By the way, the first recorded use of the phrase “more than you can shake a stick at” was in the Lancaster Journal of Pennsylvania on Aug. 5, 1818: “We have in Lancaster as many Taverns as you can shake a stick at.”
Topics covered in this week’s edition of Lots O’ Stuff:
Well-traveled wrestlers
College updates
Local goaltenders
K’ Miller starts season
Zach Copley a Marathon Man
Well traveled
Among several benefits to participating in the Flat Earth Wrestling Club and later the Jackson County Central wrestling program is that if you start to have some success and want to take advantage, you can do some traveling.
JCC had wrestlers spread out around the country last weekend.
Nolan Ambrose, who has done his share of wrestling traveling with his cousin along with mom and dad and aunt and uncle, had the shortest trip. He was at the MN #1 event at The Shop Performance Training in Minnetonka.
Nolan won an 8-2 decision over Forest Lake’s Parker Lyden. That match was the 17th of 18th wrestled in the event.
Ambrose is a senior who is a three-time state champion for the Huskies. He has committed to attend Augustana University.
Three other former Huskies are competing for the Vikings this season, Logan Butzon, Payton Handevidt and Caleb Vancura. Another JCC grad, Cooper Moore, is a graduate assistant coach.
There are also four Martin County West grads at Augustana this season, Payton Anderson, Miles Fitzgerald, Jaxson Rohman and Connor Simmonds.
Eighth-grader Kayden Eller was at The Fall Brawl in Kansas City, where he placed fifth in the high school division, where he beat multiple state placer winners according to JCC coach Nate Hanson.
Another eighth-grader, Kyler Thier, went 3-2 at the Tyrant Columbus Day Duals in Manheim, Penn.
College updates
JCC graduate Andrew Boyum, a sophomore at Iowa Central Community College, had an 8K PR of 26:35.7 Saturday at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Jim Drews Invitational in West Salem, Wis.
In a field of 376 starters and 368 finishers, he placed 54th. He was the second scorer for the Tritons, who were 12th out of 27 teams. Iowa Central was the lone two-year school competing.
Next for the Tritons is the Region 11 Championships in Creston on Friday, Oct. 27.
Fairmont graduate Connor Artner, a sophomore with the Hamline men’s cross country team, placed 436th out of 452 runners with a time of 31:23.4 at the prestigious Augsustana Interregional in Rock Island, Ill. on Saturday.
For the Hamline women, Aspen Clarksean was 244th of 287 runners in 26:34.0. She’s the daughter of JCC graduate Dallas Clarksean and his wife, Niki, and the granddaughter of Charlie and Linda Clarksean.
The Pipers will compete in the MIAC Championship in Northfield on Saturday, Oct. 28.
Jackson County Central graduate Sadie Voss, a 5-foot-10 sophomore outside hitter at the University of Sioux Falls, reached 500 career kills Saturday in the Cougars in their 3-1 win over Augustana. Voss had her sixth double-double of the season in that match with 10 kills and 12 digs.
On Thursday, she recorded 11 kills and nine digs in a 3-0 victory over Minnesota State.
For the season she has 229 kills (3.52 per set) and 164 digs (2.52). Last year she recorded 275 kills (2.78) and 308 digs (3.11) and was named Freshman of the Year in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. USF (8-10, 4-6 NSIC) is on the road three times in five days this week, playing at Southwest Minnesota State Tuesday, Minnesota State Moorhead Friday and Northern State Saturday.
JCC grad Alaina Wolff is a 5-6 junior defensive specialist at South Dakota, which split a pair of Summit League matches.
She had 13 digs and was 9-10 serving in a 3-0 win over St. Thomas and posted 14 digs and was 14-16 serving in a 3-2 loss to Kanas City.
Alaina’s performance in Kansas City brought happiness to a Minnesota native in New York City.
Shawn Fury grew up in Janesville and was a star athlete for the JWP Bulldogs. He’s a graduate of St. John’s University and to this date takes pleasure in a Tommies loss regardless of the sport:
Check him out here: https://www.shawnfury.com/
The Coyotes are 10-8 overall and 4-3 in league play. They’re at home twice this week, hosting South Dakota State Tuesday and Omaha Thursday.
JCC graduate Alicia Brandt is a 6-foot junior middle blocker at Waldorf University, which went 1-3 in the last week.
Alicia had four kills and four blocks in a loss to Viterbo, five kills and three blocks in a loss to St. Francis, Ill., one kill in a loss to Rocky Mountain and six kills in a win over Trinity Christian.
The Warriors, 11-10 overall and 0-7 in the NSAA, host Bellevue, Neb. Thursday and Dakota State Friday.
Jackson County Central grad Georgianna Wenzel is a sophomore RSH at Briar Cliff.
She had two kills and two digs in a 3-2 loss to Doane and two kills in a 3-2 loss to Dordt. The Chargers, 7-19 overall and 2-10 in the GPAC, host Jamestown University Friday.
JCC grad Will Freking (6-1, 240) is a sophomore defensive lineman at Concordia College. He had one tackle for the Cobbers in a 58-14 win over Hamline on Saturday.
Concordia, 3-3 overall and 2-2 in the MIAC, hosts Macalaster next week.
Three former players with the Windom Area boys hockey team are members of the Dordt University men’s hockey team.
In a 13-2 win over Northern Illinois on Friday, junior forward Alex Espenson and freshman forward Brady Espenson each had two goals and one assist, while sophomore defenseman Zach Espenson had three assists.
On Saturday the Defenders defeated the Huskies 10-1 with Brady recording one goal and two assists while Alex had one goal and one assist.
Dordt is tied for first place with Creighton in the American Collegiate Hockey Association Silver Central Conference with 15 points on a 5-1 record. The Defenders next game is Oct. 27 at Omaha.
Goalies
Once again, this season we’ll be tracking the progress of a pair of goaltenders from the local hockey hotbeds of Heron Lake and Sherburn.
Heron Lake native Hobie Hedquist is a freshman goaltender at North Dakota. He played 25:52 and stopped all three shots he faced in the Fighting Hawks in a 10-0 win over the University of Manitoba in an exhibition game.
Sherburn native Carsen Musser stopped 27 of the 32 shots he saw in his latest game for the Madison Capitols of the United States Hockey League, a 5-2 loss to the Muskegon Lumberjcaks.
He now has a 2-1-1 record on the season, has made 106 saves on 121 shots (.876 percentage) and has a goals against average of 3.69. Madison has one game this weekend, hosting the Youngstown Phantoms Friday.
Miller starts third season in NHL
K’Andre Miller has started his third season with the NHL’s New York Rangers.
Miller, the son of Fairmont High School graduate Amy Sokoloski, agreed to terms on a two-year contract during the summer.
Now 23 years old, Miller played at Minnetonka High School before leaving to join the USA Hockey National Team Development Program and spent two seasons playing in the United States Hockey League. He played in the 2016 World U-17 Hockey Challenge and the 2018 IIHF World U18 Championships.
After his time with the NTDP, Miller spent two seasons at the University of Wisconsin. He left the Badgers to sign with the Rangers, who had selected him in the first round (22nd overall) in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft.
Miller had an assist and recorded a plus-minus of +2 Thursday as New York opened its season with a 5-1 win at Buffalo. The Rangers lost at Columbus 5-3 on Saturday and defeated Arizona 2-1 in their home opener at Madison Square Garden Monday.
New York hosts Nashville Thursday and then has a five-game road trip with games at Seattle, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Winnipeg. The Rangers play the Minnesota Wild on Saturday, Nov. 4 at Xcel Energy Center.
Copley runs marathon
Jackson County Central graduate Zach Copley, who now lives in Brighton, Mich., completed the Detroit Free Press Marathon Saturday.
Zach finished in a time of 5 hours, 16 minutes and 51 seconds, a pace of 12:06 per mile.
He placed 2,496th of 3,077 finishers, was 1,659th of 1,949 males and 289th out of 318 runners in the male 25-29 year-old age group.
A Chicago Bears superfan parody song with a great reference to the Vikings: