Timber Lake native Tucker Kraft, a key member of the Green Bay Packers quest for a playoff berth, has been chosen as South Dakotas Sports Celebrity for 2024 by the South Dakota Sportswriters Association.
The SDSWA has chosen honorees in several categories since the 1950s. Here are this years honorees:
Sports Celebrity
Tucker Kraft, Timber Lake
A Timber Lake native, Tucker Kraft has emerged as one of the top NFL tight ends this season.
Kraft is top-10 among NFL tight ends for yards with 555 on 41 catches. He has hauled in seven touchdown catches, second in the NFL among tight ends.
A 6-foot-5, 260-pound tight end, Kraft is a second-year tight end for the Packers. Hes hauled in 72 career receptions for 910 yards and nine touchdown catches. Kraft has caught two or more catches in 13 of Green Bays 14 games this season.
Krafts best game was four catches for 88 yards and two touchdown receptions in Green Bays 24-19 win over Los Angeles Rams.
Kraft was an All-American tight end at South Dakota State University, helping the Jacks win the 2022 FCS National Championship.
Independent Male Athlete
Miles Krajewski, Yankton
Yanktons Miles Krajewski broke new ground for the United States in the sport of badminton in 2024.
Krajewski, competing in short stature mixed doubles at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris, teamed with Jayci Simon to earn silver in mixed doubles. It was the first time Americans had ever earned a medal, Olympic or Paralympic, in the sport of badminton.
Krajewski returned home to fanfare, including a parade in Vermillion, where he is a freshman at the University of South Dakota, and roadway signs celebrating him in Yankton.
Independent Female Athlete
Taryn Kloth, Sioux Falls
A Sioux Falls native, Taryn Kloth competed for Team USA at the 2024 Olympic Games in beach volleyball.
Kloth and teammate Kristen Nuss advanced to the Round of 16, finishing tied for ninth place. Kloth finished their final match with 11 kills in 28 swings while adding six digs and four blocks.
Ranked second in the world, Kloth and Nuss were making their Olympic debuts. Kloth and Nuss entered the Round of 16 with a 3-0 record, dropping just one set en route to winning Pool B.
An OGorman graduate, Kloth was the seventh former Creighton student-athlete to appear in an Olympics, and first female. Kloth played indoor volleyball at Creighton from 2015-18, where she was a two-time AVCA Honorable Mention All-American and MVP of the 2017 Big East Tournament. She then had a two-year career in beach volleyball at LSU.
Independent Team
Dell Rapids PBR Amateur Baseball
Dell Rapids PBR amateur baseball won its first state championship since 2007 but brought the clubs all-time total to 10 championships with a 3-1 win over Platte in Mitchell on Aug. 18. The championship game was a comeback effort, rallying from a 1-0 deficit with three runs in the eighth inning. Drew Sweeter was the tournament MVP with four RBIs and two wins on the mound, plus a save in the tournament, while Brayden Pankonen, Heith Williams, Riley Hoffman and Trey Randel were picked to the all-tournament team.
For the season, Dell Rapids PBR, managed by Dale Solberg, finished 16-12 and finished fifth in the Cornbelt League during the season. It was the fourth-straight year the Class B state champion has come from the Cornbelt, following titles from the Dell Rapids Mudcats and Canova.
College Male Athlete
Mason Schleis, Mount Marty
A strong finish in the final event made Mason Schleis the first national champion in Mount Marty track and field history.
Entering the 1,000-meter run of the heptathlon at the NAIA Indoor Championships in Brookings, Schleis was sitting in fourth place. He won the 1,000 in 2:40.08 to claim the title by three points with 5,157 points. It broke his school record by 138 points.
Schleis, a graduate student from Shelby, Nebraska, went on to add a fourth place finish in the decathlon in May.
College Mens Coach
Jerry Olszewski, Augustana Football
Olszewski was named the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conferences coach of the year for the fourth time in 2024. He led Augustana to back-to-back conference titles for the first time since 1942, with an 8-2 mark in NSIC play, topping out with a No. 10 national ranking in November in the D2football.com national rankings. The Vikings also reached the NCAA Division II football playoffs for the fourth time in five seasons.
Olszewski also made Vikings football history, becoming Augies all-time winningest coach in October with a road win over No. 13-ranked Minnesota State and passing former coach Jim Heinitz. For his career, Olszewski is 82-45 in 12 seasons with the Vikings, with 114 career coaching wins to his name. He was also the American Football Coaches Associations regional coach of the year in Division II.
College Mens Team
South Dakota Football
The South Dakota football program continued to reach new milestones in 2024.
A season after the Coyotes made their first-ever FCS quarterfinal appearance, USD advanced to the FCS semifinals with a 35-21 victory over UC Davis on Dec. 14 before falling to top-seeded Montana State 31-17.
USD also earned a share of the Missouri Valley Football Conference title with a 29-28 victory over North Dakota State on Nov. 23. The win left USD, NDSU and South Dakota State each at 7-1. All three of the co-champions advanced to the FCS semifinals.
College Female Athlete
Jacy Pulse, South Dakota
Pulse, from Salem, capped her senior season as the Summit Leagues outdoor womens track athlete of the year, winning the Summit title in the 400 hurdles and finishing 12th nationally to earn All-America honors for the second time. She was also a conference champion in the 4×100-meter relay, finishing as a 14-time Summit League event champion overall. In the indoor season, she finished as the Summit League champion in the open 400 for the second year in a row. Pulse also finished with the USD school record and the South Dakota collegiate record in the 400 hurdles (56.11 seconds, set in 2023) and was part of four Coyote-record outdoor relay times in 2024.
Pulse also qualified for the 400 hurdles at the U.S. Olympic Trials, where she finished 20th. She also earned conference scholar-athlete of the year honors, with a 3.96 grade-point average while studying nursing.
College Womens Coach
Dan Georgalas, South Dakota State Volleyball
In his fifth season in 2024, Georgalas led SDSU to a 27-3 season and the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2007. Georgalas was tabbed the Summit League coach of the year for the first time after the Jacks were picked sixth in the preseason by the leagues fellow coaches. It was an 18-win turnaround from 2023 and SDSU started with a school-record 22 straight wins to open the season, standing as the nations last undefeated team.
Powered by conference player of the year Sylvie Zgonc and freshman player of the year Madison Burr, the Jacks won the Summit League regular-season title and earned SDSUs first at-large bid to the NCAA tournament in program history. It was also SDSUs best season by winning percentage since the NCAA began sanctioning volleyball in 1981.
College Womens Team
South Dakota State Basketball
The 2023-24 season was another stellar one for the South Dakota State University womens basketball team, which went 27-6 overall and posted a second consecutive unbeaten season in the Summit League (16-0).
Coach Aaron Johnstons squad also won the Summit League postseason tournament and earned the leagues automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Tournament. A first-round loss to No. 5 Utah did not diminish the Jackrabbits notable season.
This is the 10th time and first since 2016 that the Jackrabbits have been selected as the states college womens team of the year since the award was started in 1980.
SDSU is pretty much an annual contender for the award, having won 10 Summit League regular season and 11 postseason titles along with 12 NCAA tournament trips since 2007.
High School Boys Athlete
Luke Koepsell, Howard
Koepsell was an all-state performer in basketball, baseball and football. Koepsell was also instrumental in delivering a pair of state championships to the Howard Tigers.
Koepsell averaged 15.6 points, seven rebounds and 2.8 assists per game for the Class B boys basketball state champs. A second-team all-stater, Koepsell scored 16 points in Howards 60-55 overtime over De Smet for the state championship.
During the spring baseball season, Koepsell was first-team all-stater for the Class B state runner-up Tigers. He posted a .480 batting average with 15 RBIs, while finishing with a 3-1 record on the mound and a 0.73 ERA.
On the football field, Koepsell capped off the 2024 calendar year with another state championship, winning the Class 9A title. Koepsell was again key in another Tiger championship, recording four receptions for 100 yards and two touchdown catches. Defensively, he added seven tackles and one sack. He was named the Joe Robbie MVP and Outstanding Lineman of the Class 9A game, a 38-30 win over Wolsey-Wessington.
Koepsell finished the football season with 36 receptions for 378 yards and nine touchdowns on offense. He added 69 tackles and six sacks on defense. He finished his football career with 999 yards receiving and 25 touchdowns, while he had 224 tackles and 20 sacks on defense.
A 6-foot-4, 220-pounder, Koepsell will play college baseball at Dakota Wesleyan University.
High School Boys Coach
Ralph Kroetch, Philip Cross Country
Kroetch and the Scotties won their third straight Class B cross-country championship in October. The Scotties joined St. Francis Indian (1972-74), Wessington Springs (2007-09) and Parker (2010-12) as the only Class B teams that have won three consecutive state team titles.
Kroetch was named the South Dakota boys cross country coach of the year by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
High School Boys Team
Sioux Falls Lincoln Tennis
It was business as usual for the Sioux Falls Lincoln tennis team. The Patriots won their 10th straight state championship this past May.
Lincoln finished with 555.5 team points, well ahead of runner-up OGorman with 428.
The Patriots had four individual champions, a runner-up finish and a third-place finish in singles action to fuel the team title. Rocky McKenzie (first flight), River McKenzie (third flight), Christopher Tao (fourth flight), and Conner Husser (sixth flight) all won singles championships, while Drew Gohl (second flight) was second, and Jacob Husser (fifth flight) finished third. Lincoln also won two of the three doubles championships and finished second in the other flight.
High School Girls Athlete
Libby Castelli, OGorman
OGorman High School senior Libby Castelli enjoyed another stellar year as a distance runner in cross country and track as well as soccer for the Knights.
Castelli, who has signed to run cross country and track at the University of North Carolina, won the Class AA 800, 1,600 and 3,200-meter runs and also ran on the runner-up sprint medley relay team in the state high school track meet. She did double duty in the fall, earning Class AA all-state soccer honors for a fourth-straight year whil ealso placing third in the state Class AA cross country meet.
Earlier this month, she placed 84th out of 199 runners in the Nike Cross Country Nationals at Portland, Ore.
In her career, she has placed in 15 events at the state track meet with five firsts and six seconds, placed third or better in four state cross country meets (including a victory in 2023) and received a second team and three first-team Class AA all-state selections in soccer.
High School Girls Coach
Audra Rew, Mitchell Gymnastics
Rew led the Kernels to their ninth Class AA state championship in February, winning the state team title with 151.444 points. That was a Mitchell High School team record and the best team score at a state meet since 2013. Over the summer, Rews team was recognized by the National High School Gymnastics Association as the nations No. 1 team by scoring average. Powered by standouts Bentley Bates and Olivia Prunty, the Kernels also claimed three of the five Class AA individual event titles, as well.
All nine state championships have been since 2007 under Rew, and its the third state championship in the last four seasons for the Kernels. Rew called it her best and most talented team shes coached while at Mitchell.
High School Girls Team
Harrisburg Volleyball
Harrisburg continues to be the gold standard when it comes to volleyball in the state. The Tigers capped another undefeated season by winning their third straight state championship. Harrisburg has won 78 matches in a row and this past season won 84 out of its 91 sets played.
The Tigers had two of the six first-team all-state selections, Class AA Miss Volleyball Maggie Meister, and Gabi Zachariasen. Josalyn Samuels was a second-team all-state selection.
Harrisburg became the first Class AA team to win three state championships in a row since three classes were created in 1992.
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