SLEEPY EYE — Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s junior Madison Mathiowetz announced on Friday that she will continue her basketball career at South Dakota State University in Brookings, South Dakota after she graduates high school next year.

It wraps up a long recruiting process and Mathiowetz is happy to put that part behind her. She said last month that her ultimate goal was to play Division I basketball and she will be doing just that once the fall of 2022 arrives.

“They’re a really great basketball program and they compete really well at the Division I level,” Mathiowetz said of SDSU. “They’ve made a good amount of NCAA appearances over the last couple of years and throughout their time being Division I and Division II. I also really love their coaching staff and their head coach, coach [Aaron] Johnston, he was a really good guy to talk to in recruiting.”

Mathiowetz just wrapped up her junior season at St. Mary’s, where she led the Knights to a 23-1 record and a state tournament appearance. The Knights lost to Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa 51-50 in the state semifinals at Target Center.

Mathiowetz was named Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year by The Journal this past season. She averaged 33 ppg, 11 rpg, 4.9 apg and 4.4 spg. She was also the Tomahawk Conference Player of the Year this year and has 2,716 career points and 999 career rebounds with one season to go, both school records.

Because she’s just a junior, she will play AAU basketball this summer for North Tartan. This will allow her to travel and play against some of the best players in the country. After next year, she will get to visit the campus at SDSU and work out with the players, something she’s looking forward to.

“I’ll start workouts June going into my freshman year of college,” she said. “It’ll be the first time I get to step on campus as a player, starting June 1st [of 2022] I’ll get to meet with the players and the coaches.”

South Dakota State had a year to remember, also. The Jackrabbits finished the season 21-4 and won the Summit League with a record of 14-0. They lost to Syracuse 72-55 in the first round of the NCAA tournament on March 21. Coach Johnston has guided the Jackrabbits to 10 NCAA tournament berths and had a career mark of 193-35 prior to this past season.

As for Mathiowetz, she has one more year left to play at St. Mary’s and her ultimate goal is to bring home a Class A state championship. But she also can’t help but look down the road, too, and she wants to set a good example for the younger players all over the state.

“It’ll be really nice, when I was younger I remember looking up to those girls that got to go play at the next level, and I’m hoping I can do that for the younger generations and see that it’s possible, to just chase your dream,” Mathiowetz said.