Five Jackrabbits Named Academic All-League

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - The South Dakota State track and field teams had a total of five Jackrabbits on the Academic All-Summit League team for the 2019 outdoor season, the second-most in the league, announced on Thursday.

Three SDSU men is the most the Jacks have had in the league since the awards were introduced in 2013, continuing the streak of multiple award-winners in Yellow and Blue since the first outdoor academic all-league presentation.

For the women, South Dakota State tied with Oral Roberts for the second-most honors with two each. The team has had at least one academic honoree since 2013 and multiple Jacks named to the list for just the fourth time with three being the most in 2015 (2019, 2018, 2015, 2014).

Individually, seniors Kyle Burdick and Rachel King were the lone Jacks to return to the list with Burdick being named academic all-league for the third time in his career and King being chosen to her second consecutive list.

Burdick, the Rapid City, S.D. native, was recently named Google Cloud Academic All-District by CoSIDA and is the first Jack honored three times in the league (Andrew Thies - 2013, 2015; Drew Kraft - 2014, 2015; Joel Reichow - 2016, 2017).

He is also the sixth SDSU student-athlete on the men's side to be named to the indoor and outdoor list in the same season, the second to be named to the cross country, indoor, and outdoor lists in the same season (with Zenner this year, Joel Reichow - 2016 XC, ITF, OTF; 2017 XC, ITF, OTF; Connor Brannick - 2016 ITF, OTF; Luke Leischner - 2013 ITF, OTF).

It's his seventh academic nod in the league while also earning USTFCCCA's All-Academic for cross country and track and field twice each so far. He finished his outdoor campaign at the NCAA West Preliminaries last weekend with a 14th-place finish (3:43.14) in the 1,500m, two place out from moving onto Austin, and a 46th-place finish (14:51.26) in the 5,000m.

He finished his senior campaign with the indoor and outdoor Summit League Track Championships MVP by scoring 30 points in the indoor title meet and 26 in the outdoor meet, being the first league athlete to win three track MVP's outdoors. He was also the indoor track athlete of the year while being a NCAA All-Regional performer in cross country last fall.

For King, the St. Michael, Minn. native, her senior campaign continues on June 5-8 in Austin as she is the first female Jack to compete on the track at the national championships, in the steeplechase, and the first in NCAA DI west regional era to qualify for the NCAA Championships in back-to-back years (Sara Ackman qualified in Midwest and West DI in 2009-2010).

She earned her second consecutive outdoor academic all-league nomination, being the sixth Jack (with Propst this year, Halie Mechels - 2016 ITF, OTF; Courtney Neubert - 2015 ITF, OTF; Mary With - 2015 ITF, OTF; Ter Potts - 2013 ITF, OTF) named to the list for both the indoor and outdoor season and first to do so in all three seasons in a single academic year (XC, ITF, OTF).

The 2018 All-America Honorable Mention scored The Summit League's Championships Most Outstanding Performer outdoors this year for winning both the 3,000m steeplechase and 5,000m. She was also undefeated at the indoor championships, winning the 3,000m and 5,000m, and was a two-time NCAA All-Regional performer in cross country.

Junior Sam Zenner and senior Rachel Propst join Burdick and King as one of six Jackrabbits from men and women to earn both the indoor and outdoor academic all-league nod. Both Jackrabbits earned their first outdoor academic recognition, second overall (both were on 2019 indoor list).

Zenner, the Eagan Minn. native, helped the Jackrabbits win their first 60m and 200m event titles indoors to earn the recognition. For outdoors, the junior followed teammate Coby Hilton in the 100m and 200m for runner-up finishes and then teamed up with Hilton, Daniel Clarke, and Emmanual Phoulom-Smith to defend the 4x100m relay title.

He is a member three school-record resets in the 4x100m relay (39.99) and is competing in Austin in two weeks as he was a member of The Summit League's first relay squad to qualify for nationals, the first Jackrabbit relay squad to compete at the DI west prelims.

For Propst, the Pierre, S.D. native, ran 11 events in her senior outdoor campaign the included a personal-best reset streak of three in the 800m and four consecutive in the 1,500m to cut 7.26 and 10.14 seconds off each event. She nearly scored in her first 3,000m steeplechase of the season at the league championships while being a member of the winning distance medley squad indoors, earning her first all-league honors of her career.

The third Jackrabbit on the men's side was sophomore Noah Huber, who earned his second career academic all-league nod, first outdoors (2018 indoors).

The Clark, S.D. native finished the season by throwing in three events at The Summit League outdoor championships, scoring fifth in the discus, seventh in the shot put, and 12th in the hammer. His mark in the hammer will be No. 7 all-time (178-03.00) for SDSU while he moved to No. 10 all-time (166-07.00) in the discus and No. 3 (56-08.75) in the shot put earlier in the season.

He also scored five event wins, two in the shot put and three in the discus.

ACADEMIC ALL-SUMMIT LEAGUE JACKRABBITS
Sr. Kyle Burdick - Natural Resource Law Enforcement - 3.79 Undergrad/4.00 Grad GPA
Jr. Sam Zenner - Operations Management - 3.66 GPA
So. Noah Huber - Public Relations - 3.86 - GPA
Sr. Rachel King - Community & Public Health (Spanish Minor) - 3.87 GPA
Sr. Rachel Propst - Pharmacy - 4.00 GPA

SOCIAL MEDIA
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UP NEXT
Senior Rachel King, along with junior Sam Zenner, sophomores Coby Hilton and Daniel Clarke, and freshman Emmanual Phoulom-Smith, will compete at the NCAA DI Outdoor Track and Field National Championships on June 5-8.

-GoJacks.com-

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Players Mentioned

Kyle Burdick

Samuel Coil

Coby Hilton

Noah Huber

Rachel King

Halie Mechels

Emmanual Phoulom-Smith

Rachel Propst

Sam Zenner

Completed Event: Men's Track and Field at NCAA Championships on June 11, 2025 , , No Team Score

Completed Event: Men's Track and Field at NCAA West First Round on May 28, 2025 , , No Team Score

Completed Event: Men's Track and Field at Summit League Championships on May 15, 2025 , , 1st of 6 -- 197

Completed Event: Men's Track and Field at Cyclone Twilight on May 9, 2025 , , No Team Score

Completed Event: Men's Track and Field at USD Last Chance on May 9, 2025 , , No Team Score

Completed Event: Men's Track and Field at USD Invite on May 3, 2025 , , No Team Score

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