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March 4, 2011

Track and fieldhead to nationals

AMANDA GABBERT/SPORTS EDITOR

Twelve members of the indoor track and field team qualified for theNAIA Track Championship. The championship started Thursday, March3 and runs through Saturday, March 5 in Geneva, Oh.

Basketball season comes up short

Torn ligament ends season early

Twelve athletes,including two men and tenwomen, qualified for theNAIA Track ChampionshipMarch 3-5 in Geneva, OH.

Head coach of six years,Jerry Monner, said, Imexcited about the events atthe national level becausewe have a few athletesranked at the top-ten level.Last year we had a fewwomen finish 14th in thenation during indoor seasonand this year we are hopingto bring home a few All-American awards.

While in Geneva, theteam will be competing inthe distance medley relay,shot put, weight throw,4x800m relay, mile, open800 and 5,000.

Betsy Craig, businessadministration junior, said,I ran the distance medleylast year, but I feel moreconfident about my abilitythis year and our relay team

has a chance of doing reallywell. Hopefully well beone of the top eight teamsin the semi-finals going tothe finals on Saturday.

The teams practice

and compete together, butthe scores are completedseparately.

Allison McFayden,graphic design sophomore,said, The NAIA hasqualifying standards foreach race that you have toreach in order to qualifyfor nationals and if you rununder a certain time, youget in. Although we scoreseparately, were still afamily in the end.

While the season isalmost over, the teams havemanaged to break records,win conference and grow asa group.

Weve had a reallygood indoor season,especially when our teamswon conference and itseemed like we werebreaking school records leftand right, McFayden said.

The athletes haveworked hard, trained hardand are confident they willdo well at nationals.

Craig said, Thecoaches have been putting a

lot of thought into practiceand speed work wevebeen doing and we haveconfidence in our workoutsand training. I really think itwill benefit us in the end.

Brooke CurrySTAFF WRITER

The basketball season

ended sooner than expected forthe men and womens teams,as the two were knocked outof the conference tournamentin the first rounds with themen losing to St. AmbroseUniversity, and the womenlosing to Iowa WesleyanUniversity.

The men entered thetournament with high-hopesafter winning four in a rowalong with a huge blowoutvictory on senior night againstWaldorf University. The teamalso won the previous gamein overtime, when a tip off

a rebound by Nick Wagner,forward senior, penetrated thenet, beating the buzzer andshocking the Ashford playersby forcing overtime.

The men entered thetournament as the fifth seed,playing the fourth seed St.Ambrose.

Phil Hunt, sophomoreshooting guard, said, We dugourselves into a hole earlyand couldnt make the shotsto dig ourselves out. It takestwice the energy to comebackafter digging yourself in hole

early.After a hard fought 71-56loss for the men, the team will

say goodbye to three of theirseniors, Nick Wagner, RoycePhillips and Jamel LeBranch.

The women entered thetournament on a five-game

winning-streak. JordynThompson, sophomore guard,said, The best thing a teamcan havegoing forthem isentering theplayoffs on ahot streak.

N i c o l eW i l s o n ,

j u n i o rguard, said,We just hadan off game.Too manyturnovers. It

was difficultfor us to playwell at IowaW e s l e y a nthis year. Itseems likewe neverplay well there.

Wilson said the team had alot of new players on the rosterthis year that the team had toget used to playing with.

Once the season gotgoing we started playing reallywell as a team, Wilson said.

The lady Vikings ended

the season with 14 wins,nine of them conferencegames. Despite the season

ending, the team continuesto build stronger for nextyear Wilson said. The teamwill say goodbye to KristinRasmussen, Danielle Ballard,

Beth Ehlers and Krista Walkeras the four seniors led theteam to 14 wins this season.

We havea lot of talentand we cancompete withany team.We will needto minimizeturnovers fornext season,Wilson said.

Now thatboth teamsare in theof f -season,

Wilson andHunt talkedabout whatthe team willbe doingin the off-season. The

two will be staying in shapeby playing pick-up games,weight lifting and continue toimprove their game along withthe rest of the team.

Next year is looking upbut its still way too early totell what might happen, Huntsaid. This year we battled

through a lot of adversity andworked hard to get where weare.

We have a lot

of talent and we

can compete

with any team.

We will need

to minimize

turnovers for

next season.

Nicole WilsonJunior guard

Michael BennionSTAFF WRITER

A stand out basketballplayer, who is a two-timeNAIA player of the week andAcademic All-American, toreher anterior cruciate ligament

(ACL) on Feb. 3 against St.Ambrose University.Jenn Jorgensen, sopho-

more guard, was at the heightof her game in January. Sheexceeded the 1,000-pointmark and set her career highof 41 points scored in a game,but because of her injury, thebasketball star is done for theseason.

Jorgensen said she wasable to finish the game, butafter she went to the athletictrainer. She was told to get anMRI. The result: a torn ACL.

Jorgensen said, I didnt

think it was that bad, referringto her leg.

According to sportsinjurys.net an ACL is one of four major

knee ligaments. The ACL iscritical to knee stability, andmobility. An ACL tear is mostoften a sports-related injury.About 80 percent of sports-related ACL tears are non-contact injuries.

Jorgensen said, I believethat at least half of the team

has injured their ACL.Krista Walker seniorguard, said We have a lotof ACL injuries. Everyonesinjury experience is differentbut Jenn seems to be recoveringreally fast.

Jorgensen had recon-structive surgery on Feb. 18.She said the physician tookligaments from her hip andinserted them into her knee toreplace the torn muscle. Herrecovery time may vary butshe hopes to be jogging againwithin eight weeks.

Jorgensen said, The

doctors said my ACL will betwice as strong but I need tokeep on track.

Even with Jorgensen out

of the picture, the team wasstill able to pull off a five-game winning streak.

It inspired everyone tocome together even morebecause we knew we hadtough teams to play, Walkersaid. We pulled togethersome really close wins and

stuck together as a family.On Feb. 24, the teamlost in the first round in theconference tournament toIowa Wesleyan College atBurlington, according to theGrand View athletic website.

Jorgensen doesnt believe,even with her, the team couldhave done any better.

We have lost the lastfive games to Iowa WesleyanCollege, Jorgensen said. Idont think we could havetried any harder.

Jorgensen said she plansto be back on the court next

year and hopes to be just asgood. She also said she islooking forward to workingwith the new talent next year.

Kevin WaldronSTAFF WRITER

NAIA National Championships

Wrestling

Thursday, March 3 - Saturday, March 5

U.S. Cellular Center,Cedar Rapids

Check out

facebook andtwitter for

updates!

Congratulations to our winners of the

Academy Award Contest!

Michael Tallman

Marissa Miller

Thank you to everyone who entered and good luck next year!