VERMILLION, S.D.—Three all-American track and field athletes, a seven-time all-American swimmer and the Coyotes' all-time leader in touchdown catches highlight the newest members of the Henry Heider Coyote Sports Hall of Fame.
 
The group includes national champion 800 runner Emma (Erickson) Ladwig '11, high jump and long jumper Paul Brozik '04, pole vaulter Marci (Miller) Gassen '05, swimmer Leita Rolfe '08, and wide receiver Will Powell '13. In addition, two-sport athlete Todd Poling '88 will be inducted as a special contributor and special recognition will be given to the 2006 men's track and field team coached by Dave Gottsleben.
 
This class will be formally inducted in an on-campus ceremony to be held Sept. 15 ahead of Coyote football's home game against Lamar Sept. 16. A closer look at each of the inductees follows:
 
Ladwig swept the 800-meter indoor and outdoor national championships as a freshman in 2008, becoming the first freshman and second USD woman to win two national titles in one year. She earned six all-America honors that season and was named the 2008 USTFCCCA Scholar Athlete of the Year. South Dakota placed sixth at both the indoor and outdoor national championship meets in 2008.
 
Ladwig's school-record times in the 800 remain atop the Coyotes' charts more than a decade later. She ran 2:06.83 indoors and 2:07.26 outdoors in 2010. She also remains on the top-10 list in the 400, 1,500, mile and several relays.
 
Ladwig was one of seven Coyotes who qualified for the NCAA Division I Outdoor Regional Championships in 2011 – the program's first year of postseason eligibility. She returned to the regional meet again in 2012. Ladwig went 8-for-8 in 800-meter titles in three different conferences – North Central, Great West and Summit League. She won 20 conference titles in all.
 
Ladwig is a physical therapist and clinic manager at Athletico Physical Therapy in Vermillion. She and her husband, Adam, have four boys, Will, Gale, Eli and Luke.
 
Rolfe is a seven-time all-American who excelled in the 400-yard individual medley. She won three NCC titles in the event and was the silver medalist at the 2008 Division II National Championship Meet in Columbia, Missouri. Her school record time of 4:27.53 held for 14 years after graduation. It remains the second-fastest time in program history and she still holds the short course meter record. Her record mark of 2:06.45 in the 200-yard individual medley held for a decade.
 
Rolfe was named NCC Freshman of the Year in 2005 and NCC Most Valuable Swimmer as a senior in 2008. She won conference titles in the 400 IM, 200 IM and the 200-yard breaststroke in 2008 and totaled five NCC individual championships in all. She earned national swimmer of the week honors her freshman and senior seasons.
 
Rolfe helped lead South Dakota to top-10 national finishes in each of her last three seasons including an eighth-place finish in 2006. She recorded 21 placings in the top-16 at national championship meets.
 
Rolfe is vice president of Equal Beginnings, a company that provides services to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She is the coordinator for the County 3 Master's Special Olympics team. She and her daughter, Kenlynn, live in Sheridan, Wyoming.
 
Brozik is a three-time all-American and an academic all-American who excelled in both the high jump and long jump. He was the North Central Regional Male Indoor Athlete of the Year in 2003 and was a finalist for NCAA National Athlete of the Year. That was the season in which he placed sixth in the long jump and eighth in the high jump at the NCAA Indoor National Championship Meet in Boston.
 
Brozik was the fourth Coyote to clear seven feet in the high jump. He is also one of three Coyotes who have cleared 25 feet in the long jump. His top mark there was 25-feet-2-inches as a fifth-year senior in 2004.
 
Brozik is the 2003 NCC Indoor MVP and 2003 USD Male Athlete of the Year. He was a two-time NCC champion in the long jump (2002, 2004) and swept the 2002 NCC indoor and outdoor high jump titles. He also won gold in the pentathlon in 2003 with a USD record 3,916 points.
 
Brozik and his wife, Courtney, reside in Lawrence, Kansas.
 
Gassen is a six-time all-American pole vaulter who was named the NCAA Woman of the Year for South Dakota in 2005. She took bronze at the NCAA indoor national championship meet in 2004 and boasted six top-six finishes at nationals spanning four years of competition.
 
Gassen was the second Coyote to earn all-America honors in the women's pole vault. She graduated holding both the indoor record with a vault of 12-feet-6-inches and the outdoor record with a mark of 12-feet-8.5-inches. She won the 2004 NCC outdoor pole vault championship and took silver three times.
 
Gassen graduated in four years and with honors while double majoring in psychology and communication sciences and disorders. She was named a first-team academic all-American in 2005 and that same year was named USD's Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year. She was one of 29 women across the country to earn a prestigious NCAA postgraduate scholarship. In 2009, she earned a doctorate degree in audiology from USD.
 
Gassen married former USD standout linebacker Josh Gassen. The couple lives in Sioux Falls and are raising four boys that range in age from 5-13. Marci has practiced audiology at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Sioux Falls for the past 11 years.
 
Powell is a three-time all-conference wide receiver, a two-time team MVP, and the Coyotes' all-time leader in touchdown receptions with 21. Powell caught 158 passes in four seasons at USD including a program-record 55 catches as a senior in 2012. He accumulated 2,521 yards receiving, the second-most in program history.
 
Powell had eight catches for 156 yards and two touchdowns in South Dakota's signature win at Minnesota in 2010, the program's third season at the Division I level. Later that year, he went for a career-high 168 yards and scored two touchdowns inside the DakotaDome against Cal Poly. Powell's 10 touchdown grabs in 2010 remain second-most in program history.
 
After playing professional football for three years in Europe, Powell co-founded Podyum, a sports recruitment agency focused on placing pro athletes with international teams. He is now a professional EOS Implementer as well as vice president of Reynolds Construction Management Services, Inc. He resides in Sioux Falls.
 
Poling is a Vermillion native who played football and ran track and field for the Coyotes in the 1980s. He was an NCC champion in the 1985 indoor 800-meter run and qualified for the NCAA outdoor national championships by posting a personal best time of 1:51.11. He was a member of several 4x400-meter relay teams. Poling was also a receiver on the 1986 football team which was national runner-up. Poling was named USD's Scholar-Athlete of the Year and Hoy Award recipient in 1988.
 
Upon graduation, Poling earned an MBA from Southern Methodist University. In 2005, he founded Vantage Point Advisors, which became one of the largest independent business valuation firms on the West Coast prior to being acquired by Stout, a leading global investment bank, in October of 2022.
 
Poling and his wife, Rosie, reside in San Diego, California and have two children, Gia and Ryan. The couple has contributed to more than 30 different funds at USD over the last several decades.
 
The 2006 men's track and field team, under the direction of national coach of the year Gottsleben, won the 2006 NCC Outdoor Championship Meet in Sioux Falls with 274 points, the fourth-highest total in the history of the NCC. The team went on to place fourth in the team standings at the national meet in Emporia, Kansas, with 35 points, the second-highest team finish in program history.
 
South Dakota had five all-American performances including four individual performances that set state and USD records. Hall of Famer Sam Pribyl won the pole vault, Terry Liggins finished second in the 110-meter hurdles, Mark Liebl was second in the javelin, and Dan Tolsma was second in the hammer throw. Rico Hatter finished eighth in the 110-meter hurdles.
 
Other NCC champions in 2006 outdoors included Tyler Wetering, Dominic Artis, Matt Dewald and Tony Turgeon. The 400-meter relay team of Stefan Logan, David Coley, Hatter and Artis also earned gold.
 
The Coyotes' 2006 indoor team placed second in the NCC and earned a 15^th-place finish at nationals behinds Liggins' third-place finish in the 60 hurdles, Pribyl's third-place finish in the pole vault, and Nick Hagemann's eighth-place finish in the weight throw.