In this edition Lots O’ Stuff, Katie Lange places second at a national tournament; we update you on some local graduates; Estherville Lincoln Central is looking for a new girls basketball coach; and a Spirit Lake grad is changing coaching assignments.
Lange second
Martin County West graduate Katie Lange went 4-1 and placed second in the 62 kg weight class at the 2025 USMC Women's Championship at The Podium in Spokane, Wash.
The second-seeded Lange won four matches to reach the best-of-three finals, where she lost in two straight to top-seeded Adaugo Nwachukwu of Colorado.
Here are her match-by-match results:
Katie Lange (MN) pinned Kassey Daugherty (VA) 1:00
Katie Lange (MN) pinned Annabell Suto (WA) 0:17
Katie Lange (MN) tech fall Madeline Barton (MO) 10-0
Katie Lange (MN) tech fall Taylor Graveman (SD), TF 19-8
Adaugo Nwachukwu (CO) tech fall Katie Lange (MN), TF 19-8
Adaugo Nwachukwu (CO) dec. Katie Lange (MN) 7-5
Lange will represent the U.S. in the Pan Am Championships in Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico starting Thursday. She was the gold medalist at 65kg in the 2021 Games.
College athletes
Two Jackson County Central graduates competed in the USD Early Bird Invitational track and field meet in Vermillion.
Peyton Hanson is a sophomore at the University of Sioux Falls. She placed 11th in the women’s pole vault, clearing 3.51 meters, which I believe converts to 11 feet, 6 inches.
Evan Paplow, a freshman at Iowa Central Community College, was 63rd out of 98 entries in the 1500 meters with a time of 4:16.68.
Former Fairmont pitcher Tegan Livesay, a sophomore with the Southeast Missouri State softball team, pitched a five-hit shutout Sunday as the Redhawks defeated Lindenwood 5-0.
Livesay, now 4-2, allowed four hits (all singles), walked one, hit one and struck out a career-high seven. She threw 96 pitches.
Fairmont grad Eli Anderson, is a junior outfielder with the Purdue baseball team. He’s hitting .267 (8-30) with one double, one triple and seven runs batted in. The Boilermakers are 20-11, 3-9 in the Big 10.
Fairmont grad Lincoln Becker, a redshirt freshman infielder at NIACC, is hitting .352 for the Trojans with 43 hits in 122 at bats. He has seven doubles, two triples and six home runs.
Becker has 32 runs batted in for NIACC, which is 14-20 overall, 7-8 in the ICCAC.
Another Fairmont graduate, Jacob Crissinger, a redshirt sophomore pitcher at NIACC, has a 1-3 record with a 3.38 ERA. In 21.1 innings, he’s allowed nine runs (eight earned) on 17 hits, walked five and struck out 32.
Fairmont graduate Solveig Senf, a sophomore with the St. Olaf College women’s golf team, placed 15th at the Arizona Christian Quad. She went 93-93-186.
Academic honor
Martin County West graduate Jaxson Rohman has earned National Wrestling Coaches Association Division II Scholar All-American honors for the fourth time in his career at Augustana University.
To make the team, an athlete must have a minimum 3.5 cumulative grade point average on a 4.0 scale, with that benchmark at 3.25 for those who qualified for the 2024 NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships and a 3.0 for those who were All-Americans at the 2024 Nationals. Wrestlers must have competed in four dates of competition.
ELC coach retires
Estherville Lincoln Central has been a regular on Jackson County Central’s nonconference basketball schedule for a number of years and next season ELC girls will have a new coach.
Don Martindale has resigned after eight seasons at the helm of the Midgets. He led ELC to four consecutive Lakes Conference titles and five state Class 3A tournament appearances.
Martindale is a three-time Iowa Girls Coaches Association Class 3A District Coach of the Year was inducted into the Iowa Girls Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2022.
Brown heads to Drake
Also, from south of the border, Spirit Lake graduate Billy Brown has been named an assistant coach with the Drake men’s basketball team.
Brown has been an assistant coach at South Dakota State for five seasons. He’ll be following Eric Henderson to Des Moines as Henderson has been named head coach of the Bulldogs.
Brown, who was a four-year letterman as a player at North Dakota, has been a part of four Summit League regular season championship teams and coached in two NCAA tournaments.
Fun fact
Dick Van Dyke is reprising some of his most famous Broadway roles, including his role in "Bye Bye Birdie" for New York Magazine's annual "Yesteryear" issue. Among shows he has appeared include “Same Time, Next Year,” “The Music Man,” and “Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life.”
He also has been singing with his acapella group, Van Dyke and The Vantastix, for 25 years.
Van Dyke was born on Dec. 13, 1925 in West Plains, Mo.
Sliced bread, as a commercially available product, was first introduced to the public on July 7, 1928, by the Chillicothe Baking Company in Chillicothe, Missouri.
So, Dick Van Dyke is older than sliced bread.
You can see Dick Van Dyke pretty early in the closing of the CBS 50th anniversary special in March of 1978.
How many others can you name?