SIX HONORED WITH OUTSTANDING JACKRABBIT AWARD

Six South Dakota State student-athletes — three men and three women — were recently recognized for their many accomplishments with the Outstanding Jackrabbit Senior Athlete Award.

The honorees were:

Isaiah Davis, football;
Maya Hansen, soccer;
Leah Hisken, cross country/track and field;
Tori Kniesche, softball;
Mason McCormick, football, and
Tanner Sloan, wrestling.

Isaiah Davis
A native of Joplin, Missouri, Davis earned Co-Missouri Valley Football Conference Offensive Player of the Year honors and was a consensus All-America selection in 2003 after leading the Football Championship Subdivision with 1,578 rushing yards and adding 18 touchdowns on the ground. He finished his career third on the all-time Jackrabbit charts with 4,548 rushing yards and 50 rushing touchdowns.

Davis topped the 100-yard mark in 24 career games, 12 of which were FCS playoff contests. He was selected to play in the Reese's Senior Bowl and was a fifth-round draft choice of the New York Jets.

Maya Hansen
Hansen set school records for career goals (44) and points scored (107) and was a four-time all-Summit League selection. A native of Savage, Minnesota, Hansen began her career by being named Summit League Freshman of the Year in 2019 and was selected as the Summit League Offensive Player of the Year in 2022, when she scored 11 goals and added seven assists.

Hansen earned the first of two all-West Region selections with a career-high 14 goals in 2021. She also was a key member of Jackrabbit teams that made three NCAA appearances (2019, 2021, 2023).

Leah (Hansen) Hisken
Hisken will close her career as one of the most decorated distance runners in school history after winning 10 individual Summit League titles entering her final postseason competition. She won three consecutive individual titles in both cross country (2020-22) and the 5,000-meter run outdoors (2021-23). In addition, she claimed two Summit League championships in the indoor 5,000 meters (2022-23) and outdoor 10,000 meters (2021, 2023).

A native of Willmar, Minnesota, Hisken also helped lead the Jackrabbit women's cross country team to back-to-back Summit League championships in 2020 (spring 2021) and 2021. She also earned an individual bid to the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championship in the spring of 2021.

Tori Kniesche
Kniesche has rewritten the Jackrabbit record book for pitching, holding career marks for wins (78), strikeouts (895), earned run average (1.58), shutouts (38) and no-hitters (9) entering postseason play this spring. The Wayne, Nebraska, native has been a four-time all-league performer and was honored as Summit League Pitcher of the Year in both 2021 and 2023.

With Kniesche anchoring the pitching staff, SDSU won four consecutive Summit League regular season titles (2021-24) and made NCAA appearances in 2021 and 2022.

Mason McCormick
McCormick started 57 consecutive games at guard for the Jackrabbits from 2019-23 and was a consensus All-America selection his final two seasons as SDSU claimed back-to-back Football Championship Subdivision national titles. A native of Sioux Falls, McCormick was a three-time team captain and a four-time all-Missouri Valley Football Conference honoree.

Following his final season, he was selected to play in the East-West Shrine Bowl and was later chosen in the fourth round of the NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Tanner Sloan
Sloan was a mainstay in the Jackrabbit wrestling lineup at 197 pounds and earned All-America recognition three times. A five-time NCAA qualifier, Sloan was named a second-team All-American by the National Wrestling Coaches Association after the COVID-shortened 2019-20 season, then wrestled his way to a runner-up finish at the 2023 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships and a fifth-place effort in 2024. He also claimed the Big 12 title his final season.

For his career, Sloan compiled a 113-23 career record, including a 63-4 mark in duals. The Alburnett, Iowa, native ended his career with a 39-match winning streak in duals.

In addition, 19 Jackrabbit senior student-athletes were honored as Impact Award winners in their respective sports. Those honorees included:

Baseball: Nic McCay, Dawson Parry
Men's Basketball: Charlie Easley, Matt Mims
Women's Basketball: Tori Nelson
Football: Jason Freeman, DyShawn Gales, Garret Greenfield, Zach Heins, Jadon Janke, Jaxon Janke, Isaiah Stalbird
Soccer: Reagan Anderson, Jocelyn Tanner
Softball: Jocelyn Carrillo, Rozelyn Carrillo, Lindsey Culver, Emma Osmundson
Wrestling: Clay Carlson

Nelson (exercise science/community and public health) and Tanner (mathematics) were also two of the four recipients of the Jackrabbit Scholar-Athlete Award, earning the honor alongside cross country/track and field student-athletes Caitlin Bright (human biology) and Daniel Burkhalter (mathematics). All four honorees compiled perfect 4.0 grade-point averages in their undergraduate coursework.

In addition, Team Scholar Awards were presented to the women's basketball and women's golf teams. Both squads recorded cumulative team GPAs of 3.76.

-GoJacks.com-

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Players Mentioned

Reagan Anderson

Caitlin Bright

Daniel Burkhalter

Clay Carlson

Jocelyn Carrillo

Rozelyn Carrillo

Lindsey Culver

Isaiah Davis

Charlie Easley

Jason Freeman

DyShawn Gales

Garret Greenfield

Maya Hansen

Zach Heins

Leah Hisken

Jadon Janke

Jaxon Janke

Tori Kniesche

Nic McCay

Mason McCormick

Matt Mims

Tori Nelson

Emma Osmundson

Dawson Parry

Tanner Sloan

Isaiah Stalbird

Jocelyn Tanner

South Dakota State University Athletics