The new week began with the rookies reporting for camp with the rest of the roster set to show in a few days, less one from their offseason workouts as Nate Stanley was waived Tuesday. To avoid any delays to their pursuit of snaps & starting roles Andrew Booth & Ed Ingram both signed their contracts Sunday, completing the 2022 draft class.
Notable amongst the 31 players to report for camp already are Kirk Cousins, Sean Mannion & Kellen Mond. It's pretty clear that they want every opportunity to be ready for Green Bay! Irv Smith, Ihmir Smith-Marsette & Johnny Mundt top the list of potential targets for the quarterbacks that have already shown up. The players will be in the thick of it so no one should blame them for taking their time to start but it is indicative.
NDSU started the week with the first of several professional developments when pitcher Jonah Tong was drafted in the 7th round by the lesser New York team. Next will come a decision on whether he will jump right in with them or spend the next few years in Fargo. Either way, he's just the 12th member of the team to be drafted in the last 55 years and could have the highest ceiling of all!
The next came Wednesday as San Francisco took the next big step toward Trey Lance becoming their starting quarterback by giving Jimmy Garoppolo's representation permission to seek a trade.
An hour later one of Lance's top targets at the Dome signed his first deal with Green Bay, the essential next step toward Christian Watson being Aaron Rodgers primary receiving option.
For the seventh year in a row the Lady Dragons finished the year with one of the best academic standings in the country. Student sometimes gets glossed over in college athletics but should be lauded as much as any title or individual achievement.
The beginning of the week also included notification that the 🏐 team earned the USMC/AVCA Team Academic Award for the second year in a row.
The next day a significant renovation of the baseball complex was announced.
Thursday Tyler Bormann added Cade Niehaus to his staff after a few years working with two of the best in the Northern Sun.
Minnesota's first move was to poach another young prospect as they signed swingman AJ Lawson to a two-way deal after he averaged 15 points & six rebounds for Dallas in Vegas.
They went into the weekend with the press conference for Karl-Anthony Towns for his latest contract extension and re-signed Nathan Knight as their 15th player as the flip happened.
Following the all-star game Minnesota was off til Saturday, maybe that will buy the relievers an extra day before they begin crumbling again. Prior to the two in Detroit Byron Buxton hit the game-winning home run and better yet, finished the night without any new physical issues!
Their take-two in the Motor City were also resoundingly successful (8 - 4 & 9 - 1) as they have to continue stiff-arming Cleveland & Chicago. They will now get another breather Monday before playing a pair in Milwaukee & heading to San Diego to end the week.
There's also the little issue of how they will approach the trade deadline a week from Tuesday. Fun stuff...
Fargo took their show on the road for a series in Sioux Falls and had little trouble busting out the brooms with those birds scoring no more than three runs in any of the games. The breathing-room those wins created helped them hold onto the top spot in the West Division despite dropping two of three to second place Kansas City as the week waned. With the final four games of the regular season being in KC home field could hang in the balance but with only Winnipeg lurking behind them it's going to be an interesting race to the finish! The Canucks will be the final set at Newman, so factor that into your attendance choices over the next month.
With the end of the regular season the Invaders had their playoff position fixed. They will be in St. Paul Saturday evening for a rubber-match of their first loss & last win.
The Summer season took several big steps towards it's completion this past week. Post 400 & West Fargo had their first goes of the week in Grand Forks, winning 8 - 6 & 11 - 0. An all-Fargo Tuesday went the way of Post 2 11 - 3 & 12 - 2. The Deuce finished the regular season with a sweep of Williston, 10 - 0 & 3 - 0. They will face off again as the 1/8 Tuesday morning. West Fargo & Post 400 will finish the first round at approximately 7:30.
Across the River Moorhead hosted the Sub-State Tournament, starting with a 4 - 0 win over Brainerd. They kept going in the winner's bracket 6 - 4 against Perham. Alexandria pushed their championship aspirations to the brink with a 5 - 3 W. The Blues came back with a 6 - 1 victory over Detroit Lakes and then got the first measure over revenge against Alex, 6 - 2, to force a winner-take-all final Sunday. The duel went down to the wire but a no-hitter by Gavin Gast provided the home team just enough space to pull-out the 2 - 1 victory. With it they will be apart of the state-wide tournament in the Twin Cities. They will face Rosemount & Rosetown Friday in Shakopee & Princeton Saturday.
They weren't the only region winners as D/G/F took a similar path to the championship, losing to Roseau early but then also forcing a Sunday finale with wins over Fosston & Roseau. It was nearly as dramatic a contest in Crookston, with the local team finishing ahead there as well, 4 - 1. Their state tournament will be in Luverne.
On the lower levels Fargo took down Moorhead for the ND Little League state championship 11 - 1. The region tournament will be in Indianapolis starting August 5th.
West Fargo claimed the Cal Ripken bracket.
By way of a 14 - 2 win over West Fargo, Casselton secured a spot in the State tournament. Kindred will be joining them after beating Wahpeton and then took the 1-seed with a 2 - 0 victory over their rivals. Post 2's Jets also secured a spot in the state tournament, defeating West Fargo 4 - 3 and then took third place with a 7 - 1 win over Wahp.
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