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Jan. 9, 1998 Concordian
| Cobber Sports |
Hockey | Swimming | Wrestling | Men's BB | Women's BB | Vic's Column | Wrestlers : Nicholas places 5th at St. Cloud meet Five wrestlers from Concordia competed in the 27th Annual St. Cloud State Wrestling Invitational on Dec. 13th. Senior Shawn Nicholas (134) took 5th place, defeating three of five opponents. Junior Kyle Tisland (150) won one of three matches. Concordia placed 11th overall, competing with 14 other teams. Sophomore Brett Maki and freshmen Sean Sjodin and Cameron Newmiller also participated in the meet. Senior Charlie Nelson and Nathan
Reiff are new to the wrestling team this semester. They will join the
rest of the team in competing at the North Country meet Saturday at St.
Thomas.
Jan. 9, 1998 Concordian
| Cobber Sports |
Swimmers Swimmers trained
and tan after Hawaii trip
What could be a better escape from the chilling Minnesota winter than a trip to Hawaii...to swim? Sounds fun, relaxing, and tempting, but for a handful of Concordia students it's also a lot of hard work. Thirteen of Concordia's swimmers trained in the 23rd Annual Rainbow Swimming and Diving Meet at the University of Hawaii, Honolulu over break. Eight Division I teams, two Division II schools and four Division III teams were represented at the meet. Sophomore Janey Hill placed 25th of 47 in the 500 free and 59th of 88 in the 200 free. Freshman Shana Letnes placed 22nd of 47 in the 100 breast and 26th of 36 in the 200 breast, and freshman Anna Berg placed 59th of 90 in the 100 free. In addition to the Rainbow meet Concordia participated in the Christmas Training Forum, also held in Hawaii. According to head coach Connie Kirchoffner, over 20 schools participated in the training forum. Concordia's team swam for two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon, and each team member swam 12,000 to 13,000 yards per day. "We were fortunate enough to get into the University of Hawaii at their pool," said Kirchoffner. The facility had two pools, one 8-lane and one 18-lane, giving the Cobbers more room for training. "We had outdoor pools, too," Kirchoffner added with a smile. "We trained outside under the lights, at night." Freshman diver Heidi Rickert was especially
fortunate to train in the U of H facility because the 1-meter and 3-meter
diving boards are in one facility, allowing her more time to train. "I
got to practice both (1-meter and 3-meter) in the same day," said Rickert.
"Here I have to go to NDSU every other day to train."Rickert
added as a result of the extra training time she expects to see improvement
in upcoming meets.
"The girls have been a really great group to train," said Kirchoffner.
This weekend the Cobbers compete at the Gold Country Meet at the University of Minnesota. Again they will face Division I, II and III schools. "We're keeping positive as we keep training and continue to work," said Kirchoffner. "I'm impressed [the team has] accepted the challenge to compete against the top teams in the country." Jan. 9, 1998 Concordian
| Cobber Sports |
Hockey Cobbers split series
with Bethel
On Friday the Cobber hockey team handed Bethel their first conference loss with a 5-2 victory at home. It was the team's first game in almost three weeks following a 7-1 drubbing by last year's Division II Champion, Bemidji State. Bethel evened the series with a 5-3 win on Saturday to leave the Cobbers with a 3-3 record in the MIAC and a 4-6 record overall. The win momentarily lifted the Cobbers into sole possession of second place in the MIAC with six points, but with the loss Saturday they slipped into third place behind Bethel. Last year's MIAC Champs, St. John's, sits atop the conference with a 5-1 conference record. The Cobbers dropped two games to the Johnnies back in November. Senior Josh Arnold was the star player for the Cobbers on Friday with two goals and an assist on another goal by sophomore Rob Gramer. It was Arnold's third and fourth goals of the season and Gramer's third. Juniors Paul Bender and Brock Blikre also added a goal apiece. Bethel got on the scoreboard early in the game with a goal at 1:02 in the first period, but the Cobbers answered back at 14:00. After a scoreless second, the Cobbers scored first in the third, followed quickly by a Bethel goal, then ran away with the game with three late goals, scoring their final goal with seven seconds left on the clock. Saturday was a different story, however, as the Cobbers didn't get on the board until the second period, and only after Bethel scored three times in the first. The Cobbers did fight back to pull within one goal with just under sixteen minutes left in the third, but the Bethel defense stiffened and the Royals added a late goal to leave the score 5-3. Junior Corey Rupp and freshman Mike Gast each scored their first goals of the season for the Cobbers, and senior Greg Salvevold added his second of the year to round out the Cobber scoring. This weekend the Cobbers host St. Mary's (2-0, 6-4) with games at 7
p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday.
Men's Basketball Men beat St. Marys, fall to Macalester and St. Olaf Concordia suffered a grueling one-point loss to Macalester in overtime Monday - a disappointing game after their 63-59 double-overtime victory over St. Mary's Saturday. With one second left in Monday's game, Concordia called a time-out with one more chance at a victory. But freshman Mike Wrobel's final bucket sank after the game-ending buzzer sounded. Senior James Gillhouse scored 14 points for Concordia, and senior Brian Kjesbo tallied eight. Senior Trevor Peterson led Concordia with 17 points in the team's second victory of the season last Saturday. Concordia had a three-point advantage over St. Mary's at the half but fell behind in the second half. The Cobbers came back from a 48-44 deficit against St. Marys with 28 seconds left, leading them into the first overtime. Peterson scored eight of the Cobbers' last 10 points in the second overtime as Concordia outscored St. Mary's 12-8 to clinch the victory. St. Olaf hosted the Cobbers Wednesday night, defeating Concordia 73-56.
Junior Brian Kesselring scored 15 points for
the Cobbers, and Wrobel added 11. Sophomore Micah
Benson was the third Cobber in double-digits with 10 points, sparked
by two 3-pointers. Concordia hosts St. Thomas Monday at 7:30 in the fieldhouse.
Women's Basketball
Oles break Cobber streak
St. Olaf broke Concordia's four-game winning streak Wednesday, handing Concordia an 84-75 loss on the road. St. Olaf went to the locker room at halftime with a nine-point advantage, 45-36. The Cobbers matched St. Olaf's scoring in the second half, 39-39, but the Oles maintained their advantage and earned the win. Freshman Brandi Myers matched St. Olaf's Erin Collins with a game-high 19 points. Sophomore Nikki Vetter scored 16 points, and junior Nichole Walla tallied eight rebounds. Prior to Wednesday's loss at St. Olaf, the women's basketball team was 6-2, ranked third in the MIAC. "Right now were right where we want to be," head coach Kathy Wall said before the game. "Now the players are getting to know each other and beginning to gel on the court." This year's team consists of one senior, two juniors, three sophomores and a pack of freshmen. According to Wall, everyone on the team is just starting to know their roles. "On a team with new faces its hard to do that initially," she said. Wednesday's loss marked Concordia's third for the season. They suffered a one-point loss to Moorhead State and a 22-point loss to St. Ben's. "St. Ben's drilled us," said Wall. "We know we can play better, and we have ever since." Concordia beat St. Mary's 73-63 in MIAC action Saturday. The Cobbers broke open a 16-14 game with a 20-8 run in the first half. Junior Heidi Schwichtenberg led the Cobbers with 18 points. In their final game before Christmas, Concordia beat Carleton 73-57 after a 39-11 lead at the half. Walla scored 14 points for the Cobbers. The Cobbers defeated Macalester 74-53 Monday to win their fourth straight game of the season. Freshman Rebecca Karli led Concordia with six field goals and a free throw, totaling 13 points. Walla and senior Leah Sonstelie each added 12 points. "We really kept the intensity level on the majority of the time," Wall said about Monday's game. "We don't skip a beat when we go to the bench. When we play every other day, that's important." Wall said the players are focusing on one game at a time, and attributes part of that to their hectic schedule. "We can't dwell on games," she said, explaining that the team usually plays three games every week. "If we lose, it's over and we go on. If we win, we can't relish in the glory. It keeps it in focus and puts things in perspective." This weekend the team plays at St. Catherine's, and Monday at 5:30 they
host St. Thomas in Memorial Auditorium. "We're off to a good start, but
we have a long way to go," said Wall. The team's
goals are to do well in the conference and finish as one of the top teams.
"We have to be realistic, and realistically we can be one of the top,"
she
According to Wall, the MIAC has traditionally had one or two teams at the top of the conference and the rest fighting for a shot at third or fourth place. "On any given night [any MIAC team can beat another MIAC team]," Wall said. "No one can be taken lightly." Jan. 9, 1998 Concordian
| Cobber Sports |
Advice for the Vikes: Keep Green
The Minnesota Vikings finished their season for the fifth time in six
years with a playoff loss. And now the question will be asked, Should
There are many things to examine when looking at the effectiveness of an NFL head coach. I admit Green is no Vince Lombardior Jimmy Johnson for that matter. Although the Vikings beat the Giants, Green's clock management and decision to punt with four minutes left when down by nine points seemed to lack reasonable thinking, he is effective in many other areas. Green gets his team prepared for each game. He has the support from his players. Not one of the Vikings have come out and spoken one bad word about Dennis Green. In fact, they have done the opposite, as many players have come to his defense and given him high praise. There is a problem with the Vikings. In all honesty, they aren't that
far behind the Packers and the 49ers. One thing keeping the Vikings from
the NFL elite is their offensive play calling. If a Vikings coach is going
to go, it should be offensive coordinator Brian Billick. Billick lacks
creativity in his offense. He also loves to throw the ball continuously
at the start of a game instead of establishing one of the NFL's best
Take the 49ers game, for example: The first play the Vikings ran from scrimmage on Saturday was a pass play that turned into a loss as quarterback Randall Cunningham was sacked. This put the Vikes in a hole that ended up in a 12-yard punt by Mitch Berger. This led to the 49ers first score of the day. Things may have been different. Now, I'm not criticizing this one play. It's just that this happened continuously throughout the season. Also remember one thing - the Vikings made it to the second round of the playoffs without their starting quarterback or center. Not many teams would have been able to accomplish this same feat. Dennis Green is the head coach, so he has control over the offensive coordinator. He either needs to change some of those play calls or hire a new coordinator. Vikings fans should hope that Dennis Green is in Minnesota last year.
Also, don't forget to pray: please God, dont let those hated Cheeseheads
win again.
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