Separation begins in NSIC

It didn't take long to establish the haves from the have-nots in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference baseball.

On the opening weekend, Minnesota State, St. Cloud State and Augustana all won big while Northern State, Minnesota-Crookston and Concordia-St. Paul were the premier losers. St. Cloud swept UM-Crookston in four straight games, outscoring the Golden Eagles 59-1.

Minnesota State enjoyed similar results against Northern State. The Mavericks won the first two games by a combined score of 33-1 and have two more games yet to play today.

The Augustana/Concordia-St. Paul series was not nearly as lopsided, but the Vikings swept four games by outscoring the Bears 34-23.

It should be interesting to see if this trend keeps up. MSU assistant coach Tink Larson says the rest of the NSIC teams (not including Northern and Crookston) should be competitive. As a man who watches more games in a two-week period than I usually do in a whole season, I'll have to take Larson's word for it.

The MSU-Northern series resumes at noon today at the MSU field.

State wrestling: Day 3 tidbits

Le Sueur-Henderson's run through the Class A state tournament has not only been impressive but rather unexpected.

You didn't hear a lot about the Giants during the regular season because they didn't have the depth in their lineup to beat many of the top A or AA teams in southern Minnesota. It's obvious to everyone now, however, that LSH had a handful of awfully good wrestlers this season.

The Giants came to the state tournament in St. Paul represented by four wrestlers and each of them will be placing among the top six wrestlers in his weight class. Second-ranked junior Josh Willaert (171) and third-ranked sophomore Brett Pfarr (140) have both wrestled their way to championship matches. Fourth-rated senior Sam Lindgren (152) and seventh-ranked junior Brett Schwartz (130) are in fifth-place matches.

Congratulations go out longtime St. James assistant coach Dwight Burman. At that annual Minnesota High School Coaches Association brunch this morning he was named the State Assistant Coach of the Year.

"He's carried me all these years, and then some,"said St. James head coach Gene Hildebrandt, who did everything he could to keep the honor a secret from Burman until the brunch.

Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial goes up against Paynesville for the consolation team title this morning in Class A. Paynesville is coached by Arlington native Tim Woehler.

LCWM is coached by Mankato native Andre Harnitz. Although the four-day tournament is a stressful grind for both wrestlers and coaches, Harnitz says he revels in it.

"I love wrestling so this is just a lot of fun for me," he said Friday, shortly after his team beat Border West. "I look forward to this all year. This is a like a mini-Spring Break for me."

Anyone looking to mix in a little culture with their wrestling in St. Paul today should consider stopping over at the James J. Hill Reference Library in St. Paul. The library is located right next to Xcel Energy Center and currently features an exhibit of massive black and white landscape photos by reknowned photographer Clyde Butcher.

I snuck over during a break in Friday's wrestling action and was impressed. The detail and his use of light is amazing.

The James J. Hill library is located in the same building as the St. Paul Central Library just outside the front door of RiverCenter. The exhibit is free and runs from 1 to 5 p.m today. If you can't make it today, the photos will remain on display through April 15.

State wrestling: Day 2 observations

Of all the wrestlers who qualified for the state tournament from The Free Press Coverage area, only two went in with undefeated records. Neither is undefeated any longer.

St. Clair/Loyola's Chase Levos had his state tourney run derailed by Class A's No. 1-ranked Christian Skillings of Minneota in the quarterfinals. Levos had him beat 3-2 with just six seconds left, but Skillings used an aggressive takedown at the edge of the mat in the closing moments to pull out a 4-3 win.

The loss left Levos with a 38-1 record. The senior got back on track in the first round of wrestlebacks, decisioning Jacob Anderson of River Valley 4-3.

The other unbeaten, Brandon Pederson of Waseca, went into the 171-pound bracket of the Class AA tournament with a 37-0 record. After pinning his first-round opponent, Pederson was pushed into overtime by fourth-ranked Justin Bowland of Foley before Bowland eked out a 6-4 win.

Like Levos, the No. 1-ranked Pederson rebounded well. He delivered a 5-0 win over Cesar Yanez of St. Paul Johnson in his first-round wrestleback.

Montgomery-Lonsdale/Le Center junior Zach Friederich has reached the Class AA semifinals at 130 pounds. If he's going to win a state championship, he's probably going to have to go through the top two-ranked kids to do it. No. 2 Jake Short of Simley is Friederich's opponent in today's semifinals and No. 1-rated Garret Garness is in the other semifinal match.

Spencer Johnson of Windom/Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin also has a tough semifinal today. He's matched up with No. 1-ranked Anthony Gullickson of Totino-Grace at 189 in Class AA.

One of the most anticipated semifinals in Class A will come at 145 pounds. That's where top-ranked Jake Long of West Central Area takes on second-rated Alex Cooling of Madelia-Truman/Martin Luther.

Upstart Zack Kuhns of Maple River faces a stiff challenge in the Class A semifinal round today when he meets No. 1-ranked Isaac Novacek of Badger/Greenbush-Middle River at 103 pounds. Novacek has just one loss on the season while Kuhns came into St. Paul as an unknown with six losses.

Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial's one-point loss (31-30) to top-seeded Minneota probably kept Knights' head coach Andre Harnitz up late Thursday night. All he needed was for any of his wrestlers to score one more bonus point or give up one less bonus point to get the win.

If the meet had ended tied, LCWM would have advanced to the semifinals because it had eight wins compared to six for Minneota. LCWM is young and could make it back next year, but Harnitz has been around long enough to know opportunities like the one presented to his Knights on Thursday are rare.

State wrestling: Day 1 impressions

Wednesday's opening round of the Minnesota State Wrestling Tournament at Xcel Energy Center set up some interesting quarterfinal matches for today. List Chase Levos of St. Clair/Loyola, Sam Lindgren of Le Sueur-Henderson and Nate Meixell of Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial among those who will have their work cut out for them in Round 2.

The unbeaten and fifth-ranked Levos has to take on No. 1-rated Christian Skillings from Minneota in tonight's 6 p.m. session at 119 pounds. Lindgren, who is rated fourth at 145, jumped up to 152 for the postseason and now must tangle with No. 1-ranked Ryan Thompson of Benson in tonight's quarterfinals.

Meixell, a sophomore 171-pounder, is slated to meet No. 1-rated Ben McPhail of Pine Island this evening. In Class AA, the most intriguing quarterfinal matchup may come at heavyweight where New Ulm's top-ranked Pat Brinkman is pitted against No. 2-rated Derek Carlson of Mora.

Both Mankato entrants had tough first-round draws Wednesday. Sophomore Hunter Friesen was pinned by No. 1-ranked Devin Scott of Apple Valley at 140 pounds while freshman Tyler Jakes dropped a 10-2 decision to No. 4 Kevin Bright of Lakeville South at 160.

Both wrestlers handled their setbacks well. Although obviously disappointed at losing, they were both eager to absorb as much of the state tournament experience as possible and use it as a building bloc for their careers. Friesen and Jakes will find out at today's 5 p.m. session if they get a chance to wrestle back or not.

Longtime high school sports writer John Millea of the Star Tribune revealed that this will be his last state wrestling tournament for the Star Tribune. He has accepted a buyout from the financially troubled newspaper.

Millea is landing on his feet, however, as he has accepted a job with the Minnesota State High School to write stories and features for its numerous publications.