USD Announces top seven Dakota Days royalty candidates

On Sept. 26, at 8 p.m. USD announced the top seven candidates for Mr. and Miss Dakota. The event was hosted by Morgan Jaco and Ntombi Ngeleka at Aalfs auditorium. This event celebrated the first day of USD’s Dakota Days.

One of the candidates who made it to the top seven was Brady Samuelson who said he was thankful that his friends and organization believed in him and that they thought he was a good representation of USD. 

“I’m super excited. I know this has been a thing ever since freshman year and I’m just happy that I had the opportunity to do this through some student organizations on campus,” Samuelson said. “I’ve met a lot of people at USD over the last four years, and I tried to reach out and just try to get my name out there again and I’m glad that people were still willing to vote for me.” 

The event took place right after Yotes Got Talent. It started with each individual who was nominated to come up on stage from the back of the auditorium. Elsa Leighton, who is a candidate for Ms. Dakota said she was nervous and shaking a little bit. 

“I knew I would be nominated because all of my student ambassador friends nominated me because I’m the president of an organization, so that’s how I got that nomination,” Leighton said. “…I’m looking forward to this week because we have a lot of stuff coming up we’re doing.” 

The final seven candidates for Mr. Dakota are AJ Plitzuweit, Nick Hanson, Carter Larson, Riley Sullivan, Brady Samuelson, Blake Brown, and Ethan Young. The Final seven candidates for Miss. Dakota are Sophie Swanson, Callie Luke, Ali Gisi, Claire Herbst, Katie Brust, Kianna Thelen, and Elsa Leighton. Crowning will be held on Oct. 2 at the USD-Indiana State during halftime.