Category Archives: Sports

Dan Aaker, Winner activities director, has been named the Region 7 Athletic Director of the Year.
The selection was made by the South Dakota Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association.  The honors were announced at the spring conference March 31 in Sioux Falls.

Winner High School girls basketball coach Larry Aaker has been named the Region 8 coach of the year.

Aaker guided the Winner Lady Warriors to the State A tournament in Watertown. At the state meet, the Lady Warriors took second place as they fell to St. Thomas More in the championship game.

Devon Leiferman of the Winner High School boys basketball team has been named to the second team of the Class A all-state team.

The Winner senior helped the Warriors to the state tournament.

Leiferman averaged 17.1 points per game, 9.2 rebounds, 36 assists and 33 steals. 
He had a career high of 31 points against Todd County and 16 rebounds against MVP at state.

“Devon is a great kid. He worked hard over the summer to improve in all areas of his game,” said coach Brett Gardner. “He is a leader by example and made sure others followed this year. We are excited about Devon getting recognition and we know this is a great individual award but it goes hand in hand with our team success,” said Gardner.

Matt Campbell of Colome won both the shot put and the discus at the SCC meet in Lake Andes on April 5.

The Colome junior has his best throw in the discus with a throw of 160-1. In the shot put, Campbell won with a throw of 45-5.

The Cowboys scored 56 points in the meet.

Colome boys basketball coach Drew Weber has been named the Region 8 boys coach of the year. The selection was made by the South Dakota Basketball Coaches Association.

Weber shares the award with Jay Jacobs of Little Wound.

Weber led the Cowboys to a 16-7 record and to the school’s first district championship in 37 years.

Reed Harter of Colome has been named to the Class B basketball all-state first team.

Harter, who was the point leader on the Colome basketball team, is the first Colome Cowboy since 1978 to be named to the all-state team and only the third one in school history.

Harter led Colome to its first district championship since 1978. The Cowboys lost to Corsica-Stickney in the regional championship.
Harter averaged 22.8 points, 5.1 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.6 steals per game for the 16-7 Cowboys.

The 5-8 senior guard finished his career with 1,723 points.

“Reed has meant an awful lot to the program especially in the last two years that I have been here,” said coach Drew Weber. “It sounds cliché but Reed is the absolute gym rat. He is constantly working his game whether it be basketball, baseball or football and is one of the most driven athletes that I’ve ever seen.”

BankWest Chairman, President and CEO Charles H. Burke III recently announced 16 students from across South Dakota were awarded BankWest Scholarships for the 2016-17 school year. Each student will receive a $1,500 scholarship to pursue post-secondary education.
“Awarding scholarships to these students is a sincere pleasure,” Burke said. “These students exhibit strong leadership skills, academic excellence and a passion for their communities. They truly understand the concept of leading by example, and we are pleased to assist with their academic pursuits.”

Among the recipients is Colby Curtis of Winner.

Curtis, son of Craig and Lisa Curtis of Winner, is a senior at Winner High School. He plans to attend the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, where his major course of study will be pre-physician assistant. Colby said his interest in becoming a physician assistant was sparked by his local role model, Chris Snavely, a physician assistant in Winner. His proudest accomplishment to date was qualifying for the state wrestling tournament where he placed fifth.

Winner had four state champions at the AAU tournament this weekend in Aberdeen.

First place winners were Kylah Biggins, Maxton Brozik, Riley Shippy and Kaden Keiser.

Brozik and Keiser are back to back state champs.

Chloe Bartels won the mile run at the Bill Pistulka track meet Saturday in Winner. Bartels took first place in 5:46.9. For the first time, Bartels ran the 300 hurdles and took 5th place in :56.2.

The Bill Pistulka family was in Winner for the meet and Betty Pistulka Sattler sang the national anthem.

The late Bill Pistulka was a teacher and coach in the Winner School District. He was the head track coach and athletic director.

Bill Pistulka’s granddaughter, Kristin Pistulka, who is a senior at Mitchell High School, ran the 200 and 400 at Saturday’s meet. She placed second in both races. As a senior, Pistulka wanted to run in the Winner meet named after her grandfather. Pistulka has a track scholarship to South Dakota State University.

No team points were kept.

Kelly O’Bryan of Colome won the triple jump and Matt Campbell won the shot put at the Bill Pistulka track meet in Winner on Saturday.

The next meet for Colome will be April 14 in Menno.