JACKRABBITS WRAP UP HOME SEASON WITH EXCITING BACK-TO-BACK MATCHUPS

The South Dakota State swimming and diving squads conclude the home segment of their schedule this weekend with duals at the Stanley J. Marshall Center Pool.

 

The Jackrabbit men’s team will compete twice, welcoming St. Cloud State at 3 p.m. on Friday and Summit League opponent South Dakota at 10 a.m. on Saturday. SDSU and USD will also face off in a women’s dual at 10 a.m. on Saturday, with Senior Day honors for the Jackrabbits starting at 9:45 a.m. To facilitate additional sporting events taking place on Saturday, fans attending the swim meet are advised to park in the lots located to the east or west of Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium.

The events will be broadcasted through the Summit League Network powered by Midco Sports Plus (subscription necessary). Live results for both matches will be shared on the Meet Mobile app.

 

SDSU begins the week with a 3-2 total record in men’s duals, including a 1-1 tally against Summit League adversaries. The Jackrabbits secured a 159-75 triumph at Augustana on January 10 during their initial contest of the new year.

 

On the women’s side, the Jackrabbits maintain a 2-5 total record, including 1-1 in league competition. SDSU suffered a 125-118.5 defeat at Augustana last week.

SCHOOL RECORDS BROKEN: Three athletes from the South Dakota State men’s swimming and diving team set new school marks during the event at the Tommie Invitational held Nov. 21-23 in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Senior Sam Johnson was the first to achieve a record time, registering a mark of 4 minutes and 29.95 seconds in the finals of the 200-yard freestyle on the opening day of the event. This surpassed the previous record of 4:30.74 set last season by teammate Jack Ellison.

Two additional records were broken the subsequent day with Braxton McGrath and Cody Vertin claiming the honors. A junior from Amana, Iowa, McGrath improved his own record in the 100-yard butterfly twice in one day. In the Nov. 22 morning preliminaries, he recorded a then-record time of 48.51 seconds, reducing his own benchmark by .07 seconds. During the evening finals, McGrath sliced another .36 seconds off his earlier mark for a victorious time of 48.15 seconds.

Vertin, a sophomore from Brookings, delivered his record-setting effort in the 400 individual medley during the morning preliminaries with a top time of 3 minutes and 57.01 seconds. He slightly fell off that pace during the evening’s final but still triumphed in the event with a time of 3:57.40.

NEW POOL RECORDS: The Jackrabbit men’s and women’s teams have collectively established five new facility records at the Stanley J. Marshall Center Pool throughout the 2024-25 season. Four of these new benchmarks were achieved in relays—three by the men and one by the women:

• Men’s 200 Medley Relay – Liam Murray, Austin Smith, Nik Keuser, and Aiden Carstensen, vs. Iowa Central (Nov. 15, 2024);
• Men’s 400 Medley Relay – Aiden Carstensen, Cody Vertin, Braxton McGrath, and Sam Johnson, vs. Omaha (Dec. 6, 2024);
• Men’s 800 Freestyle Relay – Sam Johnson, Zavier Kranz, Kolden Kringen, and Denilson Cyprianos, vs. Iowa Central (Nov. 15, 2024);
• Women’s 800 Freestyle Relay – Sara Juez, Hannah Miller, Emma Schultz, and Gigi Hioki, vs. Iowa Central (Nov. 15, 2024).

Sam Johnson achieved the sole individual pool record this season with a 200-yard freestyle mark of 1 minute and 41.81 seconds in the Nov. 15 dual against Iowa Central.

CASTRO ACHIEVES NCAA ZONE MARK: Jackrabbit women’s diver Anna Mei Castro registered an NCAA Zones-qualifying score with a winning tally of 282.00 points on the 3-meter board, earning the top spot in the event at the Tommie Invitational on Nov. 22 in St. Paul, Minnesota.

A sophomore from Barcelona, Spain, Castro surpassed the qualifying standard by two points. The Zone D diving meet is scheduled for March 10-12 in Iowa City, Iowa. 

PEAK PERFORMERS: South Dakota State’s Gigi Hioki was recognized Tuesday as the Summit League Peak Women’s Swimmer of the Week after continuing her successful streak in the Jackrabbits’ first competition of the new year.

 

A sophomore from Honolulu, Hawaii, Hioki clinched two individual events and contributed to a relay win in a Jan. 10 dual at Augustana. She claimed the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1 minute and 53.03 seconds, followed by a victory in the 500 freestyle finishing in 5:10.44.

 

To conclude the meet, Hioki swam the lead leg for the Jackrabbits’ triumphant 400 freestyle relay, which combined for a time of 3.31.75.

 

Hioki has prevailed in the 200 freestyle in five of her seven competitions this season and has won the 500 freestyle in four of those seven events.

 

The accolade was the second for Hioki this 2024-25 season, who previously received the honor on Oct. 22.

Additionally, Anna Mei Castro has been recognized as the Summit League Peak Women’s Diver of the Week on two occasions thus far this season.

A sophomore from Barcelona, Spain, Castro led SDSU’s diving team in a season-opening dual at Iowa State on Oct. 10. She finished second on the 3-meter board with a score of 234.07 after six dives and also secured fourth place in the 1-meter competition, achieving 225.82 points.

Castro received recognition once more after securing the 1-meter diving title in a Dec. 6 home dual against Omaha, with a season-high score of 230.48. She also finished as the runner-up on the 3-meter board with a score of 236.35 over six dives.

 

PRESEASON POLL RESULTS:  The South Dakota State men’s swimming and diving team has been forecasted to finish second in the 2024-25 Summit League standings, while the women’s team has been projected to place third in the preseason polls released in early October.

 

The Jackrabbit men gathered 31 points, finishing behind reigning champion Denver, which earned 36 points and six first-place votes. South Dakota obtained the other first-place vote and secured third in the polling, which was conducted among the league’s seven head coaches.

 

SDSU concluded last season in fourth place in the league standings.

 

In the women’s category,SDSU garnered 26 points to position themselves behind Denver (36 points) and South Dakota (31 points). The reigning champion Pioneers acquired six first-place votes to claim the leading position, while USD obtained the remaining first-place vote.

 

The Jackrabbits secured fifth place out of eight teams at the previous season’s conference championships.

 

Four Jackrabbits were recognized as swimmers and divers to keep an eye on for the incoming season. For the SDSU men’s team, Denilson Cyprianos and Reece Reid were highlighted, while Gigi Hioki and Anna Mei Castro were acknowledged on the women’s team.

 

Cyprianos, a graduate student from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, holds the school record in the 200-yard backstroke (1:44.03) and finished second in this event at the 2024 Summit League Championships. Additionally, he achieved sixth-place individual finishes in both the 200 and 500 freestyle events at the league competition.

 

Cyprianos subsequently represented his homeland in the 200-meter backstroke during the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

 

Reid, a sophomore from Keller, Texas, secured 17^th place in 3-meter diving at the 2024 Summit League Championships.

 

Hioki, a sophomore from Liberty Lake, Washington, performed exceptionally in the freestyle events for the Jackrabbit women last season, finishing seventh in both the 200 and 1,650 freestyle at the league championships.

 

Castro, a sophomore hailing from Barcelona, Spain, achieved a ninth-place finish in 1-meter diving at the 2024 Summit League Championships and contributed with a 15^th-place result on the 3-meter board.

COACH HUMPHREY: Doug Humphrey is entering his eighth season as the head coach of the South Dakota State men’s and women’s swimming and diving squads. 

Throughout his initial seven seasons, Humphrey has led the Jackrabbits to top-three team placements at the Summit League Championships five times in the men’s category and three times in the women’s. Both teams recorded second-place finishes at the league meet during the pandemic-affected 2020-21 season.

Before his tenure at SDSU, Humphrey was the head women’s swimming and diving coach at Northern Iowa for five years. His Panther teams demonstrated consistent improvement in the Missouri Valley Conference, including achieving back-to-back third-place finishes at the conference championship during his final two seasons in Cedar Falls.

Humphrey also served as the assistant swimming coach at the University of Nebraska from 2000-12 under Olympic gold medalist Pablo Morales. He competed for the Huskers from 1991-96 and later worked as a graduate assistant coach at his alma mater.

 

A LOOK AHEAD: The Jackrabbits are set to conclude their regular season competition at the two-day Coyote Invite on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 at the Midco Aquatic Center in Sioux Falls.

 

-GoJacks.com-