The Presidents' Cup Youth Hockey Tournament will once again be in Rapid City on Friday through Sunday.

The youth tournament has more than doubled in size from last year with eight to 18 boys and girls varsity teams from Rapid City.

After last year's successful debut of the tournament, the USA Hockey Northern Plains District's committee decided to keep it in Rapid City and expand it to include the top two boys and girls varsity teams from North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.

In addition, two U-14 boys teams will play a three-game series for a division title.

To accommodate all 31 games of the tournament, Rushmore Hockey Association officials have arranged to use the Roosevelt Ice Arena, the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center Ice Arena and the Rushmore Thunderdome.

The championship games for each varsity division will be played on the home ice of the Rapid City Rush at the Ice Arena. Ticket prices start at $2 for student/senior day passes and are $20 for family weekend passes.

For more information about the tournament, go to www.rushmorehockey .com or call Dan French at 605-381-8792.

Six boxers advance to regional championships competition: Five Golden Gloves boxers from Rapid City and one from Lead-Deadwood will advance to the Midwest Regional Championships in Omaha on April 17 and 18.

The boxers won the right at Saturday's South Dakota Golden Gloves match at the Rapid City Youth Building. The winning fighters include David Rupert (152 pounds), of Rapid City North Boxing; Andre Penn (162), of Mean Street Boxing in Lead-Deadwood; and Vince Dary (132), John Montgomery (178), Brandon Pfeifle (200) and Theron Pappas (201-plus), of Martinez Boxing in Rapid City.

If the boxers are successful in Omaha, they will advance to the National Golden Gloves Championships in Salt Lake City, Utah on May 3.

According to organizer Mike Kilmer, the explosion at Midwest Clutch and Auto Repair building caused road blockages that made getting to the Midwest Regional challenging.

"We had a capacity crowd in spite of the road closure," Kilmer said. "It goes to show that the sport of amateur boxing has renewed interest here in Rapid City."

Teams participating in the event came from Cheyenne-Eagle Butte, Pine Ridge, Rapid City Youth Boxing, Rapid City North, Lead-Deadwood and Belle Fourche.

Rush's 'Coolest Kid on the Block' contest winner named: The Rapid City Rush will play a street hockey game against the winner and friends of the Coca-Cola Coolest Kid on the Block promotion. The match-up will be in the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center parking lot on Sunday from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

The winner of the promotion is Julie Thompson, of New Underwood, who entered the drawing for her children Hunter and Kaitlyn. Thompson's name was drawn at the Rush home game March 14.

The Coolest Kid on the Block promotion took place for three months at Common Cents, Corner Pantry and Big D stores throughout the Black Hills.

"This is a fun promotion that allows local residents the opportunity to meet the guys on a personal level and to learn a few tricks from the pros," said Rush assistant manager Tim Hill.

The Rapid City Rush host their final games of the inaugural season Friday and Saturday night at Rushmore Plaza Civic Center. Individual game day tickets start at $15.

MINES INKS RUNNER FROM OHIO: South Dakota School of Mines cross country and track head coach Jerry Schafer announces the addition of Alexis Godeke as the newest recruit to the Lady Hardrocker teams.

Godeke is a talented distance runner from Antwerp, Ohio, that plans to major in geology.

Godeke is an accomplished runner. She earned four all-conference cross country first-team honors, was a four-time regional cross country qualifier, was named MVP by her team four consecutive years, won her conference meet two consecutive years and was a four-time winner of the Paulding Country Cross Country Meet. She also was an Ohio State Class AA state cross country qualifier.

So far during her high school track career, Godeke has been a three-time regional qualifier in the 3,200-meter run and made it to regional's once in the 1,600. She also earned conference event titles in the 1,600 and 3,200 in 2007.

"Alexis will have a great opportunity to compete with our top runners and make us that much better as a team," Schafer said.

CORRECTION: In Wednesday's story on the Greater Dakota Conference all-conference wrestling team Sturgis's Clint Wilson's name was omitted. The Journal regrets the error.