Month: May 2023

We had our first 70-plus degree day of 2023, and it was glorious on Wednesday.  I got a jog/walk in, and it felt great.   Then I sit down late Wednesday night and find out the “king” of AI says humanity is pretty much screwed if we keep going with all the AI.   Then later, I find out a star swallowed a planet, and I am thinking to myself, the world is coming to an end.  What do I do?  Then the Twins lose to Chicago to give the White Sox their first series win of the year, and Tucker Carlson was fired for a racist text and all things are back to normal, and the anxiety level dropped back to normal.

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Believe it or not, we are only a few weeks away from section tournament play in all the sports.  Here are the dates for the area section tournaments.

SECTION 8A Softball – starts Tuesday, May 23
Section 8A Boys Tennis – starts Tuesday, May 23
SECTION 8A Boys and Girls Golf North sub-section – Tuesday, May 23
SECTION 8A Boys and Girls Golf Sub-section – Wednesday, May 24
SECTION 8A EAST Subsection Track meet – Thursday, May 25
SECTION 9A WEST Subsection Track meet – Thursday, May 25
SECTION 8A BOYS AND GIRLS GOLF tournament – May 30-31
SECTION 8A Baseball West Subsection tournament – May 30-June 1
SECTION 8A Baseball East subsection tournament – May 31 – June 1
SECTION 8A Boys and Girls Track meet – Friday, June 2
Section 8A Baseball Section Tournament – June 3 – June 8.

SECTION 8AA GOLF North and South Sub-section tournament – May 31
SECTION 8AA SOFTBALL – May 23, 25, 30, and June 1
SECTION 8AA BASEBALL – May 30, June 1, June 5, June 6
SECTION 8AA Boys and Girls Golf – June 5 and 6

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The Northern Sun Conference Baseball regular season will come to an end this weekend and the UMC Golden Eagles have three huge games for seeding purposes at home against Southwest Minnesota State.

Augustana is the top team and will be the #1 seed in the tournament that starts on Wednesday, May 10.

The standings going into the final weekend are below with the top eight teams making the tourney – 

Augustana – 28-7
Mankato – 22-8
St. Cloud State – 20-8
UMC – 23-10
Southwest State – 19-10
Minot State – 17-14
Winona State – 16-15
Wayne State – 16-16
Concordia-St. Paul – 13-15
Mary – 14-18
Upper Iowa – 14-18
Sioux Falls – 13-20
Duluth – 11-20
Northern State – 5-24
Bemidji State – 1-29

It looks like the top eight are pretty much decided going into the weekend unless Wayne State loses all their games and Concordia-St. Paul wins all of theirs, which I don’t see happening.

Augustana has the regular season title and the top seed wrapped up already.
Mankato should be the second seed, and St. Cloud will likely be the third seed.
UMC and Southwest will be battling for the fourth seed with three games this weekend.  If UMC wins two of the three, they will be the fourth seed.  If SW Minnesota State wins two of three, they will likely be the fourth seed.  What does it mean?  Not much, as the two teams will play each other in the first round of the playoffs. Basically, they are playing for who will be the home team and looking to be on a roll going into the tourney!!  The bottom three seeds are all up for grabs going into the weekend too.  It will be an important weekend, and there might be an outside chance of UMC moving up to the third seed, but it would take a UMC sweep and St. Cloud State losing three for sure, possibly two.   I haven’t done the match on the certainty.  But it all comes down to just win baby.

We will carry all the UMC games on the radio from the NSIC tournament so you can listen on the radio, online, or on your smart speaker!!

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Speaking of UMC Baseball……the pride of East Grand Forks, Jake Hjelle continues his impressive season.  He went 7-of-15, hitting .467 with four runs scored, one double, three home runs, and seven RBIs as the Golden Eagles went 3-2, including their first-ever series win over Minnesota State. Hjelle is hitting .386 for the season and is tied for the league lead with 17 home runs, and he leads the league with 61 RBI.

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Hallock’s Tyler Hennen was selected in the second round with pick 21 in the USHL Phase 2 draft by the Sioux City Musketeers.

Noah Urness of Roseau was picked in the sixth round with pick 83 by the Youngstown Phantoms

Brock Schultz of East Grand Forks was picked in round 17 with pick 254 by the Waterloo Black Hawks.

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JOKES

I just want to remind you that all the jokes posted ARE NOT all home runs!!

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A lady goes into a bar with her goose. Then the bartender comes up to her and says, ”Why did you have to bring the pig in with you?”

Then the lady answered, ”Excuse me, I think this is a goose.”

And the bartender says, ”Excuse me, I was talking to the goose.”

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The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The nun made a note and posted on the apple tray: ‘Take only ONE. God is watching.’

Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies. 

A child had written a note, ‘Take all you want. God is watching the apples’.

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Two elderly gentlemen, who had been without sex for several years, decided they needed to visit a cat-house for some tail. When they arrived, the madam took one look at them and decided she wasn’t going to waste any of her girls on these two old men. So she used “blow-up” dolls instead. She put the dolls in each man’s room and left them to their business. 

After the two men were finished, they started for home and got to talking. 

The first man said, “I think the girl I had was dead. She never moved, talked or even groaned… how was it for you?”

The second man replied, “I think mine was a witch.” 

The first man asked, “How’s that?” 

“Well,” said the second man, “when I nibbled on her breast… she farted and flew out the window!”

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What are they up to now will come back soon.  Stay tuned.

Four Crookston Youth wrestlers participated in the Jaycee state tournament in Grand Rapids on April 14 and 15.  The results of the four wrestlers are below –

Oliver Wallace-1st place
Levi Kresl-1st place
Jacob Kresl-1st place
Henry Herberg-2nd place

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This week’s Athletes of the Week are Samantha Rezac and Zara Baig. The two seniors competed in the State Speech Tournament this past weekend and brought home medals. Rezac finished second place in Storytelling, and Baig finished fourth in Humorous Interpretation.

The two have been competing in Speech since their seventh grade year and have been great leaders and advocates for speech over that time. “I would say both of them have been invaluable to the speech team over the years,” said Crookston Speech Coach Brandon Adams. “I’ve seen them as great leaders the past three years, and I can see how their influence is going to last for years to come for what they’ve done here at CHS.”

Both have enjoyed speech over the years and love performing. “For me personally I love performing in general,” said Baig. “For speech specifically I enjoy how close-knit it is, and you can really see the reactions of the people in the crowd. That allows you to match your performance to the feeling in the room which I love.”

Rezac would add “I also love performing in front of people and doing different characters,” said Rezac. “There are just a lot of fun things that come along with speech that I love. It’s also great to meet new people and build lasting friendships which I have over the years.”

Both went to state in their 10th grade years and they competed at state last year in a duo as well. They will both graduate from Crookston this spring, and Baig will attend the University of California San Diego and major in Human Biology on a pre-med track, while Rezac will attend NDSU and major in Landscape Design & Architecture

First started competing in speech-
Samantha – 7th Grade
Zara – 7th Grade

Activities outside of speech at CHS–
Samantha – FFA, One Act, Three Act, Leo Club, Women’s Auxilary, First Chair for second violin & Orchestra, Pop String, Valley Fiddlers
Zara – Soccer, Student Council, LEO Club, One Act, Three Act, Band, Section Leader for the Woodwinds, National Honor Society

Favorite Movie –
Samantha – Original Clue Movie or Mary Poppins
Zara – Roman Holiday or Labyrinth

Favorite TV Program –
Samantha – HGTV with my mom
Zara – Anne with an E

Favorite Food –
Samantha – Salmon
Zara – Red Velvet Cupcakes

What music are you listening to –
Samantha – Everything
Zara – Taylor Swift

Something about you that people don’t know –
Samantha – I can flip my tongue 
Zara – My favorite Ice Cream flavor is Cotton Candy

Your stranded on a deserted island and you can have ANY three people with you –
Samantha – Zara Baig, my dog, and my bird
Zara – My dad, mom, and brother

Plans after graduation –
Samantha – Attend NDSU and major in Landscape Design & Architecture
Zara – Attend the University of California San Diego and major in Human Biology on a pre-med track

Samantha’s Family –
Dad – Shawn (Owner of Wonderful Life Foods)
Mom- Suzanne (Massage Therapist)
Sister – Sophia (Going to be graduating soon from NDSCS)

Zara’s Family –
Dad – Mirza (gastroenterologist)
Mom- Fugi (stay at home mom)
Brother – Tai (Attending Carleton College)