Pryor family reunited at Wachs Arena

Northern State senior men’s basketball player Collin Pryor had a memorable family reunion at Wachs Arena this past weekend.

 Pryor’s mother, Wendy, and sister, Hannah, attended this past weekend’s NSU basketball games. It was the first time the Pryors, who live in Illinois, had seen Collin play in person for the Wolves.

 “I’m so proud of him and all of the accomplishments he has done over five years,” Wendy said. “Being able to finally see him play on his home court, it has been a really good blessing.”

 Wendy and Hannah were going to attend an NSU home game last season. However, Pryor got injured when they planned on coming to Aberdeen. The Pryors did not tell Collin they were going to be in Aberdeen on Friday and Saturday for last weekend’s games.

 “He got surprised this (Friday) afternoon with a few tears in his eyes,” Wendy said. “We got him good. We have been planning it for quite awhile.”

 The Pryors picked a good weekend to attend their first NSU games. On Saturday, it was the annual “I Hate Winter” Night and Parent’s Night as well. The annual event drew a season-high crowd of 5,234 fans on Saturday.

 “It has just been nice knowing that there is so many caring people here in Aberdeen that have had his best interests at heart and taken care of him,” Wendy said. “It has meant a lot to me as a mom knowing that this town has really embraced him and taken such good care of him. It makes me feel good.”

School records broken

 The Northern State swimming team scored a total of 693 team points to finish sixth at the recent Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference meet in Rochester, Minn., this past weekend.

 The Wolves recorded nine school records in the course of the four-day tournament, which wrapped up on Sunday. Samantha Gunning earned a third place finish in the 200-yard butterfly on Sunday. She recorded a school record in the event with a time of 2-minutes and :08.52 seconds.

 The relay team of Gunning, Allie Samuels, Ashley LaFave and Sara Peterson placed sixth with the school record time of 3:39.31 in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

 Five Wolves participated in the 1,650 yard freestyle marathon, all scoring for the team. Mikaela Waiflein was the first in for NSU in tenth place with a time of 18:25.58, just short of the school record. Brianna Iverson finished in 19th at the 19:32.64 mark. Cynthia Konechne, Elizabeth Cvrk and Brittany Hiten finished within seconds of each other at the 20 minute mark for 20th, 21st and 22nd place.

 Amanda Taylor recorded another school record in the 200-yard backstroke with a ninth place finish at 2:08.58 shattering the previous record of 2:11.51.

Staff reports

NSIC basketball tournament

 The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference basketball seasons are coming to a close.

 The teams have two more weekends left in the regular season. The regular season champion will be based on the 22-game NSIC schedule. A NSIC North and South Division Champion will also be awarded.

 Divisional standings will also be based on all 22 NSIC contests played. In the case of a tie, co-champions will be awarded. The 16-team NSIC/Sanford Health basketball tournament will be Feb. 27 and March 2 at the higher seed. The semifinals and championships will be March 8-9 at Taylor Arena in Rochester, Minn.

 The tournaments will be seeded as follows. No. 1 seed in the NSIC North Standings will host the No. 8 seed in the NSIC South Standings. No. 2 seed will host the No. 7 seed, etc. The No. 1 seed in the South will host the No. 8 seed in the North and so on. The single elimination bracket is a fixed bracket, no reseeding will take place.

Staff reports

TBC player honored tonight

 Trinity Bible College senior Mikey Rosario will be honored tonight at the Ray Ulmer Field House in Ellendale, N.D.

 Rosario became TBC’s all-time scoring leader last weekend and will be honored before the Lions play United Tribes Technical College at 8 tonight. He now has 2,205 points.

 Bill Jackson had the TBC record with 2,184 career points from 1995-99. Third on the Lions’ all-time list is Bill Schofield (1994-98) with 2,134 points and Vaughn Jordan (2004-08) is fourth with 2,056 points.

Staff reports

Quickly

 Eureka graduate and University of South Dakota runner broke his own school record in the 3,000-meter run at the Iowa State Classic this past Saturday in Ames, Iowa. Mettler won the men’s 3,000-meters in 8:09.82, which cut five seconds off the previous USD record of 8:15:06 that he set at the Jack Johnson Invitational on Jan. 19. His time is tops on the Summit League performance list.

 South Dakota State guard Nate Wolters was named Summit League Men’s Basketball Player of the Week. Wolters garnered his 13th career accolade and fifth of the season after a record-setting performance. Against Fort Wayne, Wolters posted an NCAA season-best scoring performance with 53 points to set a school-record and a Summit League record for a regulation game. Two days later, Wolters put up 36 points to go along with seven assists and six rebounds at Oakland.

 South Dakota State center Katie Lingle was named the Summit League Women’s Basketball Player of the Week after helping lead the Jackrabbits to two conference wins. The senior from Pierre averaged 14 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.5 blocked shots and two assists per game in wins over IPFW and Oakland.

 The Colorado State men’s basketball team has cracked the Associated Press Top-25 Poll for the first time since the 1953-54 season. The Rams are ranked No. 24 in both the AP Poll and the USA Today Coaches Polls. Yankton senior Colton Iverson is a senior center for the Rams.

 Colorado State also boasts the nation’s third-longest active home win streak, having dispatched 26 straight opponents at Moby Arena, dating back to No. 19, 2011. The streak ranks behind only Syracuse (37) and South Dakota State (28), and ahead of Marquette (22) and Iowa State (20) to round out the top five.

College Plus is a weekly feature on Tuesdays in the American News during the college sports season. If you have news tips or suggestions, email jpapendick@aberdeennews.com or call 605-622-2323.