In the ongoing effort to get every dollar free that they can the Purple released Dan Bailey off the worst season of his career. Okay, so maybe that wasn't just about the $$$. Then, just today, they came through with a restructure of Anthony Barr's contract to open up some millions and set him up to be a free agent in 2022. Have yet to see or hear whether there's anything that could prevent him from being franchise tagged if he does well and they want him back for another year.
All in all it was a pair of good moves by the front office
On the fantasy front, the mock-a-thon continued!
Fan-less Sioux Falls closed in memorable fashion. The women went out against the eventual champs, South Dakota, in the semis while the men made it to the championship game.
Orel Roberts appeared to be able to go on cruise control in the second half to win the title, but Rocky Kreuser wasn't about to go out like that. In a total reversal, the Bison made up the 25-point halftime deficit and had a chance to win in the final seconds but couldn't quite make it all the way. Kreuser's part in it was scoring a point for every minute that he was on the court plus an extra - 34. The comeback hinged on 12 made free throws over the final 20 minutes. Even with the outcome, it will be a game that is talked about in basketball circles for years to come!
On Thursday the women's ⛳️ were in Utah for two days on the course that ended up being cut in half because of the weather. Later that day the men & women of T & F opened up at nationals. As they have been known to do, both halves of the team were equals & more with the best from the rest of the country into Saturday.
Back to the start of the weekend, softball opened up at the MTSU Invitational with a 7-1 loss against Illinois State. A few hours later they were back against the hosts but were downed 4-3 in that one. 🏐 wasn't much better against visiting Omaha, 3-2 on back-to-back days. ⚾️ on the other hand ripped off a balanced 5-1 win over Dayton. At the same time, ⚽️ was getting rivalry week started in Grand Forks with a wire-to-wire 2-1 win.
⚾️ had a rematch and got a workman-like 9-1 win with no one player shining brighter than the rest. Starter Evan Sankey got his third win in the young season. Softball bounced back with a 5-4 win, also against Dayton, thanks to a 3-run homer by Ciara Jensen in the third inning. They kept it rolling to the tune of an 8-3 victory against Middle Tennessee. Skylar Padgett started the game with a 3-run triple and she added another RBI in the seventh.
And of course there was the game 🏈 against Illinois State.
⚾️ concluded the week against Dayton with another w. This one required Tristen Roehrich to a stop a late, flier comeback and he did so to get his first save of the season, 4-3. Softball stumbled one more time, against ISU again, 2-0 while on the pitch NDSU lost 1-0.
Prior to the game on Saturday came the headlining event of every Spring.
Then, in the waning hours of the week Cam Miller was recognized as the newcomer of the week. It's a well-earner accolade that hopefully won't be his last this season!
Moorhead started the week with a 2-0 win over Concordia which included an own-goal and a score by McKenzie Ickert. The fire-breathers used a different keeper in each half, with each managing two saves.
Fast forward to Friday, Junior Cole Jones was the lone representative at the national 🤼 meet. He finished 1-2 at 125, it was his second appearance at the event.
In Birmingham Shyrone Kemp finished with all-american status for the triple jump with a fifth-place performance.
On Saturday the Softball team hosted Mayville State for a pair but were outscored 8-1.
Tennis traveled to U-Mary and kept their great season going with a 5-2 win to move to 7-0 on the season with five left on the schedule.
Then, just ahead of the big dance schedule being announced, the men were back on the court against Wayne State. A team-high 16 by Jacob Beeninga off the bench lead a group of six with at least 8 points on the way to a 84-72 win.
They were right back at it against Northern State today but a 44-30 second half lead to Saul Philips' team advancing to the round of 16. Gavin Baumgartner finished with a game-high 24 but the back-to-back proved to be more than their legs could handle as Moorhead made 1 of 12 from deep and less than 30% overall in the second half.
Concordia's week began with the aforementioned crosstown ⚽️ scrimmage.
Tuesday the softball team was at Bethany Lutheran and earned a split, winning 4-1 and losing 10-5. In the win Molly Wilde drove in a pair of runs.
Wednesday the men's 🏒 team had their second & final game of the season against Bethel. Down 1-0 after 1, Matt Donnelly helped them engineer a comeback with goals in the second & third, sandwiching a goal by Kevin Ness to get them a 3-2 victory. They finished with the rare 1-1 record.
Thursday the ⚾️ team had their two games of the week against UW-Superior. Four total runs in the final inning worked in Concordia's favor as they won game one 3-2. The rematch proved to be even better. Down 4-1 going into the final outs West Fargo's Andy Gravdahl brought in the starting quarterback, Sean McGuire (gotta love D3 athletics!) and was subsequently the tying run when Moorhead's Thomas Horan drove him in. Horan, in turn, was the winning run from a Matt Gruber single. They were supposed to host Jamestown for a pair today but the games were postponed.
Which brings up the Friday/Saturday of mayhem.
Softball was back on the field and split again, 5-1/5-1 against Superior. In the game 2 win Kenzie Leither was the batter for the first three runs on the way to the w.
🏀 also got back to it, against St. Benedict. Emily Beseman finished with a game-high 22 while Mary Sem had 16 and Vanessa Kedl added 10 off the bench to help them to a 71-62 win.
The women's 🏒 team got in on the winning ways against Augsburg, 4-2. It took a three-goal third period for the win to work. The winning score came from Maiah McCowan.
Then came the dip into national competition. Concordia had 10 🤼 in Iowa and they represented the cob well on Friday & Saturday!
Elsewhere on the middle day of the weekend, both the men & women of the track & field competed in the D3 championships.
Women's 🏒 rematched against Augsburg but were on the wrong end of a 2-0 final. In addition to that, the 🎾 team was 1-17 against St. John's & Gustavus between Saturday & Sunday, with the one win happening against the Johnnies. It was the low point of another otherwise good week!
Minnesota won 2 of 3 out of the all-star break, with a record 34 by Anthony Edwards in a win over Portland tonight. It would be so Minnesotan to waste the miserableness of the first half of the year by getting it figured out enough to give Golden State the fourth pick in the draft.
It's still to early to actually go there, but I did it anyway.
With two and a half weeks until the season starts in Milwaukee Minnesota announced that Kenta Maeda will be the opening day starter. Considering that he was second in the Cy Young voting it's not a surprising announcement. But it remains to be seen how he will perform as the so-called ace over a full-length season.
Fargo started the week with a visit by Des Moines but fell 3-2.
On Saturday they were Omaha and jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second period thanks to Ryan Richardson & Austin Wong. Two minutes into the third and the game had drawn even but the bolts got two by Cody Monds 4.5 minutes apart to get him to 10 for the season and a fifth by Matthew Crasa, also his 10th score of the year.
Then, this afternoon, they were in Sioux City and blanked them while scoring a pair. Defenseman Owen Gallatin got his third of the year while Aaron Huglen got lucky 13, both in the second period.
The wins helped them gain some space from Omaha & Tri-City. They'll be able to add to their lead when Sioux City comes to town for a pair next weekend.
Closer to Spring we crawled as the second-round of state tournaments were played in Bismarck this weekend. West Fargo got by Bismarck in the opening round then got the rubber-match over Sheyenne in the semi-final. Against Minot in the championship game they fought to the finish and came out ahead 65-60 for the first title since 1992.
On the girls side Davies had to beat Jamestown & Red River to make it to the big game. They hooked Bismarck Century and never let it become a blowout but the Patriots were not to be denied the three-peat, 58-47. Class B boys & Minnesota have yet to conclude their seasons but with Fargo such a Class A-heavy community the compilation of photos has already been assembled, with more to come!
Speaking of that, Moorhead's opponents were just announced for the playoffs. The girls 🏀 will travel to Maple Grove on Thursday while the boys will be at St. Michael/Albertville. On the ice, the boys will host Bemidji on Wednesday while St. Cloud will visit Tuesday for girls.
Some non-competition news also broke as Davies is now confirmed to be getting turf for the upcoming Fall. As the lone grass field of the areas public schools it's over due and will be a welcome addition to their competition!
Last but certainly not least, Shanley's Eric Anderson was named senior athlete of the year for swimming & diving while Moorhead's Jacob Andreasen qualified for the state competition in the 100m breaststroke.
That deserves to be the closing nugget, so until next time - let's enjoy the madness!!!
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