Still Competing: Sixty-one former area standouts playing spring sports in college

Sixty-one former area high school standouts are competing this spring for college athletic teams in at least eight states.

The athletes were listed on rosters published on web sites for colleges in South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Texas.

Here is the list of area athletes competing on the college teams that have opened their 2022 spring seasons:

South Dakota

• South Dakota State — Pierre Lear of Brandon (Watertown High School grad) and Jake Werner of Watertown, men’s track and field; and Annabelle Hawley of Clear Lake, Greta Johnson of Estelline and Faith Leiseth of Hayti, women’s track and field.

• South Dakota — Alayna Falak and Maggie Heesch of Watertown, women’s track and field.

• Augustana University — Gavin Hibbert of Watertown, men’s golf; and Rachel Halverson of Madison (Minn.), women’s golf.

• Northern State — Alex Gauer of Watertown, baseball; Tanner Berg of Watertown and Austin Moen of Roslyn, men’s track and field; and Tava Berg of Watertown, Kenzie Hamann of Clear Lake and Vanessa Klein of Rosholt, women’s track and field.

• Sioux Falls — Avery Bartunek of Dawson (Minn.), Olivia Fox and Sierra Stanton of Watertown and Greta Snaza of Milbank, women’s track and field; and Rhianna Cantine of Milbank, women’s tennis.

• Black Hills State — Sully Mack of Watertown, men’s track and field; and Whitney Scott of Watertown, women’s track and field.

• Dakota State — Nick Geffre and Braxton Lacher of Watertown and Nicholai Arbach of Hayti, baseball; Nathan Ingalls and Caleb Roberts of Watertown, men’s track and field; and Jada Anderson of Watertown and Shaylee DeBeer of White, women’s track and field.

• Mount Marty — Mitchell and Jackson Noem of Lake Norden, baseball; and Courtney and Kelsey Heath of Sisseton, women’s golf.

• Dakota Wesleyan — Cody Cavanaugh of De Smet, men’s golf; Kaylee Johnson of Hendricks, Minn. (Estelline grad), women’s golf; Destinee Nelson of Henry, women’s softball; and Zach Fieber of Goodwin, men’s track and field.

North Dakota

• North Dakota State — Jacob Van Dusseldorp of Watertown, men’s track and field.

• Jamestown — Tyler Dean of Watertown, men’s track and field.

• Valley City State — Brady Femling of Milbank, men’s track and field.

Minnesota

• Southwest Minnesota State — Jerod Cyrus of Watertown, baseball; Courtni Frank of Hendricks, Minn. (Deubrook Area grad), women’s golf; Rylie Brown of Lake Preston, women’s track and field; and Nathan Lear of Brandon (formerly of Watertown), men’s track and field.

• Minnesota State Mankato — Jake Wagner of Gary, men’s golf; and Sophie Tietz of Watertown, women’s track and field.

• Minnesota Morris — Jenica Moes of Kranzburg, women’s track and field.

• Minnesota Crookston — Abby Stender of Madison (Minn.), women’s golf; and Delaney Lancaster of Watertown, Equestrian-Jumping Seat.

• Martin Luther — Elena Hoffman of Florence women’s softball.

• Bethany Lutheran — Nicholas Hansen of Watertown, men’s golf; and Chloe Kuhlman of Watertown, women’s track and field.

Iowa

• Dordt — Ashley Vandermeer of White, women’s track and field.

Wisconsin

• Wisconsin Lutheran — Natalie Lendt of Watertown, women’s track and field.

Texas

• Baylor — Cooper Mack of Watertown, men’s track and field.

Missouri

• Evangel — Grant DeWitt of Watertown and Nash Grantham of Hayti, men's track and field; and Brylie Arnold of Hazel, Megan Hauger of Watertown and Camille Stevenson of Lake Norden, women's track and field.

Tennessee

• Belmont — McKenna Prouty of Watertown, women's track and field.

This article originally appeared on Watertown Public Opinion: Still Competing: Sixty-one former area standouts playing spring sports in college