Bison
NDSU's Oregon Quartet all showed out well for the heartland. Payton Otterdahl took tenth in the Shot Put while Jacob McBride was 24th in the Hammer Toss, both on Wednesday. That landed Otterdahl on the All American list and McBride's throw earner him honorable mention.
The ladies followed those performances up with a couple of the best that may ever happen for NDSU at national's. Both Alyssa Olin (Javelin) and Maddy Nilles (Hammer Toss) took fifth place in their events. It wasn't her best throw of the year but miss Mott still did good enough to finish the year, and her career, as the #2 Javelin thrower in the country. A strong footnote that's not really a footnote to the ladies' performance is that miss Nilles threw a school record on her last one of the meet.
But NDSU wasn't done just yet. Payton Otterdahl came back to the field to throw Discus on Friday. His tenth place finish left him one spot out of advancing to the event final but still earned him second team All American standing. No doubt he would have preferred to get that extra little distance but he is the first Bison to compete in multiple events at nationals so he shouldn't have hung his head for a second!
Vikings
We have reached a new point on the hype train but words don't do justice to what I think of it. The graphic below does though.
The Vikings are still just practice...and not even with pads on but the positivity coming out of Winter Park 2 seems like a certainty to fall flat once it's done. I'm talking about positive reports regarding the former first round pick that I was excited to have as the Vikings selection - Laquon Treadwell. It never fails that at this time of the year, every single year, there are players who get talked up as potential break out performers. The Treadwell talk hasn't gone that far yet but with Thielen and Diggs a top the list and a legitimate crowd of comers fighting for playing time behind them, it's way too early to buy into #11 even having a Jarius Wright like impact on the field in 2018!
Negativity over...or nearly. Unfortunately one of the rookies to watch this year has already taken a season ending ACL injury. I'm bummed that we don't get to have a seasons worth of playing around with Hercules related word play but more importantly, really hope that this isn't the start of a trend. It would be totally Vikings like to have the Super Bowl window slammed down on us by injuries. I don't want to overreact to the injury to a role player because the rate for injuries in Football is 100% but it's very early for it happen and could spell disaster for the season if it happens to too many guys!
Twins
Between Mr. I'll do it myself & Mr. Wiffle ball the Twinks are holding it together, lurking just below the surface like a Crocodile waiting to devour it's prey. The earlier they start to close the gap on the Indians, the better but until they get back to full strength it may be too much to ask. But as I already said, Eddie Rosario & Jose Berrios are putting up individual performances the likes of which are rarely seen in the goofy team sport that is Baseball. How long can they sustain it? I'd favor JB to be able to do it for most if not all of the rest of the season but if Rosario's can keep doing it like Thanos then the team will be the better for it!
Invaders
One quarter of play was the difference between a win and a loss. When facing a fellow top team in the NEFL, or in any league for that matter, the results can often be that razor thin. So in the five quarters of play between the second half last week and the fourth quarter yesterday the Invaders only scored seven points. With the defense that showed up last week that could sometimes work, but again, against a top team that's rarely the case. They scored the last 14 yesterday so bring the game to a single touchdown difference but that much of a comeback is hard at any time. Do I need to say it again?
So the vaders aren't quite there yet. In reality they are probably somewhere between the team that dominated last week and the one that got dominated this week. The ups and downs of the semi-amateur. At least they have five more weeks to figure it out!
Redhawks
Speaking of ups and downs, hello Redhawks!
Dropping three of four at home against the Railcats is not the way to start a road trip. Because they were at home and now have to go against perennial power house St. Paul. In two of their three wins this week their bats came alive for 19 total runs while only giving up six. In their losses they didn't top four runs but at least managed to keep it close.
Said the loser mentality. Second place is just the first loser. Keeping it close is just twisting the knife. Not that getting blown out is better but at least it's more decisive. It's still early. I'm going to keep preaching that about both the Twins and the Redhawks until it's no longer true. About a month from now for both teams, if you're wondering. With alternating home and away series over the remainder of the month stealing a road series or two would go a long way...not to mention taking care of business in Fargo - yeah, I mentioned it.
High School Sports
It's all star season ladies and gentlemen. This week featured a home & home between Softball teams comprised of young women from each half of North Dakota. The East won in Fargo on Monday then rallied to win again on Tuesday in Tuesday. The pair of games exemplified how unpredictable the game can be, three total runs one day then 16 runs the next day. Whether the results matter or not is a matter of opinion but the Fargo event was an opportunity to take some great photos. And I don't think I'm overselling it to say that there are some great pictures in the bunch, but you can judge for yourself - GALLERY
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