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• This season, Kastigar is swimming for Grand Canyon University in Arizona.
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• Prep Girls' Coach
• It's hard to argue that Lyle Pearson wasn't the right man for the job. After all, the Lincoln Patriots experienced as much adversity as any Class AA team last season, and through it all, Pearson steadied the ship all the way to the program's first girls state basketball title.
• When standout point guard Darby Hugunin went down temporarily with a broken forearm, Pearson and the Pats found strength in numbers as players outside of Lincoln's "Big 3" shouldered the responsibility of larger roles.
• And when the Patriots (17-8) entered the state tournament as the fifth seed, they played underdog-turned-victor to all three opponents as they knocked off rival Roosevelt and top-seeded Aberdeen Central by a combined six points before pouring it on in a 51-36 win over defending champ Mitchell.
• "The big word I've been reading the last few days is, 'upset, upset,' and I'm sure tomorrow morning we'll read upset again," Pearson said following the championship game. "But thankfully, we're out of upsets."
• Pearson, who also led the Lincoln boys to a state title in 1995, resigned in June after compiling a 66-48 record in five seasons as the girls coach.
• "I said in the interview that I'd go five years and then we'd take a look at it," he said. "What I was hoping to do was build it up a little and see if we could get 'em on the right track. I'd like to think we did that."
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• Prep Girls' Team
• The Ipswich girls are dominating the high school State B running scene in South Dakota.
• The Tigers won their fourth straight State B cross country championship this past fall. Ipswich placed five runners among the top 16 place winners without a senior in the bunch.
• Ipswich also has won the last two State B track and field championships.
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• College Men's Athlete
• The Yankton native was named Summit League Pitcher of the Year while helping South Dakota State win the conference post-season title and earn the school's first berth in the NCAA Division I Tournament.
• Somsen, a right-hander, had a 1.87 ERA and struck out 91 batters in 91 1/3 innings. He limited opponents to a .196 batting average. Somsen recorded a quality start (three earned runs or less and at least six innings pitched) in 12 of his 13

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