Brainerd Student-Athletes Madi Miller, Ty Nelson Commit to South Dakota State

The early signing period for high school athletes to sign their national letters of intent began on Wednesday, and Brainerd High School had four senior athletes who made their intentions known – and two of them are heading to South Dakota State.

Madi Miller, a cross country, Nordic ski, and track and field athlete will be running both cross country and track next year for the Jackrabbits, while football and track athlete Ty Nelson will be joining her on the track team. The Class AAA state champion triple jumper plans to compete in the long jump in addition to the triple jump in college.

“The coaches there are super nice, and I felt like I got along really well with their athletes. They’ve great facilities, obviously a great school, and the town of Brookings just felt like it could be my home,” said Nelson on his decision to go to South Dakota State. “I think one of the things I’m most excited about is the athletes I’ll get to practice with and the mentality that they have is that every day they want to go and work and get better and push me to be the best athlete I can be.

“I really enjoyed talking with the coach and the team atmosphere that they had there, and something about it just drawed me in. Like, I just knew that that was the place that I should be going,” explained Miller. “I think the thing that excites me the most is probably just seeing how far I can go and how far I can push my limits to be the best that I can be. And then also I’m just really excited to run in the D1 level.”

Also inking their names today for Brainerd were three-sport athletes Myta Tautges, who will play softball at St. Thomas, and Karley Dunham, who will join the volleyball team at BSU.

Elsewhere in the Lakeland viewing area, Little Falls’ Carter Gwost is going to play baseball at Nebraska, and Carter White from Verndale, who played golf for Staples-Motley, is going to NDSU for golf.