Bison
NDSU's national squad started strong with the strong man finishing where he'd been most of the year - as one of the best. Payton Otterdahl's Shot Put throw finished as the fourth best while freshman Kristoffer Thomsen joined on the All-American list with the 15th best Shot. Not to be outdone, the women represented just as well as the guy's. Former UND Basketball player Akealy Moton finished with the fifth best Shot in the nation, a school record throw in her first year of T & F. Bailey Retzlaff matched the second team All-American with her throw in the Hammer, and all before the weekend started in Austin. Friday was more non-descript as Moton finished with the 20th best Javelin throw while Amanda Levin started her final Heptathlon. When the dust had settled on all seven events, Levin had earned honorable mention All-American with the 21st best performance.
Twins
The shine of the Seattle series and all the home runs may be wearing off. They're still on pace to smash the home run record but the pitching staff has not held up their end in recent days. A lot of the blame should fall on the relievers but it can be spread around now that the front office passed on two possible upgrade. Probable upgrades. Same old Twins, getting word out through unnamed sources that they were going to be aggressive only to come up way short! The team deserves to raise a banner and every fan in the Min-Kota's deserves a champion but the Pohlad's do not and will not ever deserve to have a World Series success under their ownership. There is still plenty of time for improvements to be made but mistakes were made this week and nothing can undo that. They could have improved the staff with nothing but money changing hands, now they'll have to give up more to make the pitching stronger. Let me know if you think it'll happen. I don't. Day's like today are the best case scenario and the team would be okay in a playoff series with who they already have to start games but settling for okay should not be tolerated!
High School Sports
Moorhead took the good of the section success and made it better at the State level. With a chance to defend it for a year, Claire Howell outran everybody in the 100 M to claim the first state title since 2011 for Moorhead and notch a personal best by nearly a second & a half. The other running events didn't go quite as well but she wasn't the only top finisher for the Spuds. Sutter Colborn finished with the third best high jump at the meet to end his time as a high school athlete.
On the North Dakota side of the river the first of the all star exhibitions was played out at Mickelson with the West getting their first win in the series's history. They cut the deficit from down 4-0 to 4-2 before leaving Fargo. To see pictures of the games, head over to the gallery section!
Redhawks
The Redhawks validated the "you win some, you lose some" cliche this week as they alternated between the two in every game. If there's an upside it's that they managed to turn one of the series into a W while on the see-saw. If the pattern holds then they'll drop the next one, against St. Paul so with a day in-between, it's exactly the right time for a reset!
Invaders
The Invaders also finished their week in Sioux City and the same way as the RedHawks. After being down by a touchdown for the first half, the Invaders tied then took the lead in the third quarter. Sioux City only had to play from behind for a few minutes before they evened it up at 14. With the ball in their possession and the clock on their side, Fargo had the chance to make a game winning drive. Mr. "100" instead had it intercepted & returned for a touchdown, which were the last points of the game. The proof is in the pudding at this point and even with all the running back talent that the three colleges have had in recent years, the Invaders don't have any. Six rushes for seven yards. So to be fair to Johnson, that makes it much easier for the defense. The brightest spot for the O was Constant Jackson who reeled in 7 passes for 149 yards & both scores. The 5'9" Thief River Falls product put on a show! Too bad it came in a loss but they'll finally get to play at home this coming Saturday, so go check em out!
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