Welcome back to the second half of the Augsburg athletics year! Now that we're deep into the winter sports season and the holidays are behind us, we promise to be more vigilant with posts to the ol' AugBlog.Some observations on the first portion of the winter sports season:
n The Augsburg wrestling team is heading into the upcoming Division III National Duals with renewed optimism, given the results from the team's last two tournaments. At the Sunshine Wrestling Classic at the end of December, Augsburg won seven individual titles and had 19 top-eight placewinners in a tournament that featured five schools rated in the top 25 in the Division III national poll. And this past Saturday, the Auggies shined against some solid NAIA and Division II competition at the Dickinson State (N.D.) Blue Hawk Classic, with six champs/co-champs and 18 placewinners.
The Auggies dropped to the No. 7 spot in the national polls after a dual-meet loss to in-state rival St. John's on Nov. 25, but hopefully should move back into the top four when the new poll comes out on Tuesday. Heading into the National Duals this coming weekend in Cedar Falls, Iowa, it should make for some interesting action.
n The Augsburg men's hockey team represented themselves very well over the weekend at the Pathfinder Bank/Oswego (N.Y.) Hockey Classic, taking second place with a 6-2 win over Babson (Mass.) in the opening game and a 5-2 loss to No. 11-ranked Oswego State (N.Y.) in the finals.
And a solid weekend for Chris Johnson. The junior forward scored two goals and had three assists to earn a spot on the All-Tournament Team. Also, another solid weekend for goalie Andrew Kent. Playing every minute in goal for the Auggies thus far this season, he has produced a solid 3.84 GAA and .888 save percentage, and he came up with 60 saves on the weekend.
n The Auggie women's hockey team has a lot of traveling this weekend ... five games in a seven-day span! Two games at Lake Forest (Ill.), then a day to travel north to Hancock, Mich., for two games against Finlandia (Mich.), and a day of traveling back to Minneapolis for a home game against Plymouth State (N.H.) on Saturday afternoon. A total of 1,110 miles on the bus during the week.
The Auggies are still in search of their first win of the season, but are coming off a close 2-1 loss to Lake Forest yesterday afternoon. Hopefully, the first win comes this week!
n The Auggie men's basketball team has also been a victim of some close results, with three two-point games in a row -- a 52-50 win over Gustavus on Dec. 10, a 76-74 loss to Northwestern-Roseville on Dec. 13 and a 57-55 loss to St. Olaf on Saturday.
Junior point guard Jon Cassens has had another solid start to the season, averaging a team-best 14.7 points-per-game while also contributing 41 assists. David Olson has also been solid at the guard spot, averaging 10.3 ppg, and center Nate Alm has been outstanding, averaging 11.3 points and 6.7 rebounds per-game. And the Auggies may have found another scoring threat in newcomer Anthony Humphrey, a transfer from Bemidji State who joined the team at the semester break. In his first Auggie game on Saturday against the Oles, he connected on four clutch 3-pointers and had 14 points.
n The Auggie women's basketball team has had a tough start to MIAC play, with five straight losses, including a 76-63 setback to St. Olaf this past Saturday, with the Auggies missing center Christa Sudebeck due to injury. However, coach Jennifer Britz's squad hung tough all game, despite being at a height disadvantage. Here's hoping that Suedbeck and her 10.7 points and 10.6 rebounds per-game come back to the Auggie lineup soon!
Meanwhile, guards Shannon Renne and Serenae Levine have put together solid seasons, averaging 10.4 and 10.5 points per-game, respectively. Levine has the potential to be one of the top first-year players in the conference, and her 23-point, five-assist, two-steal effort against St. Olaf was incredible. Another player who is having the best year of her career is senior swing-player Michelle Richter, who has contributed a solid 10.3 points and 6.0 rebounds per-game thus far.
