VERMILLION, S.D. – A tight, close-knit family atmosphere made the 1998 South Dakota women's track and field team special.
 
The lifelong friendships formed amongst the team, both during the indoor and outdoor seasons, made the on-the-track success memorable.
 
The memorable moments for that 36-member team will become one notch greater on Friday when they are inducted into the Coyote Sports Hall of Fame during ceremonies inside the Muenster University Center.
 
The 98 team enjoyed unprecedented success under head women's track coach Lucky Huber and assistants Dave Gottsleben, Derek Miles and Scott Munson, winning both the indoor and outdoor North Central Conference championships.
 
The team finished second in the NCAA Division II national indoor meet, the highest team placing for a South Dakota track and field team, and followed that with a fifth-place national finish during the outdoor season.
 
"Being recognized for our accomplishments in 1998 is very special," said the former Tori Devericks, who is now married to Derek Miles. "That was my last indoor season with eligibility, so to be able to go out as conference champions was awesome. I am lifelong friends with so many members of that team.
 
"I would say the best part of winning or being successful was really for and because of Lucky. I remember times after practice was over getting one–on-one help on new ideas he had to make me a better athlete, when he probably should have been home with his family. Looking back, his wife should be sainted."
 
The Coyotes scored 43 points at the indoor national championships in Indianapolis, Indiana as Elena Swan, one of just two seniors on that year's squad, Lenni Billberg was the other, became the first athlete from the North Central Conference to win two national titles in the same season.
 
Swan, named Co-Indoor National Female Athlete of the Year, won the long jump and triple jump while also placing fifth in the 55-hurdles and contributing to a fourth-place 4x400 relay unit.
 
Stephanie Knight finished second in the 400, Krista Trei was third in the 800 while Tonya Kneifl was fifth in the high jump and Brandy Echternach was sixth in the weight throw.
 
"What it means to me for our 1998 Women's track team to be inducted to the Hall of Fame is extraordinary to say the least," said Echternach, now Brandy Smith. "The women that season were in a different caliber and they competed hard so they could let the other teams know that we were going to standout and make you notice us. I look back now and realize how special our team really was and it is surreal what we were able to accomplish. The women on the 1998 team were extremely talented and highly-motivated individuals.
 
"Even though we were all over the track or field competing in our own events, there was always a handful of women surrounding and cheering for you before, during or after your event. It was a phenomenal class of women. No one was ever excluded from get-togethers. On or off the track, we always had each other's back. We helped each other strive for the best and compete as hard as we could."
 


The 98 team produced 11 Indoor All-Americans and provisionally qualified in every event for the indoor nationals championships.
 
South Dakota won the North Central Conference title at the Bison Sports Arena with a then-NCC meet record 175 points, scoring in 19 of the 20 events.
 
Swan, still among the NCAA record holders with six indoor individual conference titles, won three of the Coyotes' seven individual titles in Fargo that season. As a team they set or tied 13 indoor school records and four NCC meet records. Knight was the conference champ in the 500, Trei won the 800, Kneifl the pentathlon and the quartet of Charity Kuhlmann, Swan, Trei and Knight won the 4x400.
 
One particular moment sticks in the mind of Devericks when she thinks back to that North Central Conference meet in Fargo.
 
"In 1996, NDSU won the conference championship in the Dome and their athletes asked if Lucky would unlock the pool door so they could throw their coach in," said Devericks. "Lucky did this for them because he's a good person like that. 
 
"In 1998, after winning at NDSU, we asked the same thing, could we throw our coach in the pool?  We got a firm no. That fueled our reason to hate NDSU even more. Beating them was such a pleasure."
 
While the Coyotes won the indoor conference title by more than 30 points, the outdoor league championship, held at Roberts Stadium in Sioux City, came down to the final event, the 4x400, before South Dakota emerged with a 172.5 to 162 victory over North Dakota State.
 
Swan, named the NCC Outdoor Outstanding Athlete, had a hand in three of the Coyotes' five individual conference titles. Trei in the 800 and Tina Fenske in the 10,000 were the others. The team's talented depth, spread out over the 20 events, allowed South Dakota to pile up the points.


 
Huber was named NCC Indoor and Outdoor Coach of the Year that season and proudly proclaims that team as "probably the greatest women's team at USD."
 
He told then Sioux City Journal sports reporter Steve Allspach about the league outdoor title: "It's not easy to win a North Central Conference track championship," said Huber to Allspach "when we got here (Roberts) Saturday, we knew we needed to compete very hard. Fortunately, everyone responded to the challenge."
 
South Dakota had six individual top-eight performances and one relay during the outdoor national championships held at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville.
 
Swan finished second in the heptathlon, Trei third in the 800, Knight fifth in the 400, Swan sixth in the long jump, Echternach sixth in the discus and Fenske seventh in the 3,000. The 4x400 team finished third.