Ca Va?

Not sure how many people outside of our men's and women's track and field programs are actually aware of this, but there's a tremendous amount of excitement surrounding the construction of the new facility on the south end of campus.

"Obviously it means a lot for our programs," said Jen Blue, head coach of the Maverick women's track and field team. "Everyone from our student-athletes to our alums are really happy with what's happening for a number of different reasons.  For example, it's always been tough on our athletes as they've had to get their workouts in on an off-campus facility while at the same time making sure they made it to their classes.  This will make that issue far easier to address.  It's also been a safety issue with the travel to on off-campus facility.  But the reality is that it's going to be in our back yard.  We're going to have something we can be proud of and a facility that will even out the competitive advantage other schools have had with their own on-campus tracks."

The new track will feature a 400m Mondo surface track (the same as used in Bejing Olympics).   The facility will be lighted with a long jump pit, pole vault pit, two shot put rings, two discus rings, a hammer throw area and two javelin rings.

It's been a while since MSU has hosted a track and field meet.  MSU Athletics used the old facility during the course of the Cerebral Palsy National Games which were held on campus in 1989, but it's been more than a quarter of a century that MSU has hosted a collegiate track and field meet.

It's great to be a Maverick!

As it Pertains to...

My, my how time, it really does fly.  The harsh reality is that once we get past spring break, MSU student-athletes and teams have approximately two and half months left of regular-season competition.  Most of our spring teams will participate in NCAA postseason competition, so that will extend things somewhat past MSU's graduation commencement ceremony which takes place in Taylor Center May 8.

NCAA softball regional action is slated for May 14-16, super regional action is May 21-22 and the eight-team championship finals take place in St. Joseph, Mo., May 27-31.  The NCAA Division II softball page is located here.

The NCAA Division II baseball regionals are scheduled for May 13-16 and the NCAA Championship, scheduled for May 22-29, will be held in Cary, N.C. The NCAA Division II baseball page is located here.

Postseason action for men's and women's tennis gets underway May 6-8 with regional competition.  Championship action takes place in Altamonte Springs, Fla., May 12-15.  The NCAA Division II tennis page is located here.

Maverick track & field student-athletes, usually the last of our competitors to compete, will be looking to qualify for the NCAA National Track & Field Championship Meet, which is hosted by the city of Charlotte, N.C., May 27-29.  The NCAA Division II outdoor track & field page is located here.

For the Good of the Cause

Just a couple of quick things as we head off into what is sizing up to be a great weekend here in Minnesota.

Former Maverick men's hockey forward Ryan Carter has been named to Team USA for the IIHF World Men's Championship, May 7-23, in Cologne, Gelsenkirchen and Mannheim, Germany.  Carter played at Minnesota State for two seasons (2004-05 and 2005-06) before signing as a free agent with the NHL's Anaheim Ducks.

Another former MSU forward, Jon Kalinski, was called up from Adirondack of the American Hockey League by the parent Philadelphia Flyers prior to the start of the 2009-10 NHL play-offs. Kalinski, in his second season as a professional, had 28 points (10G,18A) in 69 games with the AHL Phantoms this year.

In case you missed it, today's Maverick Magazine featured junior catcher Steven Helget and head coach Matt Magers from the 20th-ranked Maverick baseball program.  A podcast of the half-hour program, which takes place every Friday on KMSU FM 89.7, is located here.

Senior Ashley Clinchoc, who led the 14th-rated Minnesota State women's bowling program to a 48-42 overall record this year, has been named a Third-Team All-American by the NTCA.

Not sure how many folks were aware of this, but April 14th was a key date for athletic departments around the country because it signalled the day when schools could announce another round of recruit committments.  MSU had a few - be sure to check out our front page at msumavericks.com, with men's basketball, women's basketball and women's soccer making some roster additions for the 20010-11 school year.  Pretty sure there will be a few more to come next week.

Before ending, let me just say the the new ballpark up in Minneapolis sure is nice.  Good times.

It truly is great to be a Maverick.

Stay Thursday, My Friend

Back in the fall we started featuring Maverick student-athletes on our website using the Get to Know format.  We recently rolled out four more of these with tennis players Adam Doll and Heather Jensen, along with baseball infielders Kosuke Hattori, from baseball, and Abby Morris, from softball, highlighted.

The winners of eight of their last nine games, the Maverick baseball team stands 23-7 for 2010 and is rated 23rd in this week's NCBWA poll.  MSU, which heads off to Bismarck, N.D., for four games with NSIC-foe University of Mary this Saturday and Sunday, was rated third in the region by the NCBWA this week.  The most important poll, issued by the NCAA, hasn't come out yet, but it's likely the Mavericks will be around third in that poll, as well. New Mexico Highlands and St. Cloud State are rated first and second, respectively in the NCBWA regional poll.

The NCAA began releasing its Division II regional softball poll a couple of weeks ago and MSU, which stands 17-5, recently moved from fourth to second in the rankings.  The Mavericks, who claimed a home league sweep over St. Cloud State Wednesday, hosts the University of Mary Saturday and Northern State Sunday in their next action.

And while MSU's spring sports are well into their seasons, it should be noted that Todd Hoffner's Maverick football team has been working its way through spring practice at Blakeslee Stadium and on the adjacent practice fields.  MSU's annual spring football game is slated for 1:00 p.m. on April 24th.

Other key dates coming up include the Sixth Annual Women's Walk on the morning of April 10th and the 24th Annual Maverick Achievement Awards and Senior Honors Dinner May 2nd. 

It also not unimportant to note that there are several familiar names at MSU's Distinguished Alumni Awards which take place April 23rd.   Former MSU Reporter sports writer Steve DiMeglio (MSU '87), one of the pre-eminent golf writers in country who currently covers golf for USA Today, will receive the Achievement Award.  Longtime MSU men's cross country and track coach Mark Schuck (MSU '69) will recieve the Harold J. Fitterer Service Award.  And former MSU football tight end John Hoffman (MSU '99) is slated to receive a Young Alumni Award.

It's great to be a Maverick.

Thursday Grab Bag

Transactions

Former Maverick punter Joel Nielsen (MSU 1984-85) was named Director of Athletics at Kent State late last week.  Nielsen, an All-North Central conference pick as a senior while at MSU, spent the last seven years as the AD at the University of South Dakota.  He was the AD at Colorado College prior to that and also served under Ron Wellman at Wake Forest from 1993-2001.  Wellman, you will recall, was the men's AD at MSU for one year in 1986-87.

Former MSU women's soccer assistant coach Mandy (Brettingen) Green has been selected as head coach for the women's soccer program at the University of South Dakota.

And in coaching movements around the NSIC,  Northern State introduced its new football coach back in January in Tom Dorsch and its new men's basketball coach, Paul Sather, last week.  Southwest Minnesota State announced that Cory Sauter is its new football coach.  Back in February Augustana selected Mike Aldrich to guide its football program.  And yesterday, Upper Iowa announced that Carol Russell is its new women's basketball coach.


The NHL Draft and MSU's Tyler Pitlick

Freshman forward Tyler Pitlick, who had 11 goals and 8 assists for 19 points in 38 games in his first year with the Mavericks this winter, was rated 21st in Central Scouting's Mid Term Rankings.  The Centerville, Minn., native has received an invitation to attend the annual NHL Scouting Combine.  The combine, which will run May 24-29 in Toronto, is an opportunity for teams to meet and interview prospects, as well as see them tested in an off-ice setting.  Two of five bloggers on NHL.com have Pitlick going in the first round of their mock drafts.  The actual NHL Draft is scheduled for June 25-26 in Los Angeles.

Lastly

Hey, it's supposed to be in the high 70s, low 80s today in Mankato.  And with that in mind - Maverick Baseball vs Southwest Minnesota State in a NSIC doubleheader scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. at the MSU Baseball Complex.  Just a thought.

Mavericks in the Minors

Several former Mavericks are working their way through the farm systems of major league clubs these days.

Outfielder Mark Dolenc, who was drafted by the Twins in the 15th round in 2006, spent last year with Ft. Myers in Class A and is expected to land at AA with New Britain this summer.  Dolenc has seen action in three games with the big club during spring training and his stats with the Twins appear here.

Righthanded pitcher Chris Odegaard, who was selected by Arizona in the 23rd round of the 2009 draft, spent last summer in class A with Yakima of the Northwest League.

Picked by Tampa in the 43rd round of the 2009 draft, infielder Geno Glynn played rookie ball with Princeton of the Appalachian League last summer.

All three players should find out early next week what team they will be assigned for this summer. 

Other former Mavericks still playing pro ball include a trio that will play with independent professional teams in pitchers Nick Fellman and Nathan Kafka, along with outfielder/infielder Rich Austin.

Drafted by the Braves in 2007, Fellman is slated to suit up for Fargo-Moorhead of the Northern League this summer, while Kafka will play for the Midwest Sliders of the Frontier League.  Austin, who played for the Mavericks in 1999-2000 and epitomizes the term career minor leaguer as evidenced by this story which ran last spring, will be a player-coach for Rockford Riverhawks of the Northern League this year.

A complete list of Mavericks who have been drafted and/or played pro baseball appears here.

A Couple of Good Reads

A couple of stories written recently pertaining to Minnesota State Athletics.

First, the Chronicle of Higher Education sent a writer our way back near the end of February and Libby Sanders's piece entitled College Sports, How the Other Half Lives, appears here.

Then, found this posting on former Minnesota State men's hockey forward Travis Morin, who skates for the Texas Stars of the American Hockey League. After spending a couple of years with the South Carolina Stingrays of the East Coast Hockey League, T-Mo has worked hard in establishing himself as a top-six forward with the Stars, who are affiliated with the NHL's Dallas Stars.

Six Degrees of Separation....

The NCAA Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments are now upon us and there are a couple of story lines in each tournament that can be directly related to Minnesota State athletics.

In the men’s tournament, Wake Forest earned the #9 in the East Region and play #8 seed, Texas tonight (Thursday) at 8:35. Former Maverick athletic director Ron Wellman is the current AD at Wake Forest.

The University of Northern Iowa men’s program is the #9 seed in the Midwest Bracket and opens the tournament against the #8 seed UNLV, tonight (Thursday) at 6:10. The Panther’s point guard, Kwadzo Ahelegbe is the younger brother of former Maverick player and current Maverick assistant coach Gameli.

On the women’s side, there are also two connections to the Mavericks. Minnesota State head men’s basketball coach Matt Margenthaler’s younger brother, Ty, serves as an assistant coach for the University of Wisconsin. The Badgers – who are in the tournament for the first time since the 2002 season – are the #7 seed in the Kansas City Regional and take on the #10 seed, Vermont Sunday at 11 a.m., in South Bend, Ind.

Minnesota State assistant women’s basketball coach Megan Vogel was a four-year standout and an assistant coach for former North Central Conference member South Dakota State who won the Summit League and advanced to the tournament for the second straight year. The Jackrabbits, are the #14 seed and will play 3rd-seeded Oklahoma Sunday in the Norman, Okla.

Are there more connections that I am forgetting? If so, post them in the comments.

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.

March Madness

Wow, it's time for the March Madness here around Minnesota State as many of our winter sports seasons are entering the playoff run. 

The Minnesota State men's basketball team opens the 2010 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference tournament tonight as the #1 seed and entertains Southwest Minnesota State, the #8 seed.

Chad Courrier of the Mankato Free Press wrote a great piece in today's paper about Minnesota State senior guard Jesse Clark and former Maverick great Gene Glynn (1976-80), which can be found here.  Clark currently sits second on the school's all-time assists list with 520, while Glynn holds the school record for assists with 760.  Both are the only two players in school history to surpass the 500-assist barrier.

To get a different perspective of the game, click here, as the Marshall Independent looks into this do-or-die game for the Mustangs.

The Maverick's women's team is traveling to St. Paul today for its opening round game of the NSIC/Sanford Health tournament.  This is a rematch of last year's opening round game, only the roles are reversed.  Concordia owns the #1 seed in this year's tournament, while MSU is #8.  Last year, the Mavericks - who were the #1 seed - fell to Concordia - who was the #8 seed - 86-77.

To view either game tonight, log onto www.pennatlantic.com and you can view it for free.  For those who wish to follow the livestats, they can follow the men's game here and the women's game here.

As some tournaments are beginning, two tournaments which recently completed found a former Maverick and a current Maverick with medals around their necks.  Former Maverick David Backes - now of the St. Louis Blues - and his American teammates came home with a silver medal from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics in men's ice hockey.  As most know by now, Canada bested the USA in what some are calling one of the best hockey games ever, Sunday afternoon, 3-2 in overtime. 

Current Maverick forward, junior Nina Tikkinen earned the Bronze Medal as Norway beat Sweden, 3-2 last Thursday in women's ice hockey.  The following day, Tikkinen rejoined the Mavericks as they played Minnesota in the first round of the WCHA playoffs. 

Tuesday, MSU hosted a press conference with Tikkinen and head women's hockey coach Eric Means and the bronze medal was on display.  To read Shane Frederick's story on the press conference, click here and here.

I got a chance to hold the medal and I didn't really realize how big it was till I put it in my paw:

In the words of Porky the Pig from Loney Tunes....