Men's Basketball Beats Northwestern

Men's Basketball has posted a record of 3-3 to date. A clutch
three-pointer by Tim Merritt (SO) with 4 seconds remaining lifted the Norse to a 63-61 victory over Northwestern College (MN) on Friday,December 11th. Northwestern had taken the lead on their ownthree-pointer from the top of the key with 32 seconds left in the game.
The Norse then held for the last shot and Merritt received a pass from
Dane Larson (SO) in the corner for the winning basket. Overall, the
newcomers are improving daily and getting up to speed offensively and
defensively. Some of the returners have started slowly and have been
coming on the last week. Right now the Norse are starting 2 juniors, 2
sophomores, and a freshman. Next up is @Crown College on Saturday,December 19th.

Swim & Dive teams show their strength at the Falcon Invite

This past weekend, December 4-5, the men’s and women’s Swim Team traveled to the University of Minnesota Aquatic center to participate in the two day Falcon Invite. Headed into the meet with a small 3 day rest the Norse attacked the competition and had some great swims. Day one was a success with Taylor Nelson posting a first place finish with a time of :21.51 in the 50 Freestyle. Michael Pettingill also finished first in the 100 Breastroke with a time of :57.49, this time also gave him a B-cut for Nationals. Brad Foresman finished second in the 100 Breaststroke with a time of 1:01.14. Other outstanding swims of the day were Spencer Robbins, earning a 3^rd place in the 500 Freestyle with a time of 4:46.31 and a 2^nd place finish in the 100 Butterfly with a time of :52.02.

The women also had a tremendous first day with an additional B-cut performed by Stephanie Drewes in the 100 Breaststroke with a time of 1:07.56, and Rachel Bruns in the 50 Freestyle with a time of :24.47. Bruns also finished first in the 200 Freestyle with a time of 1:56.59. Kari Kolsrud finished second in the 200 IM clocking a 2:14.98.

The second day of competition was equally as successful for both the men’s and women’s teams. More first place finishes were earned by Taylor Nelson in the 100 Freestyle (:46.81), Michael Pettingill in the 200 Breaststroke (2:06.39, Nationasl B-Cut), Spencer Robbins in the 200 Butterfly (1:55.78). Robbins also had a second place finish in the 200 Backstroke in a time of 1:56.55. The men’s realys during the weekend were strong earning second place in both the 200 Freestyle (1:26.90) and 400 Medley (3:32.24). The relay team of Nelson, Cutler, Ziminski, and Robbins earned a first place finish in the 400 Freestyle relay with a time of 3:13. 59.

On the women’s side two more National B-Cuts and first place finishes were made by Stephanie Drewes in the 200 Breaststroke(2:27.68, Nationals B-Cut) and Rachel Bruns in the 100 Freestyle (52.78, Nationals B-cut). Third place finishes were earned by Sara Kessler in the 200 Backstroke (2:13.65) and Kari Kolsrud in the 400 IM (4:48.79). The relays over the weekend were strong as well the 400 Medley earned first place with Kessler, Drewes, Ladd, and Bruns (4:04.85). The 400 Freestyle Relay of Bruns, Nicoll, Kolsrud, and Kessler earned 3^rd place(3:40.17). The 200 Medley Relay of Rauchwarter, Drewes, Ladd, and Nicoll finished in 4^th (1:54.83).

The swim team will be staying in Decorah over Christmas break to continue with their training, but will return to competition January 9^th at St.Mary’s.

The men’s and women’s diving teams traveled to Macalester College this past weekend for a diving invitational. Friday afternoon was the 3 meter competition. On the men’s side Alan Thorsen finished 5^th out of 6 divers with a score of 161.25. The women’s side, Elise DesRoches finished 3^rd out of 13, with a score of 179.60 and Christina Gednalske finished 8^th with a score of 134.00. The second day of diving on the 1 meter board had Thorsen finishing 5^th with a 161.15. DesRoches finished 1^st on the women’s side with a score of 228.80, Gednalske finished 4^th with a score of 183.40.

Women's Basketball

The Luther College women's basketball team dropped its first game of the season, a 67-64 decision to Ripon College this afternoon in the UW-La Crosse Holiday Inn Classic.

Twenty-eight turnovers plus an 18-point difference at the free throw line proved to be the deciding factors in this contest. Ripon connected on 19-of-25 free throw attempts, plus tallied 20 points off of Luther's 28 turnovers. On the flip side, Luther made just three trips to the charity stripe making one, and was credited with 10 points off of Ripon's 16 turnovers.

Trailing 37-30 at halftime, the Norse battled back in the second half and held a seven point lead (61-54), with 7:45 left in the game. Ripon outscored the Norse 13-3 the rest of the way en route to the victory.

Wrestling Wins Big

The Luther College Wrestling Team traveled to UW-Eau Claire the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to take on the Blugolds. Behind the efforts of 6 freshmen, the Norse rolled to a 38-3 victory. Veteran Kevin Bokoski had a dominating performace as did freshman Peadair Flood. Peadair was coming off of a great weekend where he went 4-0 to win the Silver Division at the Augsburg Open and is now 7-3 on the year. Jack Steinberg had a gutsy performace as well at 184. He fought off his back the majority of the first period and then came back in the second and third period to break his opponent and win by a score of 11-9. It was fun to watch him! He has great intensity! Micah Ballew got his first win of the season with a score of 12-0 and looked good doing so. He has been weighing in at 184 and wrestling 197 for the team. Matt Fassbinder pinned his opponent at 174 and is getting closer to the level he wants to be at. The only loss came in a good match at 149 where we had freshman Shaun O'Neill wrestle against a solid senior from UW Eau Claire. Shaun wrestled pretty well and is going to be a good one.

We took Wed-Sunday off from practice and resumed Monday. We are looking forward to competing at UW-Parkside this weekend and then will wrestle 2 duals against Simpson College and UW-LaCrosse next week. We have a young team and have not had our best lineup on the mat at the same time yet. I like our fire and enthusiasm and think we can develop into something special by season end!