Bison
The men's Basketball team locked up the fifth seed in Sioux Falls while the women got the seventh slot. The former would have to go three wins in three days to make into the madness again. I'll just be glad if they can beat Fort Wayne on Sunday. I guess I could second that in regards to the ladies team. The women play on Saturday but would have to play out of their minds to beat a possible at large team into their NCAA tournament, SDSU. Considering that the Bisonette's have only notched one Summit Tourney win over all the years, there is little reason for optimism about these Basketball teams!
Elsewhere in the Bison kingdom, the indoor Track & Field championship went off up at NDSU. The women won their 11th straight Summit league title and the men got their third straight championship. The full list of high finishes for the women & men again show that there is more going on up at North Dakota State than just Football.
Meanwhile, the players on the Diamonds had very different weekends. The Softball team had all five of their games cancelled due to "weather." Ambiguous but they were in .5 of snow, everything shuts down territory. They'll head to Duke next weekend for their next chance at getting some innings in. The Baseball team finished a three game series against Central Connecticut State today with a 4 - 0 win today. That gave them a series win, positive, but shows that their early season struggles at the plate are not yet a thing of the past.
Dragons
The week for the fire breathers was bracketed by Basketball. The men's team closed out their season with a fitting L while the women got back to their ways - winning. Now I can only hope that those ways continue tonight as the ladies take on the #3 seed Sioux Falls tonight, in Sioux Falls. As far as I'm concerned, that's the top story in local sports!
But there was more going on around Moorhead State then just Basketball.
The Softball team rolled out for a quartet of games which only resulted in vehement sendings back to the dugout's. They only had one loss of less than eight runs and all four resulted in losses. A tough start, to say the least! Baseball had the week off.
Tennis, Wrestling and Track & Field all had light weeks of work that counted, with the Tennis team having the best outcomes.
Cobbers
For the Corncobs, the week in sports was mostly about their Track & Field competitors in the MIAC Championships. It was a mixed bag of mostly unimpressive results for the Cobbers but was also the lion share of the week on the calendar.
Both of the Hockey teams fell in line with the disappointing outcomes, but neither came in championship games so they still have things to work toward.
The same cannot be said for the Wrestlers who finished outside the top nine in the NCAA regionals between Friday and Saturday.
The week could still close out positively for them, depending on how the Softball players manage in a doubleheader today. They won' game one but were down a couple runs as I type. A comeback is well within reach but an at worst .500 day is already the best that they have to show for all the work that was done by their athletes this week.
Timberwolves
They're two games into the post all star game season but may have already lost the season. When Jimmy Butler went down, an all too familiar feeling swept over me. Another season without a championship - but that was happening with or without him. But worse than that, another season without the playoffs. One player going down takes them from a top four seed to a possible eight where they would most likely get swept. Maybe KAT will ascend. Maybe Maple Jordan will show up. Maybe they'll manage to beat the teams that they should still be able to beat and make the playoffs even without Butler. In that case, he might be able to be back. Only time will tell on all that, but optimism is at a premium...again.
High School
Moorhead is one win away from another appearance in the state Hockey tournament. With yet another great goal scorer leading the way, they'll look to make it back to the Xcel by beating St. Michael - Alberville.
Over on the North Dakota side, Fargo Davies locked up the #1 seed in the EDC playoff by way of a score differential in their season finale. That's merely the tip of the spear though, as many of the school's still have teams and competitors playing it out for various championships. It's a fun time for a lot of sports, and will be equally as fun to watch & listen to over the next few weeks, even as the number of teams is whittled down.