Lots O’ Stuff
Gasca a Hall of Famer; Card reaches 500 wins and more
In this edition of Lots O’ Stuff, a former Jackson Bluejay is headed for a Hall of Fame induction, a former local wrestling coach reaches a milestone, we have a college update as well as our usual Fun Fact and Something Different features.
Hall of Famer
Jackson High School graduate Ronnie Gasca will be among the inductees into the Minnesota College Athletic Conference Hall of Fame Saturday.
The induction will take place at halftime of Minnesota West’s men's basketball game vs. Riverland at the Center for Health and Wellness on the Minnesota West campus in Worthington. That game starts at 3 p.m.
Gasca played two seasons for the Bluejays men’s basketball team in the 1995-96 and 1996-97 seasons. He was named to the MCCC All-South Division team both years.
According to the release from the MCAC, Gasca was considered the glue of the team. He led the Bluejays to a conference title, making 13 straight free throws in the championship game.
Minnesota West went on to win the Region XIII championship and placed seventh in the national tournament.
Mike Augustine, his coach at Minnesota West, said that Gasca was an unselfish player who always put the team first. He added that Gasca guarded the opponent’s best guard and was very personable, a classic junior college player.
Augustine is also being inducted into the Hall of Fame Saturday.
Ronnie and his wife, Sonja, own Balaton Bay Golf Course in Balaton.
500 wins
Jackson County Wrestling Hall of Famer Todd Card, head coach of the Hutchinson/Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart wrestling team, reached a milestone on Friday.
The Tigers won three duals in St. Cloud, with a 55-24 win over St. Cloud Tech in the middle match giving Card his 500th career win as a head wrestling coach.
To date, Card’s teams have a record of 501-240-8, a .674 percentage.
Card was an assistant wrestling coach for Jackson High School, an assistant and later co-coach for HLOL/Jackson and he was also an assistant coach for Jackson County Central.
Card was also head baseball coach at JHS and head softball coach for JCC.
College updates
Two Jackson County Central graduates competed in the Northland Open wrestling tournament in Thief River Falls.
Logan Butzon, a redshirt freshman at Augustana University, won four matches to win the 157-pound title.
Butzon won his first three matches each by tech fall, winning 18-1 over Ayden Flanagan (Concordia-Moorhead), 16-1 over Mitchell Christen (Northland) and 23-8 over Jacob Taplin (Southwest Minnesota State). In the finals, Butzon win an 8-7 decision over Aidan Ruddy (Concordia-Moorhead).
William Freking, a junior at Concordia College, placed third at 197.
Freking went 1-2 in the round-robin bracket, losing to Aiden Hight (North Dakota State) and Taylor Hugg (St. Cloud State) and then winning by fall over Seth Meyer (Ridgewater).
Kie Anderson, also a junior for Concordia, lost a 5-2 decision at 133 pounds in a dual vs. St John’s Tuesday, but the Cobbers won 38-9.
Two Windom graduates had an opportunity to return to Windom Arena with the Dordt University club hockey team.
Neither junior defenseman Zach Espenson or sophomore forward Brady Espenson recorded a point vs. Gustavus Saturday, but the Defenders did beat the Gusties 5-1 to improve to 17-4-1 on the season. Zach is the team’s leading scorer with eight goals and 15 assists for 23 points.
Dordt hosts Omaha in Sioux Center Friday in Sioux Center and then entertains Arkansas to close out its regular-season schedule Feb. 14-15.
JCC graduate Peyton Hanson, a sophomore at the University of Sioux Falls, placed 10th out of 38 entries in the women’s pole vault at the Mark Schuck Open in Mankato. She cleared 3.46 meters.
Jackson County Central grad Evan Paplow, a freshman at Iowa Central, competed in two events at the SDSU Open in Brookings. He was ninth out of 33 runners in the 5000 meters with a time of 15:51.42 and 30th of 43 entries in the 800 meters in 2:06.46.
Fun fact
Super Bowl Sunday is the second-highest eating day in the United States.
Thanksgiving is number one.
Pizza is the top snack for the Super Bowl.
One out of every seven people order in on Super Bowl Sunday. The majority of those orders include at least one sausage pizza.
Here are The Ross Sisters in a scene from the 1944 MGM musical titled "Broadway Rhythm."
Exactly what “Solid Potato Salad” means is not certain. Apparently “solid” was period slang for “excellent.”
The Ross Sisters (Aggie, Maggie, and Elmira) were a trio of singing acrobatic contortionists who rose to brief fame in the 1940s. They were all married by 1950 and there aren’t any details of any performances past that time.