Three local graduates were on the mat Saturday for NCAA Division II eighth-ranked Augustana in its 19-17 win over Minnesota State Saturday at Taylor Center in Mankato.
Two are Martin County West graduates.
At 125, No. 3 Jaxson Rohman, a senior, was a winner by a 20-4 tech fall in 6:48, while at 157, No. 6 Connor Simmonds, a redshirt junior, lost a 6-3 decision.
Also, Jackson County Central grad Payton Handevidt, a redshirt sophomore, won an 11-2 major decision over No. 15 Kole Marko of MSU.
The Vikings host neighborhood rival University of Sioux Falls in their final dual meet Thursday at Elmen Center.
Frekings both place
The Freking boys each placed in their respective wrestling tournament Saturday and their parents split up for the day so there was one to watch each of them.
William Freking, a junior at Concordia University, had his mom, Meg, in the gym as he went 3-1 to place second at 197 pounds at the Last Shot Invite
William won a 2-0 decision in the first round, won 8-1 in the quarterfinals and then was a winner by fall in the semifinals.
In the championship match, William lost 1-0 to Trystan Rogers of Jamestown with the lone point of the match coming on an escape with :52 remaining in the second period.
Thomas Freking with the Iowa State Wrestling Club was 4-1 and placed third at 149 pounds at the Brown Terrell Invite hosted by the University of Dubuque.
With his dad, Brad, watching, he won his first-round match 12-9 in sudden victory overtime and then won a 15-3 major decision in the quarterfinals before losing a decision in the semifinals to the eventual champion.
Thomas came back to win twice in the consolation bracket and place third, winning a 3-0 decision and a 17-1 technical fall.
Hockey news
Heron Lake native Hobie Hedquist and Sherburn native Carsen Musser each played a game in goal in the North Dakota-Colorado College series in Grand Forks, although they didn’t face each other.
On Friday, Hedquist played 57:31 for the No. 16 Fighting Hawks and made 19 saves on 24 shots with the No. 20 Tigers winning 6-4. The final goal was an empty netter.
In Saturday’s game, Musser played 58:16 for CC and had 24 saves on 26 shots. The final goal again was an empty netter.
Windom graduate Brady Espenson, a sophomore forward with the Dordt University men’s club hockey team, had an assist Friday in the Defenders’ 10-0 home win over Omaha. He has six goals and nine assists for 15 points on the season.
Dordt has an 18-4-1 record and has clinched the No. 2 seed in the MD3MACHA playoffs. The Defenders host Arkansas in a two-game series in Sioux Center next weekend.
Indoor track
Jackson County Central grad Andrew Boyum, a junior Concordia University in St. Paul placed ninth out of 37 runners in the men’s mile at the Gopher Classic at the University of Minnesota Fieldhouse Saturday. He had a time of 4:34.03.
JCC graduate Evan Paplow, a freshman at Iowa Central, finished 25th in the men’s mile at the Iowa State Classic in Ames with a time of 8:58.12.
Moorhead No. 1
One-time Windom Area boys hockey coach Jon Ammerman is in his 12th season as head coach at Moorhead.
The Spuds are ranked first in Class AA by Let’s Play Hockey, a statewide hockey publication.
Moorhead is 22-1, having won 22 straight since opening the season with a 3-2 overtime loss to Wayzata.
Ammerman’s team has two regular-season games remaining, at home vs. No. 3 Rogers (19-2-1) on Thursday and at No. 4 Hill-Murray (also 19-2-1) on Saturday.
The Spuds first game in the Section 8AA tournament will be on Tuesday, Feb. 18.
Girls hockey rout
No matter the sport, a first-round 1 vs. 8 seed section tournament game usually turns out to be one-sided.
That was certainly the case in the Section 2AA girls hockey game between top-seeded Minnetonka and eighth-seeded New Prague Friday.
The Skippers, who are ranked first in the state in Class AA, shut out the Trojans 22-0. Minnetonka scored 10 goals in the first period, six in the second and six in the third.
Shots on goal favored the Skippers 100-2. Minnetonka went 42-38-20 by period in shots. Both of New Prague’s shots came in the third period.
There were 17 players who registered at least one point (a goal or an assist) for Minnetonka. Three players had five points.
New Prague split up the goaltending chores. Hailee Ullom saw 37 shots in 30:25. Chloe Wilta saw more than three shots per minute, seeing 63 shots in 20:35.
Minnetonka advances with a 23-2-1 record. New Prague finishes 2-24.
Fun fact
Through the first 58 Super Bowls, the team wearing white jerseys has won 37 times (a .638 percentage).
New England’s win over Philadelphia on Feb. 6, 2005, started a six-game winning streak for teams wearing white. Green Bay bucked the trend in Super Bowl XLV with a win over Pittsburgh before teams in white jerseys went on another six-game winning streak from 2012-2017.
That streak came to a halt when the Eagles got revenge on the Patriots in Super Bowl LII. White-jersey teams and other-color-jersey teams alternated as champions until the Bucs (LV), Rams (LVI) and Chiefs (LVII) earned titles.
Here are the XXXVII (37) Super Bowls where the team in white jerseys were winners:
II: Green Bay Packers 33, Oakland Raiders 14
III: New York Jets 16, Baltimore Colts 7
V: Baltimore Colts 16, Dallas Cowboys 13
VI: Dallas Cowboys 24, Miami Dolphins 3
VII: Miami Dolphins 14, Washington Redskins 7
IX: Pittsburgh Steelers 16, Minnesota Vikings 6
XI: Oakland Raiders 32, Minnesota Vikings 14
XII: Dallas Cowboys 27, Denver Broncos 10
XV: Oakland Raiders 27, Phiadelphia Eagles 10
XVI: San Francisco 49ers 26, Cincinnati Bengals 21
XVII: Washington Redskins 27, Miami Dolphins 17
XX: Chicago Bears 46, New England Patriots 10
XXII: Washington Redskins 42, Denver Broncos 10
XXIV: San Francisco 49ers 55, Denver Broncos 10
XXVI: Washington Redskins 37, Buffalo Bills 24
XXVII: Dallas Cowboys 52, Buffalo Bills 17
XXVIII: Dallas Cowboys 30, Buffalo Bills 13
XXX: Dallas Cowboys 27, Pittsburgh Steelers 17
XXXIII: Denver Broncos 34, Atlanta Falcons 19
XXXIV: St. Louis Rams 23, Tennessee Titans 16
XXXV: Baltimore Ravens 34, New York Giants 7
XXXIX: New England Patriots 24, Philadelphia Eagles 21
XL: Pittsburgh Steelers 21, Seattle Seahawks 10
XLI: Indianapolis Colts 29, Chicago Bears 17
XLII: New York Giants 17, New England Patriots 14
XLIII: Pittsburgh Steelers 27, Arizona Cardinals 23
XLIV: New Orleans Saints 31, Indianapolis Colts 17
XLVI: New York Giants 21, New England Patriots 17
XLVII: Baltimore Ravens 34, San Francisco 49ers 31
XLVIII: Seattle Seahawks 43, Denver Broncos 8
XLIX: New England Patriots 28, Seattle Seahawks 24
50: Denver Broncos 24, Carolina Panthers 10
LI: New England Patriots 34, Atlanta Falcons 28 (OT)
LIII: New England Patriots 13, Los Angeles Rams 3
LV: Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31, Kansas City Chiefs 9
LVI: Los Angeles Rams 23, Cincinnati Bengals 20
LVII: Kansas City Chiefs 38, Philadelphia Eagles 35
On this date in 1964, four lads from Liverpool took the stage for their first televised performance in the United States and those in the industry said the course of music in the country changed forever.
The Beatles’ appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in CBS attracted an astonishing 73 million viewers, making it the most-watched television event ever at the time.
The performance and Sullivan’s instinct for breaking talent helped solidify The Beatles’ as global music phenomenons setting the stage for “Beatlemania”, and “the British invasion” reshaping popular music, culture and history.