Martin County West graduate Katie Lange, competing for Grand Valley State University, is the number one seed at 138 pounds at the National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships that will be held Friday and Saturday at Xtream Arena in Coralville, Iowa.
The event that brings together top athletes from Divisions I, II, and III.
Lange won a 2023 NCWWC national title at 143 pounds for Augsburg in 2023. She took an Olympic redshirt year last season and then joined Simley High School graduate and former Augsburg coach Jake Short after he took the position at Grand Valley State.
Short, who also worked with Lange during her bid to make the Olympic team, was named the NCAA Women's National Coach of the Year by the National Wrestling Coaches Association Thursday.
Lange qualified for the NCWWC tournament by winning the Region 5 title last month in Adrian, Mich.
She has a 14-0 record on the season. Her first-round opponent is Elmira’s Gabby Bradigan (16-14).
Jaxson Rohman, also an MCW grad and a senior at Augustana University, will compete in the NCAA Division II men’s national tournament for the fourth time March 14-15 in Indianapolis.
Rohman won the 125-pound title at the Super Region V tournament last weekend in Sioux Falls.
After a first-round bye, Rohman won by technical fall 17-2 just as time expired vs. Jackson Heatson of Upper Iowa in the quarterfinals.
In the semifinals, Rohman was a 13-4 major decision over Sloan Johannsen of Northern State. That put him in the finals against a familiar opponent, Shane Corrigan, a junior from Parkside.
Rohman won the title by pinning Corrigan in 5:48 in their seventh meeting as college opponents. Rohman leads 5-2.
Two other local graduates placed fifth for Augustana at the Super Regional.
MCW grad Connor Simmonds, a redshirt junior, went 3-2 at 157 pounds and Jackson County Central grad Payton Handevidt, a redshirt sophomore, was 4-2 at 165.
Also representing Augustana at the national tournament will be Cael Larson (Rapid City) at 149 pounds, Cade Mueller (Waconia) at 184 and Max Ramberg (Baldwin, Wis.) at 197.
JCC grad Kie Anderson, a junior at Concordia College, placed eighth at the NCAA Upper Midwest Regional in Minneapolis.
BLC in NCAA
Jackson County Central graduate Pat Garvin has his Bethany Lutheran College team in the field for the NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament for the third straight year.
The Vikings, 14-13, will play in a regional hosted by the University of Chicago.
BLC faces Illinois Wesleyan in the first round at 4 p.m. Friday. That will be followed by the host Maroons facing MIAC champion Saint John's. The winners square off on Saturday for a berth in the Sweet 16.
Bethany has won 11 of its last 14 games, including a 90-84 win over Northwestern on the Eagles home court in St. Paul in the UMAC tournament championship game. Northwestern had led by 21 points in the first half.
All conference
Windom graduate Zach Espenson, a junior defenseman with the Dordt University men’s club hockey team, has been named to the all-Mid American Collegiate Hockey Association team.
Espenson scored 10 goals and had 19 assists and averaged 1.04 points per game for a team that finished that won the postseason tournament title and advanced to the ACHA National Tournament for the first time since 2010.
Espenson has 35 career goals and 45 career assists while helping Dordt to a 58-14-2 record over the last three seasons. He was part of a defense that helped Dordt outscore teams 153-79 this season and have a 23-4-1 record entering national tournament competition.
The Defenders earned a spot in the national tourney with a 5-4 double overtime win over Missouri State in the MACHA Silver Division Championship in Chesterfield, Missouri.
The 16-team ACHA Division 3 National Championships start on March 18 in Chesterfield.
Dordt, ranked 15th, is in a pool with No. 6 Grand Valley State, No. 3 3 Hope College and No. 16 Michigan State.
Resch wins award
Jackson County Central graduate Teresa Resch has been named as a recipient of the Top 25 Women of Influence+ Canada Awards.
Resch is President of the expansion Toronto Tempo, the first WNBA franchise outside of the United States. The team will begin play in the 2026 season.
According to the press release, Resch and the other women are redefining leadership in Canada. Their influence spans policy, innovation, cultural advocacy, and economic advancement, shaping industries and communities alike.
“Leadership isn’t just about the systems we change. It’s about building the conditions for others to drive transformation themselves,” says Maricel Dicion, Managing Director, Women of Influence+. “The recipients exemplify that kind of leadership. By recognizing their work, we’re not only celebrating achievement — we’re reinforcing the many ways leadership shows up in the world and the power it has to shape the future.”
Resch has been a prominent figure in advancing the sport. She spent 11 seasons as a senior leader with the Toronto Raptors, bringing basketball to the forefront of Canadian sport.
From 2013-2024, she played an instrumental role in numerous projects, including the design and construction of the Raptors’ OVO Athletic Centre, the launch of the Raptors 905 (Toronto’s NBA G-League affiliate), and transitioning the Raptors to Tampa for the 2020-21 season.
She began her career at the NBA League Office, as a member of the International Basketball Operations department. During that time, she organized Basketball Without Borders camps in four continents, established the first camp to feature women campers, and expanded the NBA’s relationship with the US Department of State’s SportsUnited program.
Resch has been a member of the Board of Directors for Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities since 2023, and that same year, she was elected as a Class B member of the Canadian Olympic Committee.
The Tempo made other news this week when it was announced that Serena Williams will join the team’s ownership group.
Williams is a former professional tennis player, widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association for 319 weeks (third-most of all time), and finished as the year-end No. 1 five times. Williams won 73 WTA Tour-level singles titles, including 23 major women's singles titles — the most in the Open Era, and the second-most of all time.
She joins the team’s ownership group alongside Larry Tanenbaum, Chairman of Kilmer Sports Ventures.
“Serena is a champion,” Teresa said in a release. “She’s the greatest athlete of all time, and her impact on this team and this country is going to be incredible. She’s set the bar for women in sport, business and the world – and her commitment to using that success to create opportunities for other women is inspiring – we’re thrilled to be marking the lead-up to International Women’s Day with this announcement.”
The team says Williams will play a role in designing jerseys and creating merchandise collaborations with the team.
Williams already owns stakes in the Miami Dolphins, Angel City FC and Los Angeles Golf Club.
Fun fact
This Fun Fact is in recognition of Pat Garvin coaching in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament at the University of Chicago.
That school is home of Jay Berwanger, the first recipient of the “Downtown Athletic Club Trophy,” later dubbed the Heisman Memorial Trophy.
Berwanger was renowned for his versatility. He called plays, ran, passed, punted, blocked, tackled, kicked off, kicked extra points, and returned punts and kickoffs.
Berwanger was the only Heisman recipient who was ever tackled by a future president of the United States–Gerald Ford, during a 1934 game between Chicago and Michigan. “When I tackled Jay in the second quarter, I ended up with a bloody cut and I still have the scar to prove it,” Ford recalled.
He was also the first player chosen for the National Football League during its first-ever draft in 1936. After the Philadelphia Eagles signed him, Coach George Halas of the Chicago Bears acquired the signing rights. But when Berwanger asked for $25,000 over two years, Halas decided that was too much money, so Berwanger took a job as a foam-rubber salesman.
In his spare time, Berwanger wrote a sports column for the Chicago Daily News, refereed college football games, and, from 1936-1939, coached football at Chicago. Berwanger had a bit part, playing himself, in the 1936 football movie “The Big Game.”
The university abolished its football program in 1939 and withdrew from the Big Ten in 1946. Football returned to the University of Chicago in 1963 in the form of a club team, which was upgraded to varsity status in 1969. The Maroons began competing in Division III in 1973.
Here are legendry comedians Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy dancing to Billie Jean.