Thursday Grab Bag

Quicker then you can say "Bob's your uncle," the Minnesota State winter sports season came to a crashing halt last weekend.

Just to recap, All-American performances by senior Brady Wilson (2nd, heavyweight), junior Andy Forstner (4th, 125), senior Travis Elg (5th, 149) and sophomore Aaron Norgren (7th, 184) paced the MSU wrestlers to a sixth-place at the national championship tournament in Omaha.

Led by the national championship performance of junior Denise Mokaya in the 800m, the MSU men's track & field team finished eighth in the final team standings of the national indoor track & field championships in Albuquerque.  Junior pole vaulter Lauren Stelten finished second as the Maverick women's indoor track & field team turned in a 16th-place finish at the national meet. And the MSU men's and women's swimming & diving teams both placed 26th at the national meet held in Akron, Ohio.

Throw in a NCAA regional semi-final appearance by the MSU men's basketball team and a first-round WCHA play-off loss in a best-of-three series to St. Cloud State absorbed by the men's hockey team and you can put a bow on things.

Not counting the sixth consecutive trip to the NCAA postseason by Matt Margenthaler's men's hoops squad, the performances by the MSU winter sports teams have boosted the Mavericks up the Directors' Cup standings from 54th to sixth place.

So, moving on, as we must do, the focus turns to Minnesota State's spring sports.  Currently rated 23rd in the NCBWA poll, the baseball team stands 11-5 on the year and is expected to open NSIC action this weekend with four games against Northern State.  The two doubleheaders are/were supposed to take place in Aberdeen, S.D., but stay tuned.  There's a good possibility MSU could have its home opener this weekend.  The Mavericks, which just returned from a spring break trip to Florida, have played eight games in the Metrodome this year.  Check out this interesting story from the N.Y. Times regarding the goings-on that take place in the Homer Dome during the winter months.  The Mavericks went 6-2 in games played there this year.

The Maverick softball team, which stands 10-4 for the year and is receiving votes in the NFCA poll, is scheduled to host Waldorf March 25th in a nonconference doubleheader in its home opener.

The MSU women's golf team claimed a tournament title in Arizona when they finished first at the Poston Butte Invite last week and a schedule change has the men's golf team participating in the UC-San Diego SoCal Intercollegiate tournament March 22-23.  The Maverick men's and women's tennis teams were the first teams to get going with their schedules starting in late February.

So there you go.  As Scott Nelsen loves to say...."No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow."  

Mozeltoff, everyone.  Mozeltoff.