Sports

Luther men’s golf finished third, just seven shots shy of first place, this weekend during the first round of the Iowa Conference Golf Championship at Finkbine Golf Course in Iowa City, Iowa. They shot a two-day total of 617 points, finishing behind second-place Wartburg with 615 points and first-place Central with 610 points.

Norse tennis player Utsab Rijal (‘10) is chasing history. With three regular season team matches left, the Iowa Conference Championships and the national tournament, Rijal needs just seven singles victories to reach 70 for his career and become Luther’s winningest singles player in team history.

Luther posted two key wins over Coe College April 24 in Cedar Rapids to stay in the hnnt for the Iowa Conference regular season title.

Regular season Iowa Conference champions Luther College will host the four-team women’s Iowa Conference Automatic Qualifier May 1.

Two Luther College men’s relay teams participated in the Drake Relays in Des Moines April 23-24.

The 4 x 800 foursome of Sam Donlan (‘10), Andrew Papke-Larson (‘12), Drew Burmahl (‘10) and Tom Blattner (‘10) were clocked at 8:00.41 and placed 17th from the field of 20 teams.

The Luther College baseball team swept the University of Dubuque April 24-25 in three games. The Norse pounded out 33 hits en route to wins of 7-1, 12-1 and 9-4

The Luther College women’s track and field team posted a point total of 99 points at the Augustana-Rock Island Invitational April 17. The Norse placed fourth from the field of 10 teams.

The Luther College women’s tennis team extended its winning streak to four matches after posting wins over St. Cloud State University and Augustana-Rock Island April 18 in Decorah. The two wins increased Luther’s overall record to 24-6.

Luther posted a 712 at the Wartburg Spring Invitational April 18 and finished in third place. Wartburg-Black won the team title with a 643, while Simpson College was second at 692.

The 36-hole tournament was played on the Centennial Oaks Golf Course, a Par 72, which measured 5,866 yards.

The Luther College baseball team was swept in three games by Central College April 16-17, opening with a 12-14 in a slugfest in Pella. The two teams combined for 30 hits, which included four home runs and 10 doubles.

The men’s and women’s rugby teams have big aspirations for this season. After winning their first tournament last weekend in St. Cloud, the men’s team eagerly await their upcoming tournaments with a record of 5-0.

The team of about 25 players won their kickoff game of the season against Southwest Minnesota State with a final score of 60-10. Captain Greg Woodin (‘11) said he does not remember the last time Luther scored 60 points.

“We pretty much dominated them the whole time,” he said. “[We were] winning scrums and lineups.

Men’s tennis went 3-1 this past weekend, falling to Carleton College (Minn.) 4-5 before defeating Carthage College (Wisc.), Augustana-Rock Island (Ill.) and Loras (Iowa) to run their season record to 26-8 and 7-0 in the IIAC.

The Norse entered their first match ranked #7 in the Central Region where Carleton was ranked #8.

The nationally ranked #9 Luther College softball swept Viterbo, Buena Vista and U-W Eau-Claire April 9-11 to run their season record to 20-3.

In game one against Viterbo, Lauran Snyder (‘12) hit two solo home runs, the first in the second inning and the second in the fifth. Snyder’s second of the game followed Abby Christian’s (‘12) solo blast, giving the Norse back-to-back home runs and the lead for good. Snyder was 2-for-3 with two RBI.

The Believe to Achieve Race for beginning runners was held in Decorah Sunday, April 12. The 13.1 mile half marathon started as a brainstorm when Vicky Jaeger was watching one of her favorite TV shows “The Biggest Loser.” In the last five episodes of the show, the contestants ran a marathon. Jaeger has never considered herself a runner, but she wanted to see if she could do it.

“[I thought] these people are 300 lbs. and running a marathon, Vicky, you should be able to do that,” Jaeger said.

She wanted to create an opportunity for beginning runners like herself to work toward a goal that wasn’t overwhelming. According to Jaeger, a 5k is really easy and a marathon is really hard; everyone can do a half marathon if they just believe that they can do it.

Everyone graduates college with some sort of regret, whether it’s a low grade in a class, a social event unattended or a performance that went on without them. For Luther wrestler Allyn Plattner (‘09), it was losing a match to Augsburg heavyweight and long-time foe Andy Witzel his senior year at the national tournament.