Special Donor Issue - University of Minnesota, Crookston

Golden Eagles Spring Sport PreviewMen’s Golf - The Golden Eagle Men’sGolf team will start the 2006 Springseason with a goal of staying in thetop eight in the Central Region and getting abid to the NCAA Division II ChampionshipsMay 1-3. The Golden Eagles finished the fall2005 stretch of the season rewriting almost allteam records and placing third in the NSICChampionship at Pebble Creek Golf Club inBecker, MN, behind Winona State and BemidjiState. Going into the Spring half of the season,the Golden Eagles are ranked 6th in the CentralRegion. Most often the top eight in each regionget bids to the first round of the NCAA DivisionII Championships, which will take place thisyear at Prairie Bluff Golf Club in Joliet, Illinois.Participant from last spring’s 2005Championships/Super-Regional, Matt Hiller(Sr., Crookston, MN), Branden Schwartz (Sr.,Brooklyn Park, MN), and Steven Busho (So.,Blooming Prairie, MN) are all eager to return.Coach Jason Tangquist is also expecting goodthings this spring from Garrett Scott (Fr., RedDeer, Alberta), Nate Dahl (Sr., Ventura, CA),Trent Senenfelder (Jr., Walker, MN), StevenZutz (So., Red Lake Falls, MN), Brent Groenke(So., Morden, Manitoba), James Matthews (Jr.,Spring Green, WI), and Nick Nelson (Fr., ColdSpring, MN).Coach Tangquist commented on the springseason, “Our senior captains Branden Schwartzand Matt Hiller are eager to end their collegegolf careers on a high note. Participating as ateam at the Super-Regionals in May is the priority,but both men are ranked high enough in theRegion individually to advance if for some reasonwe do not advance as a team. The team hasbeen working hard in the fitness center withour off-season conditioning and lifting routinesand they hit regularly as well. We are really lookingforward to a great spring for our program.”The Golden Eagles will start the Spring portionof the season with invites at Augustana(April 1), the University of South Dakota (April2-3), Winona State (April 9) and Mankato State(April 10-11), and finish up with the NSICSpring Invite at Concordia St. Paul (April 17-18).Baseball - Strong leadership returns to theGolden Eagle Baseball team to compliment atalented group of newcomers this season. It is acombination that will result in a competitivesquad in the NSIC for the 2006 baseball campaign.“We have great leadership returning to ourteam with players like Brandon Wolf (P/SS,Sauk Centre, MN) and Aaron Motl (C, Staples,MN). Both Motl and Wolf were NSIC All-Conference Honorable Mention players lastspring and have improved their play throughoutthe off season,” says Head Baseball CoachSteve Olson.Joe Nelson (3B, West Fargo, ND), Matt Morin(OF, East Grand Forks, MN), Kyle Nyquist (2B,Cokato, MN) and Zach Schneider (P/IF,Sheboygan, WI) are returning players that havestarted at their respective positions for theGolden Eagles.Key newcomers include Cameron Routon(IF/P, Moose Lake, MN), Adam Knebel (IF/P,Warroad, MN), Adam Johnson (IF/P, Motley,MN), Laudyn Nelson (IF, Middle River, MN),Stephen Funk (OF, Sebeka, MN), Pablo Garcia(OF, Crookston, MN), Josh Bullivant (OF,Dassel, MN), Johnny Johnson (OF, Macon, GA)and Erick Martin (OF, Grasston, MN). GarryThompson (OF, Elk River, MN) and LeeRoberts (OF, Cushing, MN) will also join theteam after completion of their Golden Eaglebasketball season.Versatility is the key for the Golden Eagles thisspring. UMC has several players who can playmultiple positions. With a large number of positionplayers who also pitch, many different playerswill get opportunities to play and contributeto the success of the team.“Our players have been working extremelyhard and I am looking forward to their continuedprogress,” says Coach Olson. “I am excitedabout the leaders we have on our team this yearand I am also excited to watch our kids competeagainst some great competition.”The Golden Eagle baseball team opens up the2006 season at Northwest Missouri on March 12.The first home contest will be April 8 againstNSIC opponent Southwest Minnesota State.24