Seven-time All-American Rolfe gets Hall call

Leita Rolfe accomplished a lot as a collegiate swimmer, but it was what she did as a senior that left her mark on the South Dakota swimming and diving program.

Rolfe, a seven-time NCAA Division II All-American in the pool for the Coyotes, put a final stamp on her career at the 2008 national championships in Columbia, Missouri.

Rolfe closed a banner senior season with a trio of individual All-American performances, a relay All-America honor and two more honorable mention All-America accomplishments.

Rolfe, who went six-for-six in earning All-America honors that senior season, totaled 21 top-16 finishes (nine individual and 12 relays) at the national championships over her four-year career. 

Her accomplishments in the pool have now culminated into an upcoming induction into the Henry Heider Coyote Sports Hall of Fame during Friday’s banquet. Rolfe will be just the sixth women’s swimming and diving member in the Hall of Fame.

“I always kind of hoped that my last meet was going to be my best meet,” said Rolfe. “I was kind of one of the lucky athletes that that actually happened too.

“I swam lifetime bests in every event I swam, placed higher than I ever had, went out with a bang.”

Rolfe is the lone female individual swimmer in Coyote history to earn three individual All-American honors during the same national championships, setting three school records in the process. 

The Newcastle, Wyoming, native, was the national runner-up in the 400 IM in a then-school record 4:27.53, a time that still ranks second on the Coyote Top 10 list.

She opened the four-day national meet with a seventh-place effort in the 200 IM (2:07.28), where her time from the morning prelims of 2:06.45 was a school record. She placed eighth in the 200 breaststroke (2:21.90) while setting the school record of 2:20.19 in the prelims. 

She swam on Coyote relay teams that finished sixth in the 400 medley, 13th in the 800 free and 13th in the 400 free, the latter two setting school records.

“I ended up runner-up in the 400 IM at nationals which was a huge deal for me,” Rolfe said. “My freshman, sophomore and junior year, I didn’t place in the top eight in any of my individual events and my senior year I ended up placing in the top eight in all three.”

Rolfe accounted for 50.5 points during the national championships while the Coyotes placed 10th as a team with 178.5 points, the second-most in school history. 

Rolfe, along with classmates Jill Smolczyk, Megan Gordon, and Emilie Kluth, helped lead South Dakota to top-10 national finishes in each of their last three seasons including an eighth-place finish in 2006 and a ninth-place mark in 2007. It was the final seasons in the Division II era for the Coyotes.

“We were lucky enough that we had a core class that came in my freshman year and there were four of us that went to nationals all four years. 

“Jill and I roomed all four years together, it was really cool to have that camaraderie.”

The medley relay quartet of Gordon and Rolfe along with Erin Wagoner and Stacy Bjorlie, both a year younger, set the 400 school record in yards, meters and DakotaDome pool mark. 

“We had an amazing medley relay,” said Rolfe. “Felt so lucky.

“It was pretty great that we could have three years together to figure the relay out.”

Rolfe was the North Central Conference Freshman of the Year in 2005 and Most Valuable Swimmer as a senior in 2008. She totaled five NCC individual championships, winning three in the 400 IM and won three titles as a senior in 2008, the 200 IM, 200 IM and 200 breaststroke. 

She left the school as an individual school record holder in 12 events (four in yards, five in meters and three pool marks) while also a member of nine school record relays (four in yards, three in meters and two pool marks). 

Rolfe’s home in Newcastle, a town of 3,000 people, contributed four members to the Coyote swim and dive team in the 2007-2008 season and all four were national qualifiers in at least one season at South Dakota.

When Rolfe arrived in Vermillion to swim in the fall of 2004, there were only 18 women on the roster and the 2004-05 season would be the 14th and final one for head coach Ron Allen. 

Jason Mahowald, entering his 19th season in 2023-24, came in as head coach in 2005-06 and led the Coyotes in the transition from Division II to Division I. 

“My junior and senior year we couldn’t take everyone to conference,” said Rolfe. “It (roster size) started to grow as soon as Jason and Anthony (Harris) started recruiting.”

The Coyote women swimming and diving team had placed in the top 20 at nationals in 12 of Allen’s 14 seasons and closed the Division II era with a trio of top-10 finishes under Mahowald.

“Our girls team ended up doing well. We never came home with a trophy (from nationals), but we progressively got better.

“We kept scoring more points, we kept showing up, they started to notice who we were at nationals. Before we went D1, they were paying attention to us.”

That three-year span between 2006 and 2008 saw Bjorlie, Gordon, Kluth, Wagoner, Smolczyk and Rolfe all earn All-America honors in individual events. 

Smolczyk, the lone national champion in South Dakota swimming and diving history, joined the hall of fame in 2019 and Rolfe takes her place among the Coyote greats this year.

“We knew that coming into my sophomore year we had gotten a new coach,” said Rolfe. “We were all a little leery, we didn’t know who he was, what he was going to do.

“It was definitely an adjustment and the best that could have ever happened to the program.”

Rolfe stuck around during the 2008-09 year, the first in the Division I era, as a student assistant coach while finishing her degree in Education. She got to watch her younger brother, Terry, who was a freshman on the team that season.

Rolfe would find her way back to Wyoming and makes her home in Sheridan where she is currently the vice president of Equal Beginnings, a company that provides services to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She is also the coordinator for the County 3 Master’s Special Olympics team.

“It was a path I never saw myself going down, but it’s been the perfect fit for me,” Rolfe said. “Being involved with Special Olympics, there is so much positivity. I think you would have to try not to enjoy yourself, because everyone is in such a good mood, and everyone is so positive.”