RAPID CITY, S.D. -- September 20, 2022 – For the third consecutive year, the Chadron State College golf team won a fall tournament in South Dakota, taking home the team trophy on Tuesday at the Hardrocker Invite at The Golf Club at Red Rocks in Rapid City. The Eagles, as did most other teams in the field, added strokes in the second round but came up victorious by 13 over the better of host South Dakota Mines' two team entrants.

The Eagles won the 2020 Yellow Jacket Fall Classic, hosted by Black Hills State, and last year's Hardrocker Invite, before carding 332-343-675 in this year's event, which is 17 strokes back of last year's performance at the same course.

CSC was without last week's No. 3 golfer, junior Brooke Kramer, who tied for the team's second-best round one at 79 last week before a hand injury took her out of the event.

"It was a great team effort," said CSC Head Golf Coach John Ritzen. "This is usually the most difficult course we play all year, so we really tried to take the focus off of our scores and just play solid golf. It was more of a mental test, which will help us moving forward."

Ironically, Chadron State led in every team statistical category this week except for birdies and eagles.

CSC senior Alpine Hickstein was the runner-up at the event, recording 77-85-162. She trailed the individual champ, Rianna Garland of South Dakota Mines, by four strokes over 36 holes. Statisically, Hickstein tied for the tourney lead on her par threes, at plus-two, and trailed only teammate Kinsey Smith for holes at even par.

The Eagles had four golfers in the top 10 on the leaderboard, in a field of 40.

Smith, a junior, tied for third at 82-84-166, while classmate Kenzey Kanno was sixth with a card showing 86-83-169. Those two played with the scoring groups and counted both rounds toward the team score.

Additionally, true freshman Aubree Heinsma of Windsor, Colorado, a high school teammate of Smith's in 2019, tied for eighth, putting together an 82-89-171 showing as an individual performer.

Freshman Payton Wise of Kimball, Nebraska, another individual golfer, was the fifth CSC player in the top half of the field, firing 87-92-179 for 20th.

Chadron State will travel to Marshall, Minnesota, in a quicker turnaround than usual, to play at the Mustang Invite on Marshall Golf Course on Saturday and Sunday.

CSC individual results:
2, Alpine Hickstein, 77-85-162; T3, Kinsey Smith, 82-84-166; 6, Kenzey Kanno, 86-83-169; T8, Aubree Heinsma, 82-89-171; 20, Payton Wise, 87-92-179; T21, Allison Acosta, 87-94-181; T27, Jordan Grasis, 97-91-188.

Team Scores
1, Chadron State, 332-343-675; 2, South Dakota Mines A, 342-346-688; 3, Montana State-Billings, 348-350-698; 4, South Dakota Mines B, 345-355-700; 5, Minot State, 353-352-705; 6, Black Hills State A, 354-372-726; 7, Black Hills State B, 375-386-761.

Three-match streak comes to an end Tuesday vs non-conference opponent

CHADRON, Neb. -- September 20, 2022 -- The Chadron State volleyball team dropped a non-conference match on Tuesday night against Texas A&M University-Kingsville in three sets, (23-25, 15-25, 18-25). The Eagles drop to 5-8 on the year and their overall win streak of three comes to a close.

"We came out flat and weren't able to get into any rhythm," said CSC Head Volleyball Coach Jennifer Stadler. "We need to come into each match with intensity and we just didn't have that tonight."

The Eagles struggled offensively hitting .108 while Mayson Fago, and Bella Adams led the Eagles with 6 kills each.

The Eagles also struggled on the defensive end as well with only four blocks, led by Ayiana Fujiyama with three assists and one solo stop.

The first set was the closest the Eagles got to stealing a set from the Javelinas. They faced an early deficit trailing 6-3 but went on a 7-2 run, sparked by a kill from Adams, to take the lead back. CSC and TAMUK went back and forth through the rest of the set, knotting the score at 23-23, before TAMUK took the next two points to take a 1-0 lead.

The second set was back and forth also, with neither team giving ground, until TAMUK went on a 10-1 run led by Madelyn Wallace, to go up 22-13 on the Eagles. The Eagles were able to scrape out two more points before the Javelinas closed it out at 25-15.

The third set again began with a see-saw between the teams. Down 10-9, the Eagles won three consecutive points to go up by two, before TAMUK countered with the next four, and never trailed again in the match.

The Eagles will be back in the Chicoine Center to play Fort Lewis on Friday, September 23, and Western Colorado on September 24. CSC volleyball is dedicating Friday's match as Mental Health Awareness Night, and will be honoring campus counselors.

John Axtell to enter CSC Athletics Hall of Fame

CHADRON, Neb. -- September, 21, 2022 -- A tenth member has been added to the Chadron State College Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2022. Longtime local broadcaster John Axtell was the Voice of the Eagles for 28 seasons from 1988-89 through 2014-15. 

John says he was completely surprised by the honor because while he'd hoped to be picked someday, he's a member of the Hall of Fame Selection Committee and its members are barred from being chosen.

He also was presented the college's Distinguished Service Award in 1998.

John says he had no idea the others met remotely a couple weeks after the initial nine members of the Class of 2022 were selected and unanimously waived the rule and elected him.

When he came to Chadron in Jan 1987, he was news director at KCSR-AM and KQSK-FM, which were owned by the same company. He added the job of sports director in mid-1988, and went with KQSK to Eagle Communications when the stations were sold to different companies in July 1991. 

He remained with Eagle until April 2015, when he returned to KCSR, now owned by Dennis and Kathi Brown, as news director. His current run of 7-½ years as news director is the longest in the station's more than 60-year history. His initial run of 4-½ years is the second-longest. 

In his 28 years broadcasting Chadron State sports, John called 293 football games, more than 700 men's basketball games, more than 400 women's basketball games, and a handful of volleyball matches and softball games.

John estimates he traveled more than 3,500 miles for CSC sports each year and a lot more some years with trips to places such as Bellingham, Wash., Huntsville, Texas, and Las Vegas, Nev.

He recalls racking up more than 3,500 miles of windshield time less than two weeks on basketball trips to Butte, Mont., Las Vegas, N.M. and Hays, Kan.

There was also the year the football game got back to Chadron from Sacramento, late on a Saturday night and he and head trainer Don Watt left the next morning with the men's basketball team for a week-long trip to Brookings, S.D., and Duluth, Minn.

The other members of the Hall of Fame Class of 2022 are football players Mitch Berry, Casey Haldeman, Shawn Eisenreich, Bryce Flammang and Layne Sievers; track and field All-Americans Joel Duffield and Jacqueline Wells Hobbs; basketball standout Bec Kyba Ray; and breakaway roper Jennifer Nelson Gale.     

All will be inducted at a banquet Saturday, Oct,, 15, at 6 p.m. in the CSC Student Center. Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for those 18 years and younger. Dinner tickets may be purchased at www.chadroneagles.com/tickets.