Merrigan, has anything to worry about however.

They originally planned for about 600 entrants for the meet when they did the schedule and we ended up having over 900. You can imagine what that did to the time schedule. Instead of ending around 4:30, we miraculously still managed to end around 5:45 or so.

After that we went over to Pro's to eat and have a few beers. After we had three pitchers of Boulevard Wheat, I noticed that they had IT....BLUE MOON on tap! The drinking was ON then. I left Pro's at 10:00...oops. I had slowed my drinking way down about 9:00 so my trip home would be "safe".

It had been nearly 40 degrees all day which caused a great deal of melting. By 10:00pm it had refrozen. I got on the bike, dropped off the sidewalk and the bike was GONE. Black ice was the remedy of my demise. It didn't seem bad, but when I got up, the side of my knee was KILLING me. I got back on the bike and hammered it on the way home and the knee seemed 'decent'. When I tried to step up on the two steps to get into my house I thought I was going to die.

Today, not so good either. I'm not sure if I have a deep bruise or what, but I am not getting on the bike today. I need to teach cycling (spin) class tomorrow and that will be my first real test of my knee. I am a little nervous about my knee as it is really tender. I'm sure it will heal fine, but right now it is very sore.

Dear spring, hurry up already!

USD Basketball Anyone?

Due to it being a school night, the wife and kids are not tagging along to the game tonight so I have four extra tickets to the USD Women and Men versus Nebraska-Omaha. The cost...you have to sit by me. Sucks to be you.

Derek Miles and Friends Pole Vault Competition

For those in the Vermillion area, I highly suggest you check this competition out on Saturday. It's absolutely crazy to watch these guys pole vault. They are really making quite a production out of the competition as we have more vaulters than ever this year. I can't give away all the "insider" information about it, but I can tell you that it will be LOUD with music per the wishes of the vaulters. We will have multiple cameras for replays of the vaults and it will just be an awesome time. I strongly encourage anybody in the area to come and check it out.

The track meet runs all day, but the pole vault exhibition will take place at 3:00. Derek Miles and Sam Pribyl both are USD Grads competing in this competition. Below is the bios of the vaulters from USD Athletics website.

Competitor Bios

Derek Miles, who was a member of the 2004 Olympic Team, was inducted into the Henry Heider Memorial Coyote Sports Hall of Fame in fall 2006. Miles earned a bachelor’s degree in history in 1996 and a master’s degree in athletic administration in 1998 from USD. A Division II All-American while competing for USD (1991-96), Miles has the best jump in the world (19’0.25) this year. He finished seventh at the Athens Olympics in 2004, and was ranked fifth in the world at the end of the 2005 season. He was ranked #2 in the U.S. by Track and Field News in 2005. Miles owns a personal best of 19-2.50 that he set at the DakotaDome in 2005, which was the seventh-best vault in the world that year. In 2003, he was the USA Indoor champion and was fifth at the World Outdoor competition.

Jeff Hartwig of Jonesboro, Ark., is the Indoor and Outdoor American record holder. Hartwig, who finished third at the 2008 Reno Summit, was the 1999 World Indoor silver medalist, 1998 Goodwill Games champion, four-time USA Outdoor champion and two-time USA Indoor champion, including in 2007. Hartwig is the world record holder for the 40-year age group and has a personal-best of 19’9.25.

Tye Harvey of Jonesboro, Ark., was the 2001 World Indoor silver medalist and finished second in both 2000 and 2001 at the USA Indoor Championships.

Nick Hysong of Phoenix, Ariz., won the Olympic Gold Medal in the pole vault by going 19’04.25 at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia. Hysong, who won NCAA Division I and Pac-10 titles in 1994 at Arizona State, also finished third at the 2001 World Championships.

Tim Mack of Cleveland, Ohio, was the 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist. He was also the 2002 U.S. Indoor Champion and the 2001 Goodwill Games winner. A 1995 NCAA Indoor champion at Tennessee, he has a personal-best and Olympic record vault of 19’6.25.

Jacob Pauli of Cedar Falls, Iowa, finished third at the 2007 AT&T USA Outdoor Championships. He is a three-time NCAA Outdoor All-American who won two Missouri Valley Conference Championships while competing for Northern Iowa. Pauli has a career-best of 19’0.25.

Sam Pribyl, who is originally from Webster, S.D., is a six-time Division II All-American who won six NCC titles at USD. He owns the USD and state of South Dakota pole vault record with his vault of 17’08.5 in 2006.

Jeremy Scott of Brookland, Ark., recently finished fifth at the Reno Pole Vault Summit. He has a personal-best of 18’10.25. He is originally from Norfolk, Neb.

Toby “Crash” Stevenson, who participated in the competition at USD two years ago, was the silver medalist at the 2004 Olympic Games. A former NCAA champion (1998) while competing for Stanford, he lives in Chula Vista, Calif. Stevenson, who finished second at the Reno Pole Vault Summit in January, owns a career-best vault of 19’08.25 (2004).

Brad Walker of Mountlake Terrance, Wash., is arguably America’s best vaulter with a personal-best of 19’08.25 in 2006. Born in Aberdeen, S.D., Walker was the 2007 World Outdoor champion, the 2006 World Indoor champion and the 2005 World Outdoor silver medalist. A two-time NCAA Indoor champion while at Washington, he was the first athlete in Pac-10 history to clear 19 feet.

The Weekend That Was

The weekend that was supposed to be relaxing. Laura was out of town, helping move her Grandma (also named Laura) back to Spearfish. It was just "me and the three" for a fun-filled weekend. For the most part, it started out that way. After a moderately lazy Saturday morning, I gave them a choice of cleaning for an hour or going to the USD Women's Basketball game. Tough choice there!

USD thumped 22nd ranked Nebraska-Kearney 84-51. Weekend is going great so far. A quick trip to the store with the kids to pick up some necessities was going good. Then it happened, I started to not feel too great. By the time it was time to leave the store, I cheated and grabbed some chicken from the deli. We got home, I threw the chicken on the table, laid down on the couch and let the kids to fend for themselves.

I tried to enjoy the Oklahoma victory over Missouri in the Big XII Championship (okay, I DID enjoy that), but I was miserable. I chose not to eat at all after a visit to the bathroom that I will not get into (this IS a family show).

Sunday we didn't go to church and I'm glad we didn't . I. FELT. HORRIBLE. By the time Laura made it back from Spearfish, I was starting to perk up a bit. Wishful thinking. Within a short time, I was back to square one. I would feel good for the first couple hours being awake and then miserable until I rested again.

Waking up this morning, fully expecting to be ready for work, it wasn't to be. Then to top it off, my oldest boy Austin has it now. I didn't think it was possible to mope around more than I when sick, but he's a pro.

To tell you that I'm feeling great would be far from the truth. My stomach just will not settle down. I rested most of the day (when I finally stopped checking work email). I plan on chilling out watching the Patriots/Ravens tonight if I can survive the whole game.

At any rate, that's the excitement at the Brady house. Here is hoping that YOU all are healthy and feeling well. I'm anxious to be over this funk and over my body aches and back on to some cold weather riding.

I'm Football-ed Out

I admittedly haven't ridden much since Wednesday. I've been having a heck of a time with a sore back and I've been working all the football games that have been going on inside the Dakota Dome.

The South Dakota High School Football Playoffs were this weekend (Thurs-Saturday) and that meant working the Daktronics Pro-Ad board as well as certain sequences for the Pro Star board as well. High School is a little tougher than college as each play we try to put up the ball carrier and the tackler. It gets really busy. As if six high school games were not enough, I got called into the USD/UND college game as they were short camera operators. So, I was there to run the boards for that as well. Seven games is enough to burn anybody out on football.

The First Home Football Game I WATCHED

I became employed with the University of South Dakota in June of 1997. Either by default or by being an IT geek, or because they couldn't get anybody else to do it, I volunteered my time helping to run the Daktonics video board for home football games, basketball games, and track meets.

When we received our new board three years ago we actually started to get PAID (I say that lightly as we don't get paid much) for running the board. I've been slowly looking for somebody to take some of the load off my shoulders as I wanted to be able to attend a game here and there with my family and not have to work.

Last Saturday, Dakota Days, my dream came true. After 10 plus years of working games, I finally got to sit in Section E, row 21, smack dab on the 50 yard line and watch a game. It was a great experience to be on the "fan" side once again. It was a lackluster performance by the Coyotes, but a win nonetheless (24-10) in front of a crowd of over 10,000 people. The highlight was Brooks Little setting the all time receptions mark in the first half on a long touchdown pass.

USD - NCC Men's Indoor Track Champions

Ten years of running Daktronics scoreboards between the Dome and Howard Wood Field in Sioux Falls and this was by far the most exciting and improbable finish I've been involved with. That being said let's set the stage with two events left in the track meet: USD is trailing Minnesota State by 17.5 points and all that is left is the 3000m run and the 4x400m Relay.

In the 3000m run, each team placed three runners out of eight possible places. You would think by doing simple math that would put a major dent in any possible comeback by USD. Well, here is the situation: USD placed 1st, 2nd, 3rd in the race scoring 10, 8, and 6 points for a total of 24. Minnesota State placed 5th, 7th, and 8th place scoring 4, 2, and 1 point for a total of 7. USD gained an unbelievable 17 points in one race alone. So now, if you have done your math you know that we are a 1/2 point down with one race to go.

Bring on the 4x400 relay. All we have to do is finish ahead of Minnesota State and the title is ours. Let's do a bit of a play by play on this one to heighten the feel. Ben Oberle from USD leads off against Brady Flies from Minnesota State and it's already exciting as Oberle leads Flies as they run 1-2 in the first 400m. Oberle hands off to Tyler Williamson and Minnesota State runs Sam Lance and they gap really doesn't change much as they continue to run 1-2. Onto the third leg where Josh Jeffrey (USD) runs against Pat Lehmann (Minn. St). Lehmann closes the gap and as the 4th and final leg starts there is literally no lead for USD. Scott Hargens (USD) is actually overtaken early in the leg by Minnesota State's Nate Pieper. Hargens stays right on his tail until the backstretch of the final 200 and he absolutely kicked into another gear and closed the deal againt Minnesota State. Final results: USD 3:21.36 (10 points) Minnesota State 3:22.25 (8 points).

When the official results went on the scoreboard (that's MY job!) it read most beautifully:




It was a great way to finish hosting your last NCC indoor meet as next year, the final one for the NCC, will be hosted by Minnesota State before USD and UND go Division I and the other teams (probably) go to the Northern Sun Conference. Congratulations USD and thanks for a great finish. Next time let's go easier on my heart though, okay?