VERMILLION, S.D.—Two stars on the hardwood, a 21-time All-American, a 10-time NCC champion and a Rimington Award winner will comprise the newest members of the Henry Heider Coyote Sports Hall of Fame. The class was announced nearly a year ago, but COVID-19 delayed its ceremony. The group will formally be recognized Sept. 10 ahead of Coyote football's home opener against Northern Arizona on Sept. 11.
 
The group includes basketball players Bridget Yoerger '10 and Tyler Cain '10, track and field standout Stephanie (Gebhart) Murphy '08, '10, swimmer Zach Weiss '00, and football player Chris Morton '07. In addition, special recognition will be given to the 2005 football team coached by Ed Meierkort. Sandy (Pelkofer) Fiddler '02, who was selected to the Hall of Fame in 2019, but could not attend the ceremony, will be recognized with this class as well.
 
A closer look at each of the inductees follows:
 
Yoerger is an academic all-American and a two-time all-NCC honoree from nearby Hinton, Iowa, who led the Coyotes in rebounding four years in a row and was their leading scorer three seasons. She graduated as the program's second all-time leading scorer with 1,604 points and fourth-leading rebounder with 884. She remains in the top five of both categories, and in the top 10 for steals (176) and blocked shots (101).
 
Yoerger was a junior on USD's 2007-08 squad that finished 33-2 and competed in the NCAA Division II national championship game. She averaged 16.7 points and nearly 10 boards a game as a senior, the program's first year into its Division I era, and earned all-Independent team honors.
 
Yoerger has totaled 11 years of professional basketball since graduating from USD. She played her first two seasons in Holland and the last nine in Luxembourg. Yoerger has been an all-league honoree in all 11 seasons. She has twice been named league MVP and was Center of the Year in Luxembourg in both 2012 and 2018. She has averaged 17.6 points and 12.0 rebounds in her nine seasons in Luxembourg.
 
Cain is South Dakota's all-time leading shot blocker, a two-time all-Independent honoree and the inaugural winner of the Great West Conference Player of the Year. The Rochester, Minnesota, native holds the top four slots of USD's single-season blocks list and totaled 361 in all. In addition, he is the Coyotes' second-leading rebounder of all-time with 1,087 and has the eighth-most steals with 184. He was the second player in program history to reach 1,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds.
 
Cain was the 2007 NCC Freshman of the Year when the Coyotes won the NCC regular season and tournament crowns. He twice competed in the NCAA tournament before the department began its transition to Division I in the 2009-10 academic year, and led USD to a GWC title in 2010. Cain averaged a double-double as both a junior (15.4 & 11.0) and senior (14.7 & 10.4) with the Coyotes. He scored 1,390 points at USD while shooting 64 percent from the field. He was co-winner of USD's male athlete of the year award in 2010.
 
Cain has played professionally overseas for 10 years since earning his degree at USD. He has competed for the top leagues in Latvia, France and Italy. In his most recent campaign, he was the top rebounder and fourth-leading scorer for Germani Brescia, a member of Lega Serie A in Italy.
 
Cain and his wife, Kayla, have two sons, Carter (4) and Jordan (1).
 
Murphy finished an incredible track and field career with a program-record 21 all-America honors – 11 as a relay member, seven in the 400-meter dash and three more in the 200. She earned silver in the 400 indoors as a sophomore in 2005, and was second again as a member of the distance medley relay in 2008. She recorded 13 top-five finishes at NCAA championship meets.
 
A native of Elkton, South Dakota, Murphy is still the program's record holder in the 400 with a time of 53.59s, which she posted in 2005. She won 13 NCC titles including seven individually – five in the 400 and two in the 200. She is the 2005 North Central Region Athlete of the Year, a CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree, and an NCAA postgraduate scholarship recipient. She led the Coyotes to seven NCC championships and to sixth-place national finishes both indoor and outdoor in 2008.
 
Murphy resides in West Fargo, North Dakota, with her husband, Jordan. The couple have two daughters, Emersyn and Veda.
 
Weiss is a 14-time all-American sprinter and 10-time NCC champion from Omaha, Nebraska, whose program records in both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle stood for nearly 20 years. Both marks were made as a senior in 1999 when he swam 20.28s in the 50 and 45.38s in the 100. He also graduated with the second-fastest time in the 200 (1:41.97).
 
Weiss placed fourth at nationals in the 50 in 1997 – the highest finish at the time by a USD male swimmer – and took second in the 50 in both 1998 and 1999. He added all-America honors in the 100 with a fourth-place finish in 1999 and was a member of 10 all-American relay teams. Eleven of his all-America awards were for top-five finishes.
 
Weiss won three consecutive NCC titles in the 50-yard freestyle from 1997-99, earned gold in the 100 in 1999 and was a member of six championship relay teams. He helped lead the Coyotes to NCC championships in both 1997 and 1999, and to a third place national finish in 1999. USD was the first NCC program to finish in the top three.
 
Weiss currently serves as a spinal and biologics sales consultant at Medtronic in Omaha. He and his wife, Sabrina, have two kids, Cooper (11) and Kenzie (8).
 
Morton was a three-year starter, a two-time all-American and the 2006 winner of the Rimington Award honoring NCAA Division II's top center. Morton, who hails from Norfolk, Nebraska, competed in 40 games from 2004-07 for the Coyotes. He is a two-time all-NCC honoree and was a finalist for the Gene Upshaw Award in 2006, which honors the division's top offensive lineman.
 
Morton helped the Coyotes to an NCC championship and a nine-win season in 2005, and to the NCAA playoffs in 2006. He didn't allow a sack during his senior season in 2007. The Coyotes' offense averaged 31 points with Morton manning the trenches. He was rewarded by being selected to compete in the 2008 Cactus Bowl, an all-star game for Division II graduates. Morton was also named USD's male athlete of the year in 2007.
 
Morton earned his master's degree at University of Missouri and worked as a compliance coordinator there for two years before becoming a defensive graduate assistant coach for Tigers football. He was an assistant coach at Wisconsin-Stout for two years before moving to Missouri State where he served as a defensive line coach. Morton currently works for OCI Insurance in Omaha, Nebraska. He and his wife, Carla, have a son, Caiden, and a daughter, Cora.
 
Meierkort's 2005 football team is the eighth football team to be inducted into the Hall of Champions and the 19^th Coyote team overall. The team finished with a 9-2 record, was co-champion of the North Central Conference, and outscored its 11 opponents by a combined 300 points (547-247). The squad was ranked in the top 25 all season, reached as high as No. 3 and finished at No. 17.
 
Led by Hall of Famers Wesley Beschorner at quarterback, Stefan Logan at running back, and offensive linemen Morton and Brian Alderson, the Coyote offense led the nation with nearly 50 points and 583 yards per game. Defensively, Hall of Famer AJ Schable racked up 18.5 sacks on a unit that produced 23 turnovers and limited more than half its foes to 17 points or fewer.
 
Fiddler was the first in what is now a lineage of national champion Coyote pole vaulters. She won the 2001 indoor title in Boston, Massachusetts, by winning a jump-off against Jennifer Swanson of UC Davis. Fiddler's winning mark was 12-feet-3.5-inches, a USD record that tied the all-time NCAA Division II mark. The feat helped USD to a seventh-place finish nationally.
 
Fiddler, who grew up in Rapid City, South Dakota, was a four-time NCC champion and a five-time All-American. She was named USD's female scholar athlete of the year as a senior in 2002, and held both USD and NCC records in the pole vault upon graduation (12-7). She currently resides in Minneapolis and works in risk management at U.S. Bank.