DRAGON ATHLETICS
Dragon TALES
DRAGON TALES
By Larry Scott, MSU Moorhead Sports Information Director
Troubled by a rash of injuries and haunted by a frustrating power outage, Minnesota State Moorhead makes its final Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference soccer homestand at Alex Nemzek Field when the Dragons welcome Wayne State College on Saturday and Southwest Minnesota State University on Sunday. The Dragons, 7-11 overall and 2-5 in the NSIC, has suffered four consecutive shutouts. Junior captain ABBY BARKER joined the growing list of sidelined Dragons this week with a knee injury that will keep her in drydock the balance of the season. Following the weekend series the Dragons begin NSIC post-season play on Wednesday, October 31.
MSUM MEMOS. . . . . MSUM met its long distance championship expectations head on and roared to a pair of team titles at the 2007 NSIC Cross-Country Championships on Saturday at Winona. MSUM men grabbed three of the top six individual finishes and breezed to the team championship with 38 points while Wayne State was second in the six-team field with 64 points. KYLE ECKHOFF (2nd, 26:00.2), SCOTT EGEBERG (3rd, 26:04.0) and ADAM KNE (6th, 26:34.8) led the Dragon pack. MSU Moorhead women shaded Wayne State 50-55 in a seven-team field. ANNA VanWECHEL captured the individual crown for the Dragons with a time of 22:34.5 while DANIELLE THOMPSON placed seventh. MSUM is idle this weekend. . . . . JOHN TIEMANN, a member of the Dragon Hall of Fame and an All-American in both track and cross-country at MSU Moorhead in the mid-70s, lost his battle with cancer last week. A St. Paul native, Tiemann was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2004 and had been living in North Carolina. . . . JABARI TAYLOR ranks fourth on the latest NCAA Division II national statistics for receptions per game, 7.8, and 13th in receiving yards per game, 99.6. DUSTIN LONG is fifth in passing yards, 2,312, and sixth in both passing yards per game, 289.0, and total offense, 308.8, while JON MILLER is 12th in for solo tackles, 6.3, and total tackles, 11.4. MSUM ranks 10th in team passing at 293.4. . . . . MSU Moorhead women face a taxing swimming challenge this week. The Dragons will dual Northern State on Friday night in Aberdeen, SD and will enter the Northfield Relays at Northfield on Saturday morning. Last week MSUM swept Northern Michigan in a pair of dual meets and fell twice to host St. Cloud State. . . . . ANN GUSEWELLE swept both the 100 yard breaststroke and 200 yard breaststroke. . . . Former Dragon point guard DAVE JOERGER is in his first season as assistant coach of the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA. . . . . MSU Moorhead, stung by a pair of road volleyball losses last week, steps from league play to visit St. Cloud State on Thursday and invades national stronghold Concordia University on Saturday. MSUM, ranked seventh on the latest NCAA II regional poll, hosts University of Mary and Northern State in its final homestand November 2-3. . . . . The Dragons rank second behind defending champ Upper Iowa on the pre-season NSIC wrestling poll. UIU ranks first with 74 points, followed by MSU Moorhead (60), Northern State (58), Southwest State (23) and University of Mary (13). KELLY JANKE, 141, and ROCKIE STAVN, 165, rank first individually while TROY MacFARLAND, 133, SHANE WALTON, 157, JARRETT HALL, 174, and TYLER TUBBS, 184, are second. . . . . The MSUM Student Athletic Advisory Committee will stage the Make a Wish Costume Ball on October 25, at 7 p.m. at Alex Nemzek Hall. Proceeds will go to the Make A Wish charity . . . . . Alex Nemzek Hall will host Beyond the Yellow Ribbon project for a second time on October 27-28. The program, to enhance the reintegration of returning reserve and guard veterans from Iraq, is directed by Captain AARON KRENZ, a former starting linebacker for the Dragons. . . . . The Dragons have unveiled a new athletic website designed by TOM CHALLEY. . . . . BRETT BEESON, the NCAA Division II Player of the Year and a national scoring champ at MSUM in 1995-96, continues to flourish in professional basketball abroad. Beeson put together a triple-double in just 28 minutes of play with 19 points, 11 boards and 10 assists last week for Archena, Spain. . . . . The next Dragon Fire luncheon is scheduled for Wednesday, October 24, at the Courtyard by Marriott in Moorhead. . . . . Dragon football games are broadcast over ESPN Radio 1660 AM. STEVE d’EUSTACHIO returns for his 10th season as play-by-play announcer while Mike Larson will provide commentary. All Dragon games are also available on the World Wide Web at www.msumdragons.com. . . . .
