I want to begin our discussion of the Super Bowl by first getting on a soapbox about the halftime show. As we all know, it retreated from any edginess in its performers following Janet Jackson’s infamous “wardrobe malfunction,” but starting last year the Super Bowl seems to be leaning towards more contemporary bands. To woo youth and baby boomers alike, this year brings us Cirque de Soleil, Nicki Minaj, M.I.A., LMFAO and Cee Lo Green joining star performer Madonna. Madonna made an interesting comment for those who might tremble at that set of wild whipper-snappers in the Indianapolis Star on Thursday. She said her father was excited about her doing a big Super Bowl spectacular because “He’s the personification of Midwestern values.”

Ugh. I hate when people act like my region is another country or something. People on the coasts get offended for no reason, too. Madge seems so defensive, as though her edgy persona from literally thirty years ago might still be enough to offend an imagined prudish Midwestern audience. Allow me, as a Midwesterner, to say that I am not afraid that 53 year-old Madonna is going to offend me. For one thing, she has a financial interest in avoiding shenanigans like she pulled at the 2003 VMAs when she kissed Britney Spears (and Dirrty-era Christina Aguilera, who never gets any credit for also being kissed). She’s using the half-time show as a mass-market shill for her probably terrible movie, W.E. It’s supposed to be better than Swept Away, but worse than Die Another Day. Occupy halftime!

As for the actual game, which seems to occupy about a quarter of the total Super Bowl broadcast time, I’m not particularly excited. I know I’m supposed to catch rematch fever and get all excited about David Tyree’s helmet catch and Plaxico Burress catching the game winner, but I don’t care about the rematch. Perhaps the only superlative for this year’s game is that it features the two most laconic coaches in the league. In last year’s game we had a classic battle between the elite offense of the Green Bay Packers and the overwhelming stopping power of the Pittsburgh Steelers. This year however, the New York Giants and New England Patriots aren’t the best at any one thing. The Patriots rank second in passing yards and total offense, while the Giants rank eighth and fifth respectively in those categories. The Giants were third in total sacks, and the Patriots were second in passes intercepted. In stats guru Jeff Sagarin’s computer ratings, the Patriots rate as the best team in the NFL. Sagarin has the Giants at number five, behind New England, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Green Bay. The Patriots have a statistical edge.

However, in their regular season meeting, the Giants shocked the Patriots at Gillette Stadium 24-20 thanks to an Eli Manning touchdown pass to TE Jake Ballard with 15 seconds left. In that game the Patriots out-gained the Giants 438 yards to 361 but Tom Brady had three turnovers (two interceptions and one fumble). Surprisingly, the Giants’ ballyhooed defensive front was only able to get to Brady once, with DE Jason Pierre-Paul recording the sack (linebacker Michael Boley also had a sack). If the Giants are to have any chance of winning, they need to disrupt what Tom Brady wants to do and force him into bad throws and turnovers. Pierre-Paul’s colleagues on the line will need to give him a hand in creating some chaos in the backfield. Fellow DEs Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora are quite capable of pressuring from the edges. They will need to play exceptionally well to cover for their mediocre secondary, which ranked 29th in the league in passing yards allowed per game.

It would appear from the yardage totals in their previous meeting and the Patriots’ edge in many statistical categories that the smart money is on New England. In fact, Vegas favors the Pats, but only with a -3 spread. But after watching New England struggle against the Baltimore Ravens, I’m far from sold. Brady was far from Brady-esque, throwing two picks, while the Pats defense gave up 306 yards to Joe “Pretty” Flacco (A$AP!). The Patriots looked very beatable against Baltimore. Brady and his receiving corps are dangerous, but with Brady and lethal TE Rob Gronkowski both nursing injuries, they are not at full strength. Perhaps, to borrow a sportscaster cliche, they are not playing their best football right now.

On the other hand, Eli Manning and his triumvirate of receivers are totally synced up after torching Green Bay and San Francisco for over 300 yards through the air. Hakeem Nicks, Victor Cruz and Mario Manningham will carry that momentum into the Super Bowl and torch New England’s secondary, too. Eli Manning’s arm and his receivers’ ability to break tackles in the open field will overwhelm the mediocre Patriots defense and the Giants won’t be penalized for their anemic rushing attack. I think the game will be close and probably a shootout, which ought to make it fun to watch even if there’s not any particularly interesting contrast in styles. The Giants d-line forces Brady into a red zone interception with less than a minute to go and that’s the difference:

New York Giants 35, New England Patriots 31.

Surprise Super Bowl MVP: Victor Cruz.

Length of half-time show: six hours, forty-three minutes

Kunal’s Korner:

Super Bowl Sunday, one of the classic moments of every year. Honestly, the Super Bowl makes me prouder to be an American than any other holiday. Everything America is about: football, consumerism, gluttony, celebrity worship, all on full display during the Big Game. There’s no spectacle quite like it, and whether the game ends in dramatic fashion or in a full-fledged blowout, the Super Bowl is bound to leave lasting impressions on all viewers.

The obvious question is, “Who do you like?” Predicting the winner of the Super Bowl is a crucial part of the whole process. Only two fan bases actually get to experience the joy of having their team play for a championship, so predicting the winner is how most people build somewhat of an emotional attachment to either team and become emotionally invested in the game. This matchup, the New York Football Giants vs. the New England Patriots, is a real dandy. I’ve gone back and forth a lot over the last 10 days in deciding which team I think will win this game, and in the end … I like the Giants. As a Redskins fan, it really hurts me to say that a team that the REDSKINS BEAT TWICE in the regular season is going to win the Super Bowl. However, the fact remains that the NFL Playoffs are just like any postseason tournament, and the Giants come into the Super Bowl with seemingly all of the momentum. The fact that the Giants have been playing at a higher level recently than have the Patriots, combined with the fact that the Giants do more things well than the Patriots, combined with the fact that everybody has a sneaking suspicion that Eli Manning has Tom Brady’s number (in the same kind of strange way that Paris had Achilles’), combined with the fact that Peyton’s last memory of Indianapolis could be seeing his little brother walk off the field with one more Super Bowl Championship than he has, is too much to ignore – G-Men are going to win!

The key to this game is going to be time of possession. Both offenses can get down the field, and put up points in a hurry. In my opinion, the team that puts its defense in the best possession to be successful will win this game, and that means sustaining lengthy drives to keep the other offense off the field. The Giants were dead last in the NFL in running the football during the regular season, but they have run the football pretty effectively during the postseason. I think that the change of pace in the backfield they possess with Bradshaw and Jacobs gives them a leg-up on the Patriots in that category, but quite frankly, I do not think any running back is going to steal the show at Super Bowl XLVI.

Both teams possess fairly average run defenses, but their inability to stop the pass is what has really haunted them all season. In the case of the Patriots, it is understandable; New England has been playing with a patchwork secondary all season long. The Giants’ pass-defense struggles are a little bit harder to diagnose. Sure, they were dealing with injuries on the defensive line all season, but they still got after the quarterback plenty. Some may argue that the Giants were forced to blitz more when they were not getting as much pressure from their front four, leaving them much more exposed on the back end, but I’m not sure how much I buy into that. It seems to me that the Giants’ secondary, while extremely athletic, is just young and inexperienced, and too often its poor-decision making leads to big plays down the field. This situation sounds ripe for a Tom Brady masterpiece, but the Giants’ pass-rush is firing on all cylinders right now, and who can forget how much Justin Tuck and co. neutralized Brady back in 2008. The Giants, if they can keep Vince Wilfork from getting pressure on Manning up the middle, should be able to exploit the size, speed and overall skill advantage of their receivers on the Patriots’ defensive backs. I know that the Patriots possess some matchup nightmares of their own with the trio of Welker, Gronkowski, and Hernandez, but Gronkowski looks like he might not be 100%, and quite frankly, neither does Brady. Golden Boy suffered a slight shoulder separation in the AFC Championship Game, and while it is tough to say how much the injury impacted his mediocre performance against the Ravens, we can certainly speculate about how much it will affect him in the Super Bowl, especially if the Giants are able to get some hits on him early.

Whichever team is able to keep their quarterback upright the longest will win this game, and I suppose that I have more faith in New York’s offensive line to neutralize the opposing pass rush than New England’s. If Eli can step up in the pocket, I see no way in which the Patriot’s ragtag secondary can stay with the Giants’ elite receivers. I foresee Eli, Hakeem Nicks, and Jason Pierre-Paul all having outstanding games.

Score — New York Giants:  27  New England Patriots:  21

MVP –  Eli “2X Super Bowl MVP” Manning.

“When Russell Osgood was here as president, I’d never met the guy and he sent me an email kind of out of the blue,” Head Track Coach Will Freeman said. “He had just started here, and he said ‘what would it take to host major national events here?’ Now we weren’t even in the process of planning [The Bear] at the time, but that sort of prompted the whole discussion.”

The email led to an in-person meeting.

“I remember laying out on a napkin, drawing it over coffee at the Forum—that’s the first time I’d ever met him—what the design of the track would really need to be like and that’s the way they built it, on that footprint,” Freeman said.

The college placed a bid to host the National Championships before the Fieldhouse was even completed.

“[The bid] was all based on drawing and renderings and then we were selected just before we came into the building itself,” Freeman said. “So, [it was] a little bit of a gamble and we were up against a couple of schools that had just finished facilities.”

According to Freeman, Grinnell’s bid benefited from several factors.

“I think what sold it was the community, what it had to offer, and the support of the administration,” he said. “It was pretty clear we thought we could do a pretty good job of this if we had a chance. “

Grinnell had one more asset on its side in Freeman, currently in the last year of his four-year stint as the Chair of the NCAA Division III Track and Field/Cross Country Committee, a position that has given him plenty of experience with National Meets.

“It’s a huge advantage. He really understand that it takes to put on a meet,” said NCAA Intern Paul Gagne ‘10, who has been heavily involved in the organization of the meet.

When the bid was accepted, Freeman found himself experiencing a range of emotions.

“It was wonderful, scary, you know, but wonderful,” Freeman said.

Coach Freeman believes Grinnell will be representing more than just the town.’

“It’s not just a feather in the cap to the school but it’s a chance to bring people to Iowa,” Freeman said. “It’s not too often that Iowa gets these kinds of thing.”

In order to properly showcase Iowa, Freeman thought of somebody who would be especially good at representing the state.

“I thought why not invite the Governor, thinking you know, he’s busy, he’s probably not going to want to come to this banquet the night before the event starts,” Freeman said. “Then I got an email from him: he’s coming.”

Planning began in the Fall of 2011 with arrangements for food, a television broadcast and other aspects providing plenty to tackle. Extra bleachers are being brought it to accommodate up to 1,400 people. Darby Gymnasium will be converted into a check-in and warm up center while the Auxiliary Gym will be used as an athlete lounge and “Championship Cafe.”

The NCAA requires an admission fee for the National Meet, however President Kington decided to allocate money for student tickets. Roughly a week before the meet, students, faculty and staff will be able to pick up a ticket free of charge that they can then exchange on the day of the meet for a wristband valid for admission for both meet days.

“We’re very fortunate that our President recognizes the fact that our students, faculty and staff don’t normally pay, so he’s volunteered to give us a certain allotment of tickets to give to students, faculty, and staff that want to attend,” said Athletic Director Greg Wallace.

Students should not worry about a shortage of tickets, as long as they get them early.

“As long as we have enough people come early in the week, he will definitely up that amount of money and buy more tickets if that interest is there,” Gagne said.

Last year’s meet hosted athletes representing over 80 schools and this year’s will have similar numbers. The meet will require many volunteers to run smoothly and Grinnell students are encouraged to come out and help. Shifts will be kept short at four hours and if you volunteer you will be given free admission with no need for a ticket. Students interested in volunteering should attend one of three meetings on Feb. 9 at 4:30 p.m., 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. in 205F of the Bear Athletic Facility.

“There are some doubts about our ability to host this meet because of the size the town that we’re in and were here to prove that despite some difficulties that arise … we are a place that can put on the best Indoor Track Nationals ever. That’s really been the goal since day one,” Gagne said.

Though the team was projected to finish seventh in the conference before the season started, the squad has proven the critics wrong. They look to compete in the Midwest Conference (MWC) tournament for the first time since the 2003-04 season.

“We have great senior leadership this team,” said Head Coach Kate Gluckman. “Meg Huey [’12] and Ashley Jeannin [’12] have worked hard to create a competitive team atmosphere and to hold their teammates and themselves to a very high standard. On the court our defense has been tremendous and has allowed us to contain teams to well below their average scoring levels.”

Huey extended her double-double streak to five in an 87-67 victory against Knox on Tuesday with 18 points and 13 rebounds, to go along with four assists and four blocks. Just prior to the game, Huey was named to the D3hoops.com National Team of the Week.

Michelle Briggs ’13 notched her fourth consecutive double double with 18 points, 10 rebounds, and added seven blocked shots. Rebecca DeGroot ’14 scored a game-high 21 points while Toluwaloju Alabi ’13 was one rebound away from a double double with 15 points and nine rebounds.

The Pioneers have won seven of their last nine games to improve their overall record to 10-7 and conference record to 9-4. They currently rank third in the Midwest Conference standing.

“It’s been a breath of fresh air [to win games],” Huey said. “We’re less accepting of losing now. I wouldn’t call it swagger, but we have this new confidence now. We expect to win now instead of hoping to pull an upset.”

“Everyone comes to practice ready to work,” DeGroot said. “We know these next few games are going to make or break our chance of making it to conference so we have to get after it in practice and leave it on the court after.

DeGroot has provided a spark in Grinnell’s scoring attack, leading the team in three of the last five games.

Despite the surge in offensive output, it is the defense that has been putting numbers on the win column. In the past nine games, opponents have averaged just 50 points per game while shooting below 28 percent from the field. Grinnell’s squad averaged almost seven blocks during the same span.

“Our defense is definitely what’s winning the games for us,” Huey said. “We’re getting defensive stops, which lead to good offense. Right now, we’re clicking as a team; we have a lot of people contributing both on offense and defense.”

The squad has played some exciting games that went down to the wire. Margin of loss for the four conferences losses are just 18, with two losses to Carroll, each by two points.

While the Pioneers seem to be well on their way to finishing the season with a winning record for the first time in eight years, they are not looking ahead of themselves. Improvements must be made to reach the Conference tournament, and eventually win the championship.

“We continue to struggle with turning the ball over,” Gluckamn said. “This limits our shot attempts and gives our opponents opportunities for transition offense, which is hard to guard.”

“We need to keep our eyes on the prize, stay in shape, and execute on both defensive and offensive ends,” DeGroot said. “We also need to remember to come out strong the second half because we tend to lose momentum from the first half.”

While the Pioneers have been riding on a great momentum, they also know that the season is not over and they are not in the Conference tournament, yet.

“Nothing is guaranteed until we play our last regular season game and we know for sure that we are in the Conference tournament,” Coach Gluckman said. “We have a number of expectations for this team but instead of setting end-of-season expectations, we like to focus on daily goals and game goals. A team can lose focus if all we think about is the end of the season. We expect to be competitive in every remaining game and when we play to our ability, we will be successful.”

The team will go on the road this weekend to play Ripon on Friday and St. Norbert on Saturday.

“[The trip] is a great team experience. They get to spend some real quality time together, training, cooking and living together in a setting that allows them to train outdoors and experience another part of the country,” Head Coach Erin Hurley wrote in an email to the S&B.

Distance swimmer Caitlin Short ’12 also saw the team advantages of the trip.

“It is really important for building team community. I’ve always found I know people on my team so much better after Florida,” she said.

“It’s a lot of fun down there, but it’s also a lot of hard work,” Michael Brus ’14 said.

In Florida, alarms are set early, as the bus leaves for the training pool at 6:30 a.m. Students aren’t late for the bus either—for each minute that one person is late, everyone must be on the bus five minutes earlier the next day.

“In all four years that I’ve gone, we’ve never had to go earlier,” Short said.

Practice runs from 7-9 a.m., with a less intense practice lasting from 4-6 p.m. Short said the frequent practices benefited the team more than the one-a-day practices on campus.

“We accomplish more in the same amount of time,” she said.

While in Florida, the Pioneers competed in a dual meet against a talented Connecticut College team on Jan. 10.  The men’s team lost 113-92 while the women fell 160-45.  However, Brus and Coach Hurley both emphasized the positives of the meet.

“Normally, the meet down there is not good because we’re all exhausted,” Brus said.

This year, Coach Hurley challenged the team: if 30 percent of team members achieved season bests, they would be able to get out of one practice. Though the Pioneers didn’t win the meet, they did achieve this goal.

“I thought our team raced really well. Many swam faster than they had the previous year. When they are training at such a high intensity, it can be challenging to have a competition in the middle,” Hurley said.

“I think [the Connecticut College meet] serves to give good practice … as well as sort of a reality check for where we’re at as a team,” Short said.

In addition to the extensive training and the swim meet, the team also enjoyed a day on the beach and a reception with Grinnell alumni, making for a well-rounded experience.

The team was able to make the trip a successful one, despite some health issues. One diver had to go to the ER due to a case of appendicitis and a handful of other swimmers caught the flu towards the end of the trip.

However, the Pioneers were forced to bounce back quickly. After they returned to campus, they competed in their own Grinnell Invitational on Jan. 20 and 21. The men won the seven-team competition, edging out Gustavus Adolphus College 1290.5 to 1239.5, behind Brus’s individual wins in the 200-yard freestyle and 200-yard backstroke, as well as Colin Yarnell ’12’s first-place finish in one-meter diving.  The 200 medley and 400 freestyle relays also notched victories.

The women’s team tied for fourth out of 11 in the Invitational, led by Kelly Bruce ’12’s second-place finish in three-meter diving and Danielle Phillip ’15’s third-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke.

Overall, winter break was an eventful one for the swim team. They fought illness, competed against tough teams and grew closer together, which the swimmers see as one of their favorite parts of the trip.

“I like swimming because of the team,” Brus said. “We all get along so well.”

The Pioneers are back in action this weekend at the Macalester Mini Invite, then will compete in a dual meet against Coe College, followed by an off weekend and then the MWC Championships in Appleton, Wis.

“We’re exceeding expectations,” said Head Coach David Arseneault ’09. “We have a great group of guys. They bring the same energy and effort to practice everyday—it’s been a consistent thing. The result is a lot of wins and only one loss.”
The team’s success has been led by guard Griffin Lentsch ’13, who has had a record-breaking season. In Grinnell’s Jan. 21 win against Beloit College, Lentsch became the twenty-first Grinnellian to score 1,000 career points. Just this November, Lentsch scored 89 points against Principia College, setting a new record for NCAA Division III Basketball.

“In our game against Monmouth, Griffin scored a ‘quiet’ 30 points,” Arseneault said.  “It’s just become something that we expect. He can make shots from anywhere on the floor. He’s a very gifted athlete, and it’s nice, because it dominoes everyone down one spot, so that they’re playing a lesser defender. That gives them more freedom on the offensive end.”
In addition to Lentsch, other Pioneers stand out on the court.

“Jesse Ney is a third year, and his outside shooting stroke combined with other elements of his game has really been crucial to our success,” Arseneault said. “Senior Matt Chalupa is our best spot up shooter, and he’s the emotional leader of the team. When he scores a clutch bucket, everyone on the team rallies around him. It’s great to see.”
The team has had few injuries. One of the players who stuck on the sidelines has finally made it back onto the court.
“We just got Matt Skelly [’12] back from a broken hand,” Arseneault said. “He’s starting to get his groove back a little bit. It’s taking him a while, because it was a broken shooting hand, but he’s finding lots of great ways to contribute.”
The newest members of the team have also proven to be a boon rather than a bane.

“The first years have been awesome about joining the group and figuring out what to do out there,” Xander Strek ’12 said. “Everyone’s been having a great time and having an amazing season.”

On Wednesday, Grinnell defeated Monmouth College by 12 points, putting down yet another Midwest Conference rival. Even though Monmouth held the lead at the half, Grinnell bounced back with an impressive showing in the second half.

“I didn’t think that we played particularly well in the first half against Monmouth. We had some silly mistakes and careless turnovers that let them into it,” Arseneault said. “We were ice cold to start the second half, but after one shift, we turned the tide for the entire game. All of the sudden we had the ball rolling and we never turned back.”

“It’s harder to win away than win at home,” Chalupa said. “We were killing their man defense, so we switched to zone. At half time, we talked in our groups, and our effort picked up, which just changed the whole game for us.”

This Saturday, Jan. 28, the Pioneers will be facing Lake Forest College, which so far has gone undefeated in the MWC. The game, which will be held at Lake Forest in the north suburbs of Chicago, could be a preview of the Midwest Conference Championship later this year.

“We’ve been looking forward to the game for a year,” Chalupa said. “Last season, we knew that we would be the two teams to beat. They didn’t have any seniors, and they were still pretty good. Now, they have seven.”

“Hopefully we can give them their first loss of the season,” Strek said. “We normally have a lot of support in Chicago. It’s a tough defensive battle against Lake Forest, which we don’t like, but we’ll go in there and get it together against those guys.”

Coach Arseneault says that the players will only be practicing just over an hour a day now that classes have started, so that they can focus on their academics.

A while back, Bill Simmons wrote a column assessing the watchability of every team in the NBA. Simmons, a Clippers season-ticket holder (before the Clips revamped everything), was trying to decide which games he should go to and which ones he would not care to miss. Now, I am not a Bill Simmons fan boy; in fact, I think Simmons is, much like his beloved Boston Celtics, old and on the decline. That particular column, though, was great, and as much as I hate to shamelessly steal Bill Simmons’ idea … I’m going to. Here is my ranking of the top-five most watchable teams in the NBA.

1. Lob Angeles Clippers 

This team is far from perfect.  They are not particularly great at shooting free throws, and they sometimes suffer bad lapses in perimeter defense. They also lack depth in the frontcourt after Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. However, this team can get out and run, finish with authority, block shots, score off the bench and most importantly, hit big shots when the game is on the line. When you watch the Clippers play, it seems as if they overwhelm opponents with their sheer athleticism at both ends of the court, and all those dunks and blocks make for good viewing.

2. Miami Heat

One could definitely make the argument that the Heat deserve to be number one on this list. They possess the best player in the league, and two of the top five. They are a better scoring, rebounding and three-point shooting team. As fun as it is to watch the Clippers in transition, no team runs the fast break as effectively as the Miami Heat. So why did I choose the Clippers over the Heat? It comes down to the simple fact that the Clippers make more pretty plays per game than the Heat, who spend a lot of time at the free throw line. Also, Miami is dreadfully boring to watch when none of the Big Three are on the court (although this is a pretty rare occasion), even if their overall team depth is decent. Nobody wants to see Udonis Haslem hitting 10-foot jumpers. Also, reserve guard Norris Cole is something else. He could develop into a key player for the Heat as the season wears on.

3. Oklahoma City Thunder

There is a lot to like about the Thunder. They are big, they can shoot, they block a lot of shots, they are tenacious on the boards, and their opponents generally shoot a very low percentage from the field. Oh yeah, and they have a lot of depth. While this team is certainly not devoid of high-flyers, they do not seem to dunk as much as the two teams ahead of them in this ranking, and that costs them style points. Also, I do not feel like Oklahoma City has fixed the composure issues that plagued them in last year’s Western Conference Finals. This team has a tendency to settle for perimeter shots in close games, and that’s not going to get it done in the playoffs. I also want to chime in on the whole Westbrook-Durant drama for a second. Listen, I firmly believe that Kevin Durant is the best and most clutch player on the Thunder. That being said, I love how aggressive Westbrook plays the point guard position, and I wish that some of Russell’s will to get to the rack would rub off on Durant. Everybody challenged Westbrook to get better this year, and he did, but somehow it seems like nobody wants to give him the credit he deserves. People just keep waiting for him to screw up again so they can talk about how he’s inhibiting KD’s development. What a crock of you-know-what; OKC’s best chance to win a championship is if Westbrook is playing point, and you would have to be a fool to not see that.

4. Chicago Bulls

All right, calm down Chicagoans, Bulls made my top-five. Honestly, no team in the NBA puts in the kind of defensive effort that that the Bulls do night in and night out. Not only do the Bulls hold their opponents to roughly 85 points per game, but they are also the best rebounding team, and one of the best shot-blocking teams, in the league. The Bulls may not be a scoring juggernaut, but they move the ball around effectively, and they tend not to make careless turnovers. The Bulls also shoot pretty well, and Derrick Rose is just a joy to watch; the man can do it all. Furthermore, it seems like the Bulls have solved a lot of their secondary scoring issues without making a big splash in the offseason. Deng, Boozer and Rip Hamilton have all played pretty well this season. Providing the team can stay healthy, the Bulls have as good of a shot as any team to win the whole thing.

5. Philadelphia 76ers

There are certainly a number of teams that deserve to be in the top five of this ranking. Denver is the best scoring team in the league, and they’re doing it without any legitimate superstars. Memphis is definitely a sneaky good team that looks dangerous in the Western Conference. However, I absolutely could not leave the 76ers off this list. In my opinion, no team has been as impressive as Doug Collins’ squad in the early going. This team can score, play defense and flat out kill you with depth. Seven players on the Sixers average over 10 points a game, and the fantastic Jodie Meeks is not one of them. The Sixers have quietly built a great team through solid draft picks and key free-agent acquisitions. I mean Lou Williams, Jrue Holiday, Iguodala, Thaddeus Young, Evan Turner and Meeks are all Sixers draft picks. Elton Brand came over through free agency in ’08, and it is as if people forgot how dominating he used to be. The Sixers can really shoot the basketball, and their prowess from the perimeter really opens up things for them in the paint. That is why the Sixers are able to get a lot of high-percentage looks, and that is why they are a fun team to watch. Look for the Sixers to make some noise this postseason.

Now in her fourth year, Bruce has accomplished just about everything she can as a Pioneer diver.  She is a three-time MWC champion in both the one-meter and three-meter diving competitions, is a three-time MWC Diver of the year, holds the school records for both events, was an All-American and qualifier for the NCAA Division III National Championships in 2011.

Photograph by Mary Zheng.

Despite all of her accolades, Bruce didn’t start out as a successful diver.

“I was pretty bad,” she said. “I wasn’t much of a natural athlete”.

She first started diving at the age of eight and though she wasn’t immediately talented, continued due to her affection for the sport and environment in which she dove.

“Once you get into it, it’s kind of addictive…the feeling of flipping through the air is unbelievable,” Bruce said.

She kept diving as she got older and became more competitive in her high school years.

“I enjoyed the people I was diving with.  I enjoyed the atmosphere.  I think that’s probably why I stuck with it,” she said.

In the same way, Bruce’s favorite aspect of diving at Grinnell is the tight-knit, “collaborative” group with whom she competes.

“At Grinnell, the people are just amazing,” She said. “We’re not just individuals swimming, we’re a team.”

Bruce loves being a part of the team and supporting each other in practice and meets.

“[Practice] is something that you enjoy. It’s a part of your day you’re looking forward to and a part of the day that a lot of people on the team are looking forward to,” she said.

This atmosphere has helped Bruce transform from an outstanding diver in her first-year, to an even better one today.  Head Coach Erin Hurley noted Bruce’s improvement as a diver, citing specifically her this past year, in which she broke out as an All-American.

“She has really matured.  Coming back from studying abroad her junior year was a turning point for her.  She handled her ups and down better, she was more balanced and patient with her own progress,” Hurley wrote in an e-mail to the S&B.

Hurley also mentioned Bruce’s high work ethic and link to her success

“She demands a lot of herself, both in the pool and in the classroom.  She knows what it takes to get the best performances out of her,” Hurley wrote.

As a senior and the only returning member of the women’s swimming and diving team to make Nationals last year, Bruce inherently possesses some of the team’s leadership.  Hurley believes she handles this role well.

“She is extremely reliable and someone the team can count on to perform well while also being there to support them.  She has a great work ethic and models this behavior for the rest of the team,” Hurley wrote.

Having already accomplished quite a bit, many of Bruce’s goals for the upcoming year concern other divers and the team as a whole.

Bruce was one of three Grinnell divers to advance to Nationals this past year, the others being Michael Brus ’14 and Imelda Wistey, who transferred after her first year.  Not only does Bruce hope to repeat as a competitor at the national level, but she hopes Brus will as well.  She also believes the team’s talent will bring other swimmers and divers to Nationals this year.

“I’d love to see some more people to get that opportunity,” she said.

As far as personal goals go, Bruce realizes this is her final season of collegiate diving and wants to make the most of it.

“My goals are to try the hardest dives that I can possibly do, just to have those as part of my diving career to look back on,” Bruce said.

“I hope she is able to repeat at Nationals this year.  It would be a great way to send her out,” Hurley wrote.

No matter how her career ends, some things will remain unchanged: Bruce has already pieced together a dazzling career and she has a simple love for the sport.

“I have a lot of fun with it.  It’s a goofy sport.  While you’re practicing, you can totally make up your own tricks or play around like you would if you were still a ten year-old at your friend’s outdoor pool.  It’s kind of like getting to play every day and call it a sport,” Bruce said.

Bruce, along with the rest of the Grinnell Swimming and Diving team will complete this weekend in the Pioneer Classic this Friday and Saturday, Dec. 1-2, taking place at Grinnell’s own Russell K. Osgood Pool.  Events kick off at 6 p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. on Saturday.

Griffin Lentsch '13 shoots during practice on Wednesday, Nov. 30.

Up to this point the squad has impressively run their fast paced high scoring “System” offensive to victories against William Penn University, Wartburg, Presentation, and Principia College 150-137, 115-97, 126-98 and 145-97, respectively.

“I think we’ve been playing great basketball. We expected to be good but we didn’t expect to be this good earlier on. Especially against William Penn, that was a big win for us because now we know that we can beat anybody,” said Co-Captain Matt Skelly ’12. “Those guys were good and they were athletic and they were just the type of team that we have a problem with.”

The success of the Pioneers so far has truly been a team effort.

“We’ve gotten contributions from a lot of different players. Like aside from Griffin, who we know is going to handle a large portion of the scoring for us, you look at our season box score and there’s eight or 10 other guys that on any given night could score a lot of points,” said Assistant Coach David N. Arseneault ’09.

That diversity of offensive weapons brings both advantages and concerns.

“It makes it tough for other teams to scout us when the points are broken up like that,” Arseneault said.  “I would be more comfortable if I knew where our scoring was going to come from outside of Griffin but as long as it keeps coming from a number of different people then I’m happy with it.”

The consistent scorer, Griffin Lentsch ‘13 put up 89 points in the Principia game, making National headlines and shattering the old NCAA DIII record of 77, previously held by Grinnellian Jeff Clement ‘99. His performance came as the result of an experiment to give Lentsch substantially more playing time which is usually limited by rapid substitutions of “shifts” of players, similar to hockey, to allow them to rest.

Although the venture turned out well in the end, the start was far from smooth.

“He came out of the gate terribly and couldn’t buy a bucket and about the 10-minute mark he got hot,” Arseneault said. “I think maybe felt a little bit more pressure knowing that he was going to play more minutes and thinking he should be putting up a big number.”

“I definitely felt pressure. This has happened in the past and sometimes if people aren’t shooting well we won’t do it. But I started shooting better,” Lentsch said. “So, I just kept shooting.”

Once he kept shooting, his teammates made sure to give him every opportunity possible.

“With each ensuing basket in the second half the bench just got louder and louder and guys recognize that he’s hot and they’re just totally deferring and passing up shots and getting him the ball for a second look,” Arseneault said.

Even though their names don’t go into the record books, the importance of his teammates’ role is not lost on Lentsch.

“I was just thankful for my teammates and coaches to give me the opportunity, to set me up to do it,” Lentsch said. “I couldn’t have done it without them.”

Focusing on this weekend, Coach Arseneault knows the men have a tough two games head of them, though for very different reasons.

“St. Norbert is probably the best defensive team we’re going to see all year. They’re just going to make us work for everything that we get,” Arseneault said. “I think the key to the game is going to be that we offensive rebound so we can cover ourselves because we’re probably not going to shoot a high percentage from the floor just given defense they’re going to play against us….if we can have some energy and effort just to get on the class we can cover ourselves by getting more shot attempts.

Based on past matchups, Saturday’s game against Ripon promises to be a more of an offensive spectacle in true System form.

“In the past, they’ve just tried to outscore us and they look to run. As soon as we score, bang, they’re gone the other direction,” Arseneault said. “And they have a great offensive player [in Aris Wurtz], probably the pre-season Conference player, of the year coming in here so we’re going to some things a little differently to try and take him away.”

Despite all that’s happened in the beginning of their season, Arsenault knows this is the weekend when games critical to an outstanding season start.

“I think in this league the key to success has always been, if you can win your home games and split on the road, that’s the recipe for a conference title,” Arseneault said. “I know that we have one of the biggest home court advantages given our location and distance from other people but also given the fans that we get out to the games because the student section is always great and community support is always great.”

The Pioneers play St. Norbert College on Friday, Dec. 2 at 7 p.m. and Ripon College the following day, Saturday, Dec. 3 at 4 p.m. Both games are in Darby Gymnasium.

Washington University in St. Louis won first, with Bowdoin College taking second and Monmouth College placing third.

Grinnell’s success at Nationals was not a surprise to team members, but they knew that their success was by no means ensured. They had difficult opponents in the bracket, and their first game was against New York University, the second highest ranked team in the tournament.

“NYU was supposed to roll over us,” said Team Co-Captain Beck Ringdahl-Mayland ‘13. “They’re kind of a large school, and it was basically their home turf.  I think they went into the game thinking that they were just going to beat us, but in the first few minutes, we came out with three goals, which got them scared.”

“At one point, we were up seven to two, and eventually it went into overtime.  We ended up winning by one goal,” said Team Co-Captain Sam Sherwood ’12.

“I think that the NYU game was the best game we played all season,” Beck said. Sherwood added that it might have also been the best game he had seen during his four-year career at Grinnell.

The team could not quite pull off similar upsets against their higher seeded opponents a second time, losing by five goals to Bowdoin College during the second round.

“We got beat by one guy on Bowdoin,” Ringdahl-Mayland said.  “They had a very good player, but if we had played them again, I think that it would have been a much closer game.”

After that, the team lost in the final round of competition to their Heartland Division foe Monmouth College, giving them a fourth place finish.  In four games against Monmouth this year, Grinnell was never able to defeat them.

“We beat the number two seed, and then we had to play the number three seed.  After that, we had to play the number one seed,” Ringdahl-Mayland said.  “We clearly had a very difficult road, but we still had the highest finish we’ve had in years.”

Monmouth was one of the only teams that Grinnell consistently struggled against this season.  Grinnell’s Heartland Division record was 5-3, with a second place showing in the championship held at the end of October.  They defeated Knox by six goals and decimated Augustana twenty to seven, before falling to Monmouth.

The team was especially pleased by these results, because it has shown a great amount of progress in talent and skill.

“We’re an interesting group of polo players, because only a few of us have had experience with the sport before Grinnell,” said Sherwood, who explained that water polo requires skill in swimming and ball control, which can only be developed gradually over time.

Next year, most of the starters will be gone—some will graduate and some will be studying abroad—complicating efforts to prepare for the next season.

“It will be an interesting year, I think,” Ringdahl-Mayland said. “I’m excited to see who we get from the upcoming first years, because it would be nice to have some players who are familiar with polo.  However, we don’t actively recruit, so we never know what we’ll get.  It’s all the luck of the draw.  We’re losing lots of people who played in high school, so we will definitely have to practice harder.”

The team sees their other rivals encountering some similar difficulties, though, so they hope for a stronger showing and more success when they start back up in 2012.

Rebecca Degroot '14 shoots a jump shot against Central College on Thursday, Nov.17. Photograph by Avery Rowlison.

The Pioneers finished last season with an overall record of 9-13, 8-10 in conference. The team was three victories shy of qualifying for the tournament. The squad looks to change that this year.

“Our athletes started taking that extra step last spring when they decided to work very hard in the off-season getting better as individuals,” Head Coach Kate Gluckman said. “We can now do more as a team because they have elevated their game.”

Captains Ashley Jeannin ’12 and Megan Huey ’12, the only seniors on the team, will lead the hopeful and enthusiastic squad.

“Even though we only have two seniors on the roster, Ashley and Meg and extremely strong leaders that have already, and will continue to, keep the team focused on our goals, motivated, and aware of our potential as a team,” Michelle Briggs ’13 said. “They have very high expectations for this season and will do everything they can to achieve that.”

One area of the game the team expects to improve on is offense. While the defense was formidable last year, allowing only 57.9 points per game and 38 percent shooting, the offense only managed to score 55.1 points per game.

“We need to mesh better and work some more on our new offence,” Rebecca DeGroot ’14 said. “There are a lot of opportunities that come out of our new offence but we need to find the open shooter quicker.”

Losing Jessica Vaverka ‘11, the team’s leading scorer last year, along with Brianna Gallo ’11 and Mallory Scharf ’11 will create a lot of room current players to contribute more to the team.

“We lost great leaders in last year’s seniors, and our leading scorer from last season,” Tolu Alabi ’13 said. “But we are not too bothered because many players have stepped up to fill those spots. People have become more vocal and also, many people have become great scoring options.”

Along with its strong defense, interior presence and rebounding was another strong part of its game as it was third in the league in rebounding margin with +4.2. Briggs led the team in the department with 8.0 per game, second best in the MWC. Briggs also averaged eight points per game while blocking a conference best 84 shots. DeGroot and Alabi averaged 5.1 and 5.0 rebounds per game, respectively.

“I’m excited to see our two centers Michelle and Elizabeth Burnett ’13 back in action,” Gluckman said. “Michelle had an incredible end to her season last year and is a defensive and offensive threat. Liz has come into the season with a new focus and intensity. She is a low post player who is strong in the lane. Together, Liz and Michelle should cause our opponents some serious trouble.”

Other players Gluckman expect to fill in larger shoes are DeGroot and Abby Jaeger ’14.

“We are returning Becca DeGroot and Abby Jaeger who both started for us at different points last season,” she said. “Abby is a feisty point guard and Becca is a very talented shooting guard.”

DeGroot averaged 5.7 points and 5.1 rebounds a game, while Jaeger averaged 1.5 assists an outing.
The Pioneers were ranked seventh in the preseason coaches’ poll out of ten teams in the conference. Because the team expects to reach conference, thus finishing top four in the conference, the ranking has fueled and motivated the team to prove the coaches wrong.

“I think this is a complete underestimation of our potential as a team,” Alabi said. “I strongly believe that we have the ability to finish in the top four. I like the way we are being viewed as underdogs and it will only add to the excitement when we begin to trump over teams.”

The team welcomes three new first-year players to help improve the team: Cristal Coleman ’15, Alex Plemmons ’15, and Jordan Schellinger ’15.

“The first years are doing really great and are putting in extra time during the week as well to get better,” DeGroot said. “I think that speaks a lot about their dedication to our team and their individual performances.”

Isabelle Miller ’13, a strong performer in the track team, also joins the team while Erica Tharp ’13 rejoins the team after taking a year off.

Pioneers will open the season against Central on Nov. 17 and finish this week’s game at Ashford on Nov. 19.

“I expect us to continue to develop our new offense and be more aware of what we can really get out of it. I also expect us to start to flow more as a team,” Briggs said.

Of course, I’m being a bit of an idealist. Who is to say that people will actually care about the NHL now that the NBA is on a temporary hiatus? A lot of people don’t care about hockey because they can’t relate; it’s certainly not the most accessible sport in the world. Basketball, on the other hand, is a sport that has been played at least a few times by most everybody in this nation. Even if people can relate to hockey, who is to say that they will enjoy watching the particular brand of hockey played in the NHL? The neutral zone trap is undergoing a rebirth of sorts in the NHL, and scoring and excitement are down as teams become content to dump the puck in the offensive zone and chase. The NHL and NHL Players Association thought that it had solved the problem of  “boring hockey” with the 2004-2005 rules change. Enacted in order to decrease the effectiveness of the neutral zone trap, as made famous by the successful New Jersey Devils teams of the late 1990s and early 2000s. The rules changes included the calling of every obstruction penalty, regardless of circumstance and the elimination of the rule that prohibited passes across two lines. However, NHL defensemen have become more skilled at avoiding costly penalties, and passes across two lines are risky and turnover-prone. The Washington Capitals, who before last season were known for their shoddy defensive play, employed a 1-3-1 for long periods of time last season, and enjoyed relative success. The Caps went from consistently ranking in the bottom third of the league in goals given up per game, to finishing in the top five last season. Unfortunately for the Caps, their division rivals, the Tampa Bay Lightning, dispatched them in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. Despite the fact that the Lightning swept the Caps in four games, Tampa Head Coach Guy Boucher saw something he liked in the 1-3-1 formation, and the Lightning have employed the strategy with great effectiveness at the start of this season.

That being said, the NHL is a great product. As the ever-observant Bill Simmons points out, the NHL has “the best in-game format (long period, long break, long period, long break, long period, go home), best regular-season in-game wrinkle (the shootout), best secretly awesome moment (any fight), highest percentage of “most likable players” (hands down), and highest percentage of “true fans in attendance” of the four major sports (indisputable). NBA fans that don’t use the lockout of their favorite league as an opportunity to check out the product being offered by the NHL are being truly closed-minded.  You don’t have to play hockey, or even know how to ice skate, to appreciate the speed, grace, and toughness on display in any NHL game. In a lot of ways, the NHL is like the NBA; the transition from offense to defense is seamless, and players have to incorporate more than a bit of finesse into their game in order to be successful. The NHL is also similar to the NBA in that both leagues are ripe with young superstars that promise to provide tons of fireworks over the next few years. Obviously, Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby come to mind when mentioning NHL stars, but these guys are grizzled veterans now. That is not to say that either of these guys is on the decline – Ovechkin is 26 and Crosby is 24 – but these guys were the face of the rebuilding NHL after the lockout, and they don’t represent the newest crop of NHL talents. The Edmonton Oilers, who have been absolutely dreadful over the last few years, have been stockpiling top-level talent, and they are beginning to see their grand plans come to fruition. Edmonton currently sits only three points out of the Northwest Division lead, ahead of the defending Western Conference Champion Vancouver Canucks, in spite of the fact that three of their four best players are 21 years of age or less. Eighteen-year old Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the first overall pick in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, has 14 points on the season…as many as Alex Ovechkin. However, the Oilers are not the only team benefitting from the extreme youth movement that has swept the NHL over the last few years. Many of the best players in the league, including Steven Stamkos, Drew Doughty, Tyler Myers, Jeff Skinner, John Tavares, and Tyler Seguin, are 21 years of age or less. Sure, goals may be on the decline, but with players of such high caliber on the ice, good enough to excel at the highest level of the game at 21, one can hardly say that the quality of the game is worsening.

Finally, if you need one last reason to tune into the NHL during the NBA lockout, keep in mind that the NHL has the coolest All-Star Game format of any of the major sports. The fans vote for captains, and then the captains pick which players they want on their team, playground-style. There are no conference or player-nationality restrictions – and hence, the talent level of the two teams is so far greater than in past hockey all-star games. Additionally, there is a personal aspect added to the game, as players are eager to play well for the captains that picked them, and to humiliate the captains that did not pick them. The personality of the All-Star Game fits the personality of the sport — laid-back and understated, but awesome at its core. That, my friends, is why you all should try to, at least casually, watch some hockey:  it’s the coolest game on Earth.

“We faced a lot of stiff competition because we were playing teams that in general, were a little more experienced than us and teams that also kind of had this legacy of doing really well at the Division I level so it was a huge learning experience,” Keeler said.

On the men’s side, Captains Jon Davis ’12 and Chris Kaiser-Nyman ’12 were also pleased with the way their team played at the tournament.  Like the women, the men faced mostly Division I schools.

“Almost half of the schools that went to Division I nationals were at the tournament,” Kaiser-Nyman said.

Despite tough competition, the men were very internally focused and made sure that playing time was even amongst all players.  In doing so, they helped more people prepare for the Spring season.

“This is the most competitive Fall tournament, so a lot of schools play their top ten players and that’s about it,” Davis said. “They’re really playing to win. We approached it slightly differently and we do a lot more even playing time. In general we have a really good team this year with a lot of first-years and second-years.”

Something that the men and women’s teams have in common is their youth. Of the 20 women who traveled to Mizzou, 11 had never played Frisbee before coming to Grinnell.

“I felt like the tournament really gave us a lot of practice playing as a full team.  Our team right now is half rookies—there are a lot of new people on the team. Right now we’re working on getting everyone really used to the dynamics of the game and just practicing the elementary skills of throwing and stuff,” Ellie Honan ’14 said.

Because the fall season acts as a rehearsal for the spring, the teams are not so concerned with their outcomes.

“Since these games don’t count for our seeding in the spring, we don’t really pay attention to details like [our record],” Kaiser-Nyman. “We concentrate on how we played and what we need to do to improve.”

When it comes to Frisbee, the communities that the teams provide are integral to success in playing the game. This year’s teams are no exception.

“I think that this is probably one of the most supportive ultimate teams that I’ve ever been on. To see the level of engagement on the sideline and on the field and the positive attitudes of everyone stands out on this team and in comparison to the teams that we play. Sprints don’t get you further than that and throws don’t get you further than that,” Hill said.

“Our team hangs out every day.  Most people on our team are really good friends with other people on our team,” Davis said.

In addition to their winter workouts and general team bonding, the captains are arranging a way for the team to give back to the Grinnell community through volunteer work.

“I’m really excited about monthly community service started and we’re on our way to being partnered with a food bank so that once a month we can send as many players as want to go to the food bank who want to work there,” Kaiser-Nyman said.

Going forward, the teams are focused on their spring goals to qualify and compete in the Division III National Tournament.  To do so, they will continue to work on their skills and athleticism.

“A really interesting dynamic is our winter practices, it’s lifting and sprint workouts.  We don’t have a coach so the only reason why people show up to practice and do [the workouts] is really linked to that social community that we have. Everyone on this team is really friends with each other and really strives to push each other,” Davis said.

With time to work on what they learned at the last tournament, the Grinnell Ultimate Frisbee teams hope to improve their skills and develop their new players for success this spring.

Kathryn Vincent '13 makes a play for the ball during the MWC Tournament Championship game against Carroll COllege o SUnday, Oct. 30. Photograph by Andrew Kelley.

“Coming into this year, I think we all felt like there was potential to do something better than we had done in the previous two years,” said Head Coach Heather Benning, “One of our goals was to finish as one of the top two schools in the league, and we wanted to be back in the conference tournament. … It was really rewarding to get to that place, especially given that the league coaches had picked us to finish sixth”

Along with an influx of talented first years, the women’s team had a strong set of players who all felt the team coming together in a strong way. Their team chemistry and camaraderie seems to be a central part of the success of this year.

“I was really happy with how the season went. We ended the season last year in sixth place and this year we tied for first so that was really exciting for us,” said Sam Bates ’12, a graduating senior on the team. “Another big thing was that we have a lot of players on the team now who have played a couple seasons together, so it was kind of coming together as a team and especially offensively we rearranged our system so we had more offensive opportunities and our forwards were working really well together.”

The women’s team started out their season with a loss against Cornell College. They then went on to play other colleges including the toughest MWC competition in Carroll and Lawrence.

“One of the biggest high points, for me anyways, was when we beat Lawrence. Lawrence was really big for us because they won the tournament last year, and so for us that was a sign that we could beat a really good team and that we were starting the season off right,” Bates said.

Not everything went well for the team, though. In addition to their unpredicted success, they faced unwanted trials.

“I think the low point, for all of us, were the number of injuries we had. It’s so frustrating and heartbreaking to have injuries, but then especially to have injuries to your seniors, which is where almost all of our injuries came this year,” Coach Benning said. “You get the first one and you know that injuries happen in athletics, but by the end of the season the fact that we had four was frustrating.”

Although injuries could have been a major setback, the team was still able to be highly competitive. Benning attributes this to their size.

“We had such a big team this year and we focused on the team being first in everything that we do, being inclusive of the 31 girls on the team and having that large team helped us overcome the injuries to an extent,” Benning said. “It also really allowed us to attain the goals that we had set because we had such a team-first mentality we were able to stay on track.”

The team has high expectations for next year, raised by the success of this season.

“I think we should be even better next year. We’re losing six seniors who all contribute something to the team, but we also had nine first years this year who all are probably going to do great things next year too. I think we’ll do as well as we did this year if not better,” said Captain Nicole Sipfle ‘13

The leaving seniors have thoughts about what comes next for the team as well.

“I expect them to win the conference tournament next year,” Bates said. “This year we made our goal and we made it to the tournament which we haven’t done in a couple years. So next year I think the next step is to win conference. And I honestly think we could have done it this year.

“I’m sad to be leaving! I love soccer and playing with this team has made it so much more fun. The girls are so nice and we have a really great team dynamic. It’s going to be really sad to leave.”

Cody Webber '13 rushes against Caroll COllege on Saturday, Nov 5. Photograph by Andrew Kelley.

In a battle of Pioneers, Carroll came out strong, posting 31 points to Grinnell’s zero in the first three quarters. The home team retaliated and scored three touchdowns in the fourth, but it proved to be too little too late. Carroll finished their season at 7-3, 6-3 in the Midwest Conference, while Grinnell ended up 5-5 overall and 4-5 in conference.

Grinnell’s passing game was off for the first three quarters and the Pioneers ended up going 23-for-60 through the air. In an email to the S&B, Head Coach Jeff Pedersen ’02 attributed some of the problems in the first three frames to the elements.

“If I could do anything differently I would have played the game on Sunday! The wind was a major factor in our passing game,” Pedersen wrote.

The wind subsided a bit near the end of the game, but the Pioneers ran out of time to put points on the board.

“Our offense just sparked too late in the game,” Andrew Clark ’14 said.

Despite the loss, two Grinnell players managed to tie single-season team records.

Clark, a cornerback, registered an interception to tie the single-season record of six set by Matt Johnston ‘01 in 1999.  On the other side of the ball, Wide Receiver Robert Seer ’12 caught nine passes to tie the record of 84 receptions set by Head Coach Jeff Pedersen ’02 when he played for the team in 1999.

Clark was aware of the record during the game and after he picked off the pass, he received some encouragement from his teammates to take sole possession of the record.

“My teammates were telling me … I should break it, try and get one more,” he said.

As for Seer, getting his name in the record book is nothing new. He broke the Grinnell career receiving touchdown record on Oct. 15 at Lawrence. Two weeks later, he broke the career receiving yardage and receptions records on the road against Illinois College.

“It felt really great to break the records, the touchdown one especially because it helped my team win,” Seer wrote in an email.

The circumstances surrounding the record Seer tied on Saturday were unique, since the man whose record he was chasing was standing on the sidelines, coaching him.

“Tying Coach [Pedersen] this year was pretty funny,” Seer wrote. “It was kind of a joke because earlier in the year he sort of made a comment about how I wouldn’t beat him, even though I know he wanted me to.”

Before the game, Coach Pedersen knew Seer needed nine catches to tie his record, but said that the record had no impact on his play-calling.

“Once the game starts … you’re just calling the best play for the given situation.  Rob has had a tremendous career, and he’s earned every record he’s broken … or tied,” Pedersen wrote.

Like the team records, this season is history, which leaves the team time to reflect.

“We set some very lofty goals for this team, so there is definitely some disappointment with the 5-5 overall record,” Pedersen wrote. “I’m proud of the things we were able to accomplish this season.”

Next season poses some question marks as the team looks to replace some major contributors.

“It’s going to be very tough to lose this senior class,” Pedersen said.

“We’re losing two very good receivers with Seer and Logan [Granera] and we’re losing Jimmy [Borrasso] as a quarterback,” Clark said.

Mike McCabe ’13 played quarterback most of the year and brings experience to next year’s quarterback position, though Seer and Granera’s shoes will be tough to fill.  However, next year’s team does have a lot to offer.

“We’ve got a solid nucleus of returning players that we’re very excited about.  As always, we’ll need a great incoming class of first-years to help fill out our roster, but we’re excited moving forward,” Pedersen said.

The goal of next year’s team is clear.

“MWC Championship is always the goal!,” Pedersen wrote.

The most depressing piece of news from the sports world this week was the weekend announcement of the findings of the grand jury investigation of former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. Sandusky stands accused of over 40 criminal charges stemming from his alleged sexual abuse of at least eight young boys from 1994-2009. It would be glib and foolish for me to presume I have any insight into the particulars of the case or any knowledge of who knew what and when they knew it at Penn State. It appears that Coach Joe Paterno, Athletic Director Tim Curley and University President Graham Spanier are all guilty at the very least of not doing their utmost to stop the abuses after they heard about them and alert the authorities; at the worst, all three could have been involved in a monstrous cover-up. But to speculate on either side is pointless. Paterno, who became the winningest coach in the history of college football this season with his 409th victory, had already announced that he would step down at the end of this season but was fired Wednesday night. JoePa spent 46 years as the epitome of Nittany Lions Football, winning two national titles and three Big Ten titles since Penn State joined the league in 1994. Obviously all we as outside observers can feel is outrage at these alleged abuses and the hope that Sandusky being brought to justice will bring some modicum of peace to the alleged victims and their families.

Such a sensitive topic that involves lifelong psychological scarring, then, clearly ought to be handled sensitively in the media. The serious news media, for the most part, has at least been its normal rabid, maudlin self, gobbling up the Penn State scandal as just another ratings-worthy tragedy in this sick, sad world. It’s annoying, but at least it’s typical and it’s what you expect from corporate media. But the scandal’s treatment in the sports media (or as it’s more colloquially known, ESPN) has been largely as just another sports scandal, akin to the jerseys-for-tattoos scandal at Ohio State or the pay-for-play allegations at Miami (FL). Such comparisons have no place in this discussion. While Penn State officials are involved in the scandal and some of the incidents of abuse are alleged to have been perpetrated in athletic facilities, there is no point in the kind of stories and opinion pieces circulating in the sports media. The only outcome of this speculation will be the recounting of the horrific details of the grand jury report, causing further emotional distress to the alleged victims and biasing potential jurors.

All someone with as little knowledge as us sports writers (wow, did I seriously just include myself in that category?) can do is concentrate on the college football aspect of this story, which is the firing of Joe Paterno and Penn State’s upcoming game against Nebraska. Joe Paterno’s record as a college coach is completely separate from this scandal, so the career retrospectives need to be distinct from the stories on the grand jury’s findings and Sandusky’s arrest. All the facts have yet to emerge. The character studies trying to reconcile the integrity with which the man ran his program with the lack of integrity with which the entire Sandusky saga has been handled are pointless because they operate from baseless assumptions.

In many ways, I can totally understand why the University decided to fire JoePa Wednesday rather than wait until the end of this season; thanks mostly to the media, Paterno’s face is inextricably tied to the entire Sandusky scandal, probably more so even than that Sandusky’s. College athletics scandals, and probably scandals in general, tend to bring down the most visible person involved. Paterno alleges that he was not told anything nearly as detailed or graphic as what is contained in the grand jury report, yet at this point it’s irrefutable that he knew something inappropriate happened with Sandusky and a young boy in Penn State facilities. His course of action was to notify the athletic director and vice-president of the University, meeting his legal, but not moral, obligations. These two superiors in turn took no legal action and did not notify authorities. Not to excuse Paterno, but they are the ones most truly deserving of our ire, along with, perhaps, current assistant coach Mike McQueary, who witnessed the alleged abuse and only told Paterno (There were multiple times when Sandusky was essentially caught by someone but authorities were not involved or no charges were filed.). The administrators are the only ones under investigation for a potential cover-up and indicted by the grand jury because administrators are where the buck stops in college athletics.  It’s also important that the University move on symbolically from Sandusky by removing Paterno to show, to paraphrase Board of Trustees Vice Chair John Surma’s words, that that University is bigger than football.

Firing Paterno on Wednesday rather than letting him finish the season and retire (as he had stated he would do in a press release hours before his ouster) was probably the right thing to do for Penn State. But firing JoePa does little to mitigate the tragedy of what Sandusky’s alleged victims experienced. It seems unfitting to make the purely symbolic move of firing him only three weeks before his planned retirement date (four weeks if the Nittany Lions make it to the inaugural Big Ten Championship game). They could even have asked him to resign at the end of the regular season, before the B1G Championship or the bowl game. It was heartbreaking to see a solemn Paterno and visibly upset wife Sue standing outside their State College home to greet the 100 or so supporters gathered there after his firing was announced. These people live for Penn State, and live for Paterno as the symbol of “success with honor” that has become the football program’s motto. From his six decades in college football, one can’t help but get the feeling that Joe Paterno is at heart a good man. His actions are questionable, but he likely only made a mistake that was the product of the incredible high-stakes and media scrutiny of big time college athletics. Coaches are trained to go to administrators before the authorities, and I doubt many major college coaches would have acted differently under the circumstances as Paterno describes them. Paterno made in handling the information he was given about sexual abuse of minors in Penn State facilities, but it seems pointlessly cruel to deny the Penn State community a rallying point in Paterno for a mere three more weeks before allowing arguable the best coach of all time to exit with dignity. The scandal is not disappearing just because Paterno won’t be on the sidelines or in the press box. On Wednesday evening as Paterno turned to go back inside his house after telling the students to go home, get a good night’s sleep and study, one of the student supporters shouted the Nittany Lions’ rallying cry, “We are Penn State!”

Paterno responded, “That’s right. We are Penn State. Don’t ever forget it.”

“The women began the season playing a lot of competitive tournaments, so initially we weren’t winning a lot but we knew we were good,” said Head Coach Jackie Hutchinson.

Despite the early season losses, the team felt confident coming into the conference season. The women qualified for the conference tournament despite losing to Lake Forest in one of their final MWC games.

“We had gone up to Lake Forest and lost. It was a tough loss. They were a good team but we still felt like we should have beaten them. We had a great fan base there, parents of players from two years ago showed up. It was awesome,” Hutchinson said. “After we lost, we didn’t know if we qualified [for the tournament].”

The Pioneers earned a berth thanks to St. Norbert beating Carroll University, who Grinnell had beaten earlier in the year and against whom Grinnell was contending for the fourth seed in the tournament.

“Going to the tournament was one of our goals this season so it was really nice to accomplish that, and I think that as a team we grew throughout the season.  We’re a lot closer but also played a lot better as a volleyball team,” Gilly Dryjanski ’12 said.

In their first Conference tournament game against St. Norbert, the team lost the first set 25-12, but came back to win the second 24-26. St. Norbert won the last two sets 25-19 and 25-14 to win the game. Despite their loss, the women still look back on the tournament as a success.

“I feel really good about what we did at St. Norbert,” Hutchinson said. “There were very few teams that were able to take a set off of them. They have a good talented group of women.”

In preparation for the game, the team used their knowledge of St. Norbert’s strategy from the last time they played them during the regular season.

“We had put in some new ideas in our offense to try to change things up before going up there. The women embraced those ideas.  Olivia Wilkes [’12] was willing to make all of these changes to the offense. I don’t think that people were disappointed because we got beat, we lost to a good team,” Hutchinson said.

The improvement showed in their performance. Instead of ending the game with three sets, the women persisted for four.

“We felt pretty confident going in. We just prepared as much as we could. We went in with the attitude of ‘let’s have fun,’ and it was our last trip together,” Shelby Carroll ’13 said.

Driving up to St. Norbert gave the team time to reflect on the season and gave the seniors more time to reflect on their years on the team at Grinnell.

“I was really excited, it was great to be there and have the opportunity to show them how much we have improved. It was disappointing that we lost but it was also just a really fun trip and it was really exciting to be there again,” Dryjanski said.

For much of this season, the team had a more internal focus. Hutchinson and the women concentrated less on outcomes of their matches and more on teamwork.

“This year we just tended to our own business. There’s no point in wishing ill on any other team. Our task was that we were going to get done what we needed to get done,” Hutchinson said.

Overall, the volleyball season was the most successful in years and the tournament qualification set momentum for next year. Regardless of their large graduating class, Coach Hutchinson is optimistic for the future.

“I’m looking forward to good things, I think that no longer will the program resign itself to being eighth in the conference. There is no way we will ever settle for that again,” Hutchinson said. “We have a lot of depth on our team. The team is excited that we have so much great talent, we have great ingredients for next year.”

Grinnell swimmers practice on Wednesday, Nov. 9. Photograph by Andrew Kelley.

“[The meet] was pretty incredible,” said Co-Captain Max Fulgoni ’12. “A lot of people were swimming as fast as they were at the end of last season. It was a very good start.”

As the 2011-2012 season starts, the Pioneers have their eyes set high and plan to continue on a tradition of Midwest Conference domination. The men have been conference champions for 15 years and the women have for the past 13 years, though their streak was almost broken last year.

“It was a phenomenal meet,” Boeber said. “We went into it knowing that there was a good possibility of not winning. We knew that we would have to swim with everything we had to win, which we did. The team as a whole stepped up in incredible ways.”

At just under 100 swimmers, this year’s squad is the largest in Grinnell history.

“We have a really big class on the men’s side,” Head Coach Erin Hurley said. “There isn’t as many on the women’s, but there’s a lot of really good leadership.”

Despite losing a group of talented fourth years and a first-year standout, Hurley believes that the Pioneer women can continue swimming competitively.

“We lost a lot to graduation,” Hurley said. “This is a chance to let the underclassmen step up, [but] we also have a lot of really good leadership. We’re strong in women’s diving with returning All-American Kelly Bruce [’12] and we have a good sense of community.”

Bruce placed 14th at last years NCAA Division III National Championships, becoming the first All-American female diver from Grinnell in six years.

According to Coach Hurley, the men are also strong.

“The men are particularly fast in the sprint freestyle,” Hurley said. “Especially Max Fulgoni, Gus Fulgoni [’15] and returning All-American Michael Brus [’14], … he can really swim anything.”

Brus earned fourth place last year at the NCAA Division III National Championships in the 200 backstroke. He was Grinnell’s first All-American male swimmer since 1991.

With this talent and a reputation for strong performance, the Pioneer men have their eyes set high.

“We’d like to win conference again and send as many people as possible to Nationals,” Fulgoni said.

“[As well as] get higher than 24th at Nationals,” co-captain Sam Sherwood ’12 added.

The Pioneers have a few standout first years this year.

“Danielle [Phillips ’15] and Beth [Gillig ’15] are both versatile,” Hurley said. “Beth’s a great sprinter, and she’s got some really different nuances with her stroke, so if we can get that figured out I think she’s going to go even faster.”

At last week’s meet against Robert Morris and University of Nebraska Swim Club, Gillig won the 100 Fly and 200 Freestyle.

“Danielle can swim breast stroke, IM and freestyle,” Hurley said. “She’s been training really well and showing that she can do a lot more than we thought.”

Phillips won the 100 Breast Stroke, 200 IM and was part of the winning 200 Medley Relay at last week’s meet.

Phillips says she was happy with her performance.

“It was a nice start to what I hope is a great season” Phillips said.

According to Phillips, the transition from swimming in high school to swimming at Grinnell has been smooth.

“The team dynamics here are great,” she said. “Everyone supports each other and has a lot of fun.”

Grinnell’s next home meet is Sunday, Nov. 19 at 1:00 p.m. against Loras College.

Matt Skelley '12 dunks during practice. Photograph by Andrew Kelley.

“I tell people this all the time: my life is a holiday,” said Head Coach Arseneault. “I’ve had the chance to coach my son, I’ve had the chance to have him be my assistant and now I have the chance to see him make decisions. The time that we’ve spent together has been the best part of my coaching career.”

Assistant Coach Arseneault has been running the practices since the start of the year, to ensure that there is a clear chain of command before his father begins his sabbatical. But both coaches have been working hard to ensure the team’s success, given its experience and talent.

“We like to say that my dad’s got 49 percent, and I’ve got 51 percent of this year’s team,” said Assistant Coach Arseneault. “We’re returning 13 of our top 14 scorers, so as long as we’ve got the team chemistry down, we should have a great season.”

After playing as a point guard for Grinnell and graduating in 2009, Assistant Coach Arseneault spent a year in Germany’s semi-professional league. Although that experience was enjoyable, his return to Grinnell was especially exciting, because many of the players were his former teammates.

“I’m really proud of him,” said Team Captain Matt Skelly ’12, who lived on Assistant Coach Arseneault’s floor during his first year. “It’s great to see your friends do well, and he’s doing an absolutely outstanding job.”

The quality work has already become evident. Grinnell was voted first in an online poll for the Midwest Conference and hopes are high for post-season success.

“This has been the deepest team I’ve been on,” Skelly said. “We’ve got a lot of talented first years, and a lot of people coming back who were big contributors last year. If we stick to it, we should be strong contenders for the (Midwest Conference) Championship.”

One player in particular has been a standout to both coaches. Griffin Lentsch ’13 had a strong second year, consistently scoring over 20 points a game. This year, Head Coach Arsenault hopes to see him go All-American.

“Griffin’s got a good shot to lead the country in scoring if he stays healthy,” said Assistant Coach Arsenault. “We’ll give him some more playing time this year, which translates into more shooting opportunities and therefore more points.”

“I did a lot of one-on-one training over the summer, and I got in the weight room a lot,” Lentsch said. “It’s the hardest I’ve ever worked in the offseason.”

Even with players like Lentsch leading the team’s effort, the job of coaching is still not always easy for the younger Arsenault.

“It’s more frustrating to be a coach. Instead of being on the court and just doing it, I have to be able to communicate with the guys. It’s a lot more difficult,” said Assistant Coach Arsenault. “The hardest decision is the roster, though. We started the season with 24 guys, and we had to cut it down to twenty. Plus, during games, we only play 15 to 16 guys. It’s hard to tell some of these guys that they won’t be in the rotation, and then telling them how to improve to get to that level.”

However, his father has expressed absolute confidence in his ability to handle the harder aspects of the job.

“It’s going to be interesting when we get to the final two minutes of a game,” said Head Coach Arsenault. “That’s when I what to see how the wheels are turning—who he wants on the floor and who he wants shooting the ball. In some ways, he knows Grinnell’s System more than I do, so it will be great to see how he handles it.”

As his father works on his book on the System, the younger Arsenault will be putting it into action on the court, in an entirely new capacity. He will be one of the first people who both played with the fast-paced offense and then implemented it as a coach. It also helps that he was present for its creation and development.

“When he was finally able to play, he was able to do it with an IQ level that we’ve never had before. I’m very jealous of the fact that he can see things differently as a player, so I’m interested about how he will make different decisions,” said Head Coach Arsenault.

Eventually, Head Coach Arsenault hopes to finish his book and make a return to work at Grinnell. However, he envisions a slightly different future for his own career.

“My ultimate goal is to eventually be his assistant coach.”

“We knew it was going to be a really tight race because we’ve competed against [Monmouth and St. Norbert] various times throughout the season, so it was going to come down to whoever was on that day and whoever was healthy that day,” Freeman said.

The win comes off of a recent boost in training intensity.  The women have been working harder than ever, including the first years who have been improving tremendously.

“It’s been a great season, the whole team has really bought into the program. The freshmen are really training hard and have made big jumps the last few weeks, not only in their racing but also in their training,” Freeman said.  “It’s amazing the difference that has happened in the last month, you can just see them getting fit and so there are one or two freshmen in our top group but even if they are not [in the top group] they’re improving a lot and usually you’ll see a big jump their sophomore year.”

Demonstrating that big second-year jump were Sarah Burnell ’14, Meg Rudy ’14 and Cassidy White ’14, who placed fourth, 14th and 20th, respectively. Top spots were also earned by captain Hannah Colter ’12 in fifth place and by Stephanie Rouse ’12 in seventh place. The race was very tight, and at the end it was difficult to tell who had won.

“We were really close with St. Norbert and Monmouth, you couldn’t tell. So once they announced [that we had won] all the girls started cheering and screaming and some girls were tearing up,” said Diana Seer ’15, who took 21st at Conference.

The season has been successful for the women both on and off the course. The team has bonded a lot, contributing to the recent push in training and to the success last weekend. “This year I’ve been really happy with the team dynamic, we’ve been really close and have really used that to work together and be really positive about what we can do together as a team,” Colter said. “It’s not ever just one person who does it for the team.”

Looking forward to regionals, Coach Freeman and the women are very optimistic.

“It’s always tough to qualify as a team [for nationals] but we are ranked ninth in our region and we have beaten some of the teams that are ranked ahead of us. Right now we’re pretty healthy and [before this] we haven’t really had a meet where we’ve been 100 percent healthy,” Freeman said. “So we have an outside shot, depending on if we’re on and what other teams do.”

The Men’s Team is also looking ahead to Regionals and Nationals after a second place finish at the MWC Championships. The Purple Roos has won the previous 15 Conference Championships. Despite the setback, the Roos are not hanging up their sneakers.

“We’re really rallying around this one central goal, which is to win Regionals and make it back to Nationals, to get a top 20 finish and improve upon our place from last year,” Ben Tyler ’14 said.

Tyler led the team at conference with a second place finish, followed closely by Erik Figge ’13 in third. Both runners, along with Sam Krauth ’14 in 11th place and Frank Canady ’14 in 15th, earned All-Conference honors. Harry Maher ’15 also scored points for the team in 22nd place. The men all ran a good race, despite injuries plaguing Canady and Nate Kakazu ’13, who took 27th. The training this year has been intense and members of the team have come together to push each other to be better.

“Throughout the season it seems like people are racing for each other more and more and the team dynamic has just increased. It’s a natural progression,” Tyler said.

Like the women, the men find themselves running to support their team and encourage others to push themselves just as hard.

“Sometimes I feel like I would train very little if I didn’t know that I owed it to other people on the team to train and I think that’s also going to help for next year because running fundamentally is a really competitive sport and nobody really likes to lose. The way you win is you train as a team,” Krauth said.

The runners attribute the second place finish more to the increase in speed of the other teams.

“We are still running faster than [Grinnell] teams have in the past but the other teams are getting better, which is good because it’ll make everybody faster in the long run,” Tyler said.

The men’s race was even closer than the preceding women’s competition. Grinnell finished two points behind Lawrence, with a final score of 53-51.

“We got beat by a really good team,” Krauth said. “I wish I could have nipped a few guys off at the end but overall I think that I had a good race.”

“It could have been just another day, and a place could have been switched around,” Kakazu said.

The focus for the men now goes to training for Regionals and making the rest of their season count.

“Our mindset is that the end of the season counts the most. Our end goal isn’t conference,” Tyler said. “We’re all really focused on our main goal with nationals.”

Luckily, the runners maintain confidence in order to continue training for their next challenge at regionals.

“We do have the guys and the speed to [achieve the goal], which is more than enough reason to train through,” Krauth said.

Photograph by Andrew Kelley.

The victory over St. Nobert in the conference finals game earned Grinnell an automatic berth to the NCAA Division III National Tournament next spring.

“Heading into the championships I thought Grinnell had the best team in the league,” said Head Coach Andy Hamilton. “Because we ended up showing that we are the best, I am very pleased with the fact that we played to our ability level.”

Heading into the conference weekend, the Pioneers knew that the season was not completely over until the end of the conference play, despite a perfect regular season record.

“The team’s mentality heading into the weekend was to stay humble but also know that we were the best team in the conference,” Constanza Alarcón-Cordón ’13 said. “We needed to maintain our level and be aggressive and be confident going into our first match.”

In the semi-finals game against Lawrence, the women began with a 3-0 sweep in doubles from the teams of Laura Krull ’14/Sadhana Athreya ’14, Constanza  Alarcón-Cordón/ Emma McDonald ’14 and Shirlene Luk ’15/Toby Cain ’12. Number five and number six singles players Clothilde Thirouin ’14 and Hanna Feldman ’14 were the first two players to win their singles matches, resulting in a 5-0 shutout.

“We saw our [number one doubles team] crushing Lawrence’s number one doubles team, which is arguably the best doubles team having won the conference last year,” Cain said. “Seeing that really gave us confidence for the rest of the game.”

In the title match against St. Norbert, the Pioneers had a shaky start as the first doubles team of Krull/Athreya lost. They bounced back, winning the rest of the matches to ensure a 5-1 victory over the Green Knights.

“[The team atmosphere] was very exciting,” Alarcon said. “Most of us had participated in last year’s victory as well and this year’s win was a testament to us as a team growing together and to a point where winning our second championship bonded us even more.”

The squad attributes its strong depth and support of each other to another successful year.

“I think it’s our camaraderie,” Krull said. “We all care for each other on and off the court. During practices we can challenge each other to play better and at matches we offer our vocal support.”

“I believe that the collection of players on this Grinnell team is better than any other women’s squad in the past. We also have tremendous depth with nine lineup players, so when we had illness and injury we just made a substitution with another talented player,” Hamilton said.

While the players dominated the weekend in Rockford, Ill., they know that there is always room for improvement heading into the spring season and eventually the NCAA tournament in May. Captains’ practices have already begun.

“There are always improvements to be made,” Athreya said. “Last year we didn’t do as well as we wanted to at the NCAA’s, so this year our goal will be to try to do better in the spring season against better teams and perform better at the tournament.”

The location and the opponents at the tournament will not be announced until the second weekend of May.

Along with captains’ practices, the team will face six to eight opponents in the spring season to prepare for the NCAA tournament.

“I believe Grinnell’s women’s tennis program is on the rise regionally and nationally,” Hamilton said. “I know our women are happy to show our strength in their play this fall.”

The Tigers are the latest participants in the torrent of changes in conference affiliation that began when Big Ten Conference Commissioner Jim Delany announced the Big Ten was studying expansion in December 2009. I wrote a column not long after which explored the topic of conference realignment hopefully, imagining that it might just be a couple teams, probably my Tigers and, I supposed, the lowly Nebraska Cornhuskers, making quick, painless breaks away from the Big Twelve to the greener pa$ture$ of the equal revenue sharing in the Big Ten. I was mostly wrong. Missouri was widely seen as making quite open overtures toward the Big Ten, yet that league chose only to add Nebraska, surprising some pundits who saw super-conference Armageddon on the horizon and predicted an expansion to 14 or 16 including both Big Twelve and Big East programs. The Tigers were mocked for the perceived turn-down, but after Colorado (along with Utah of the Mountain West) left for the Pac-12 and NU for the Big Ten, I thought the cycle of tearing apart the centuries-old traditions of college football to forge new leagues bound only by the all-mighty dollar was over. I was dead wrong again.

Conference realignment has grown into a devouring monster, involving the athletic departments of nearly every program in the BCS conference, and plenty from non-AQ conferences as well. Texas A&M, as unhappy as everyone else in the Big Twelve with Texan dominance and ESPN’s support of unfair recruiting practices through the Longhorn Network, bolted for the SEC only a couple months ago. Next, the ACC stole away Syracuse and Pittsburgh from the Big East when the latter league seemed to be in a strong position to renegotiate its contract for money that would finally put it on a level-paying field with the other, clearly stronger conferences in the BCS. Losing those two members, tent-pole programs in both football and basketball, effectively killed the Big East. That set other conferences about raiding the dying league, while the Big East tried feverishly to find attractive candidates for expansion after being rebuked by TCU, which chose instead to become the 10th member of the Big Twelve in absence of the Aggies. So now the SEC, with an awkward 13 members, is apparently set on adding a 14th school to even out scheduling concerns and maintain two divisions and a lucrative conference championship game. The contenders seemed to be my Tigers and West Virginia’s couch burning Mountaineers—an obvious enough choice for any conference.

My feelings on conference realignment have vacillated wildly with Mizzou’s potential fate, shifting from thinking it might be cool to liking it to hating it to apathy, and now, to ambivalence. The SEC brings more money and prestige to the athletics department, but I don’t love the idea of Mizzou leaving the Big Twelve.  The nostalgic pull of the oldest rivalry west of the Mississippi, the Border “Showdown” (true fans still say “Border War”) between the Tigers and the Kansas Jayhawks, is still potent. For a few years at least it will be impossible for MU and KU to schedule each other, even if the Jayhawks, worthless to most conferences because of their football futility and basketball-crazed fan-base, hold no sour grapes.  It saddens me further to lose the opportunity to stomp on the Kansas program while it is so clearly down in the next few years, as well. But I guess I’ll probably have to wryly smile at the news of Turner Gill’s firing from another league, as the move to the SEC appears all but final. Secondary rivalries like Kansas State, Oklahoma State, and Oklahoma would also be gone.

It’s certainly not that I don’t think the Tigers will be able to compete in their new league. Playing in the SEC East division in particular, with annual collisions with the likes of Vanderbilt, Kentucky, rebuilding powers in Tennessee and Florida, and inconsistent programs like Georgia and South Carolina. That’s not a division the Tigers can’t win every few years and compete for every year. The main bummer is just the uncertainty; we knew where we stood in the Big Twelve in every sport, and it was pretty good. Missouri’s been in the top tier of the league in pretty much every sport but women’s basketball for the last decade, and now I wonder how all that will change. Baseball and softball will be tougher; basketball will be easier. The SEC doesn’t even compete in wrestling, so that’s a wash. It’s just going to be weird to try to find different reasons to hate all my new southern rivals. Sure, they’re mostly going to be dumb, conservative rednecks whose lives are devoted to football and Jesus in that order, but what makes each one uniquely hateable? Which school is most historically more racist, Alabama or Mississippi? Whose undergrads perform worse on standardized tests, Mississippi State or Auburn? Whose Young Republicans group dominates campus more, South Carolina or LSU? These are questions I’m still waiting to figure out. One thing I do know is that I was called a “Yankee” for being from Missouri on an Alabama Crimson Tide message board. Yikes.

On Sunday, Oct. 23 the Grinnell Men’s Water Polo team placed second in the Heartland Division finals, qualifying them for the Division III Club Championships at Hamilton College in, NY on Nov. 5-6.

The Wild Turkeys do not follow the traditional norms of a college sport’s team. As a club team, they do not play in the Midwest Conference, but in the Heartland Division, which consists of familiar teams such as Monmouth and Knox College and also teams such as St. Mary’s University and Augustana College.

The road to Nationals resulted in a 7-4 regular season record, which earned them the third place seed at the Division Championship tournament.

“We had to get second, at least, [at finals] to go to Nationals,” Team Co-Captain Beck Ringdahl-Mayland ’13 said.

“[This year the team’s goals were to] win the Heartland Conference and go to Nationals, [and to] place high at Nationals.” Team Co-Captain Sam Sherwood ’12 said.

One stumbling block for the Wild Turkeys this season was Monmouth College.

“We played them three times. We lost each time,” Sherwood said. “They beat us real bad in the first quarter then [they] would go defensive for the last 3 quarters, and we couldn’t stop them.”

Placing first in the finals and regular season of the Heartland Conference, Monmouth also qualified for the trip to Clinton.

“We’re seeded seventh which is nice because we’ll be on a separate side of the bracket than Monmouth. Ideally we’d like to end up in the finals against them and play them again,” Ringdah-Mayland said. “Even more ideally, they [Monmouth] get knocked out by Tufts [University] in their semi-final match.”

“We play NYU in the first game, then the winner in the North Atlantic [Region],” Sherwood said. “We want to go to the National Championship and play Monmouth again.”

Just qualifying for the national tournament is a big feat for Grinnell. Many of The Wild Turkey’s players had little to no experience playing water polo previous to arriving at college.

“My first two years here our starters were all people who had played multiple years in high school and earlier.” Sherwood said. “We had six starters that had played in high school my first year, six starters the next year, and this year we have two– and we’re still really successful.”

“I had never played water polo before [college]. There are people on the Monmouth team that played all together through high school, now the same college,” Ringdahl-Mayland said. “They’ve been effectively playing together for eight years, if not more, and we can still hang with them, which I think is a pretty sweet thing.”

“I think that it’s awesome to see players that have grown, and a testament to the captains before, teaching these kids how to play,” Sherwood said. “It’s really fun to watch.”

The Wild Turkeys have found incoming members Donald Dean ’15, Austin Cote ’15 very useful. Both had previous experience playing the sport.

“I think this is the first year in a while that we had first years who had played previously,” Ringdahl-Mayland said.

The Wild Turkeys are a predominantly male team; however, women are also allowed to play in this portion of the season.  Women contributors include Sara Hanneman ’14, Kristina De La Torre ’14 and Riley Mangan ’15.

However, due to insufficient funds, only a portion of the team will be allowed to travel to the national competition.

The team plans to build on past successes reached at the national level.

“Last time we were at nationals, we lost in our first match,” Ringdahl-Mayland said. “We played really well. [We] held them to like one or two goals the entire time. It was against Tufts who eventually won the national championship that year, but, because we lost our first game, we couldn’t place any higher than 5^th, which is what we ended up placing. This year we’d like to place higher than that, and if we win our first game, that will set us on pace to place pretty high.”

“[This season has] been really exciting,” Head Coach Heather Benning ’96 said. “We’ve come off two seasons when we didn’t make the conference tournament. And in our 25 year history there’s only been three years when we haven’t made it. A big a goal for us this year was to get back to the conference tournament.”

A win 5-0 on Saturday, Oct. 22 over the Beloit College Buccaneers secured the Pioneer’s spot in MWC Tournament. The women gained a 3-0 lead in the just the first 11 minutes and stayed sharp, ensuring a victory. Goals were scored by Rachel Koester ’13 on assists by Jordan Young ’14 and Eden Marek ‘15, Becca Carter on a 40-yard free kick and Elle Silverman ’15, all of whom scored for the first time this season.

Carroll proved a tougher opponent.

“We knew coming into it that Carroll was coming back with a vengeance because we beat them last year. We played well,” said Team Co-Captain Cynthia Dominguez ’12. “We didn’t get as many shots off as I thought we should have. I think if nothing else it was a learning experience and were pumped to see them again so we can beat them this next time.”

Carroll got off to a quick lead with a goal in the sixth minute and added one more in the 44th, which was all the offense the game saw.

“I think that their coach made some tactical adjustments to counter us because all three of our scouting reports were very consistent but different from what they showed us yesterday so we got caught off guard early on and Carroll was able to earn a couple quick corner kicks and they put one of those away,” Benning said.

Regardless, there was still much to be gained.

“I think it was a good opportunity for some of our younger players to step up and fill some roles that due to injuries had opened up. It was a good chance for them to fill in and see what is necessary to play at the highest level,” Kathryn Vincent ’13 said.

The score doesn’t tell the full story.

“They were dying in the last 20 minutes,” Benning said. “[They] were looking to just bring the ball to the corner and possess it. That’s a sign of a team that’s concerned we’re going to make a comeback.”

One reason for Carroll’s exhaustion may be Grinnell’s depth. With an unusually large squad of 31, with around 20 playing per game, the Pioneers have come to realize there is power in numbers.

“I think that our seniors have been really great leaders in saying ‘this is how many people we have on the team, we’re going to make the most of having a very large squad.’ And it’s meant that some of them get less play than they’ve been used to the past two years but they’ve taken that in better stride than anyone so I think that’s really helped,” Benning said.

Having more players has made the team more competitive, though not in a hostile way.

“It’s definitely been the most competitive team I’ve been with since I’ve been here,” Dominquez said. “Our subs go in and they’re just as strong as the people who start”

“We’re all working toward a common goal,” Benning said. “They’re competitive to push each other to train hard but they’re not competitive to push the next person out. And I really think that again, a lot of that comes from our captains and our seniors. They’ve lead that dynamic with the team.”

That depth has been critical as the Pioneers have suffered injuries at critical positions. Dominguez, a forward, tore her MCL seven games into the season against Lawrence University. She hopes to be back on the field this weekend for the Sunday’s game against Knox, which is also Senior Day. Also injured is forward Patty Murphy-Geiss ‘14, the team’s leading goal scorer. Luckily, their depth has proven capable of picking up the slack.

“Twenty-one of our players have goals or assists, so there are a lot of other people who can step up,” Benning said. “That’s a phenomenal statistic.”

Besides being larger, the team is also tighter on the field.

“The whole time I’ve been here, we’ve had a lot of team cohesion, the team’s gotten along really well, but this year it’s translated to the field more. ”

Looking to this weekend, the Pioneers play the Ripon College Red Hawks on Saturday, Oct. 29 at 11:00 a.m. on Springer Field. Although they are already in the MWC, the match is still important to their seed.

“We have Ripon this Saturday and that’s a must win if we want to finish in the top two,” Benning said.

On Sunday, for Senior Day, they will play again at home on Springer Field, this time against Knox College at 11:00 am.

“The mentality is just to finish off the season with two more wins. That’s what we’re expecting to do,” Dominquez said.

“Having that record means I’ve been here for a long time,” Seer said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to get to play for four years and not miss a game yet. I’ve always had good quarterbacks, whether it be Mike Bogard ’12 or Mike McCabe ‘13. What’s more rewarding is knowing that our team’s gotten better each year. Even though the record might not necessarily say that, I know for a fact that our team’s been better the next year, and that’s not just because of me.”

His first touchdown against Lawrence came on a fake field goal play. Seer ran a wrong route, but holder Kelsey Davis ’12 made a great throw to score the game’s first touchdown. Seer’s second touchdown came in a wildcat formation, in which Trent Baker ’15 threw a seven-yard touchdown to Seer.

“Rob has a combination of size and speed that you don’t see often at the Division III level, and when the ball is in the air he’s going to go get it,” said Head Coach Jeff Pederson. “The team knows they can count on Rob to make a big play in a clutch situation.”

Hailing from Wisconsin, Seer grew up watching Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers. He began playing football in sixth grade. He seriously considered playing football in college during his junior year in high school. At Grinnell, he has received playing time since his first-year.

Seer is also a member of the G-Tones singing group and he hopes to enter law school after graduation.

He has already surpassed his previous season’s numbers with 64 catches, 921 yards, and 17 TDs. Seers other career numbers are just as impressive, with 212 catches and 3031 yards. With two games still left in the regular season, Seer is only seven catches shy of tying the school record for most career receptions and 102 yards short of the school record for most career receiving yards.

“Robert is a truly relentless player,” said teammate Chris Jarmon ’12. “He always wants the ball, which is a trait you like to see in a receiver. His route-running is flawless, and he has the physical assets to dominate other players in this conference.”

Seer leads by example off the field as well. He has been a great role model for underclassmen players.

“As a player and as a leader, Robert can be a game-changer,” Jarmon said. “Whether it’s scoring an amazing touchdown or giving us a pregame speech, he really does a lot for this team. Plus, he’s always able to keep a level head no matter the situation. Robert has done an amazing job of nurturing the younglings at wide receiver. In the time he’s been here, he’s turned the receiving corps into the nest egg of this team.”

Seer has two more games to prove to his coach that he can do better against Illinois College and Carroll, though his competitiveness says he’s more concerned about beating both teams and ending his career in Grinnell on a positive note.

“Team goal is to win both games and finish the season 7-3, but there’s still work ahead of us left,” Seer said. “I was very fortunate to play right away, to play in a team that likes to throw, and to play with great teammates. I’m really happy that I chose Grinnell and I wouldn’t trade it for anything else, even if we haven’t won the Midwest Conference while I was here. It feels like a family here and I have no regrets. Hopefully, we’ll do our best to finish the season well.”

While players praise Seer’s all-around character as a whole, Coach Pederson finds one flaw in Seer.

“My favorite memory of Rob will be all of his terrible touchdown celebrations,” Pederson said. “He has gotten much better over the years but he’s still clearly one of the worst dancers on campus.”

Mike McCabe ’13 was as reliable as ever, throwing for 333 yards on 30-of-51 passing, but the other offensive leaders weren’t the usual suspects.  Cody Weber ’13 and Trent Baker ’15 had their biggest games of the season as Weber ran for 127 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries and Baker added seven passes for 140 yards, including one touchdown. Grinnell advanced to 3-2 on the season and 2-2 in the Midwest Conference (MWC) as Beloit dropped to 1-4 on the year and 1-3 in conference.

“It was just great to see different guys stepping up. … [Wide Receivers Robert] Seer [’12] and Logan [Granera ’12] didn’t have as big of an impact as they usually do,” Coach Jeff Pedersen ’02 said.  “It was great to see Cody have a big game rushing the ball.  It was great to see Trent Baker with some catches.  And then, early in the game, Harpreet [Singh ’12] and Jason Peters [’14] both had some big catches.”
Weber ran the ball well, despite the fact that he started the year as a slot receiver. Injuries to the top two running backs, TJ Schaid ’13 and Nick Hinojosa ’13, required Weber, who played running back in high school, to step up over the last three games.

Weber has no qualms playing out of position.

“I’m okay with doing whatever is going to help our team the most, and right now that’s me at running back,” Weber said.

Injuries have played an unfortunate role in the Pioneers season.  Weber had only run for 85 yards this season prior to Saturday’s game and it looked as if Grinnell might be missing their first-string running backs badly.  However, Weber rose to the challenge.

“We weren’t anticipating on running the ball well. Just because of some injuries [to Schaid and Hinojosa].  But then, that’s what was working, so we stuck with it,” Pedersen said.

Baker noticed the toughness of the team in dealing with their many injuries.

“Both sides of the ball, we have some guys banged up and I know a lot of guys played through some injuries to make it happen, and that really shows the character we have on our team and that we’re willing to do anything to get it done,” he said.

One of those playing with an injury was McCabe.  He managed to lead the offense, as usual, despite sustaining a foot injury in the first quarter.

Other players have stepped up in time of need.  Weber’s move to running back opened up the slot receiver spot, which Singh and Baker have filled.  On the defensive side of the ball, an injury to Kevin Hwang ’14 against Monmouth on Sept. 10 necessitated Rich Renteria ’15 fill the void.  Renteria, who has 19 tackles in the last two games, and Baker are both freshmen who weren’t expected to make this big of a contribution this early, but are doing so anyway.

“We knew [Renteria and Baker], as well as several other freshmen, were very good players, but they were supposed to have guys ahead of them.  Because of injuries to certain people, they’ve had to play more than they expected,” Pedersen said.

Riding a two game win streak, the Pioneers look to Saturday’s home showdown with Knox College at 1 p.m.

“[Knox] is the closest thing we have to a rival, Pedersen said. “They beat us last year, which we thought was an upset and we’re not very happy about it.  So we’ve got to not get caught up in revenge…We’ve got to look at what happened last year and make the corrections.”

Baker and Pedersen speculated what to expect from the Grinnell and Knox offenses, respectively.

“Cody [Weber] definitely showed that he could run the ball and carry us on the ground.  I know Knox’s run defense is a little better than years’ past. We’ll definitely need a solid air attack to help out our running back,” Baker said.

“[Knox’s] offense will use some different formations, some unbalanced looks, so we got to be prepared for that,” Pedersen said.

After a couple of solid wins, the team is excited to be given a chance to extend their streak on Saturday.

“I’m just excited to keep playing,” Weber said. “It should be a fun weekend for a home game.”

“We had a great weekend of tennis last weekend. We played Beloit in the morning and we won 9-0,” said Head Coach Andy Hamilton ’85. “The same day we played St. Norbert and we won 8-1. Then the following day we played at Carroll University in Waukesha and we won 7-2.”

Photograph by Mary Zheng.

As of the Oct. 5 Midwest Conference standings, St. Norbert and Carroll were at the top of the North Division Conference standings. Grinnell tops the Southern Division.

“Beating St. Norbert was a great win for the team, the fact that we beat them by an extensive margin of 9-0 demonstrates that we’re ready to face them, if they end up being the top team in the conference, in the coming tournament,” Constanza Alarcon ‘13 wrote in an email to the S&B.

Coach Hamilton thought that the win against Carroll was the team’s biggest success of the weekend.

“I think Carroll is one of the top three teams in the league, along with Grinnell and Lawrence.” Coach Hamilton said. “The North Division is stronger than our Division, so the weekend of tennis was very productive for us because we played good opponents and prevailed.”

The team swept the doubles competition in the match against Carroll, setting the mood for the remainder of the competition.

“I would love to highlight our doubles play against Carroll. You start a match with doubles and it really kind of sets the tone for the match.” Coach Hamilton said. “We swept Carroll in doubles and that was a real deciding factor in the match because we were up 3-0, all we had to do was come up with two of six singles point.”

“I was really impressed with doubles sweeping because that just gave everyone a boost of confidence going into singles,” Hanna Feldman ’14 said.

Winners in doubles for the Pioneers were Sadhana Athreya ’14 and Laura Krull ‘13, Alarcon and Feldman and Shirlene Luk ’15 and Tatyana Sukharnikova ‘12. Hamilton felt that the No. 1 pair had an especially well-played match.

“I think our No. 1 doubles, Laura Krull and Sadhana Athreya, played the best match they’ve played all year,” Coach Hamilton said.

The team was also successful in their singles competitions. Winning singles matches for the Pioneers were Alarcon, Luk, Feldman and Toby Cain ‘12.

“Toby was definitely very inspirational because she got the fourth point easily at [No.] 5 singles.” Feldman said. “It was the clincher for the match, and I came down from losing a set to winning the next two. So, that was definitely a relief to see the top of our lineup play so strongly against tough players.”

“Carroll was a great match for us, and winning by a 7-2 margin gave us all more confidence in ourselves as individuals, as well as the team,” Alarcon wrote. “We had amazing double matches where we came in and really took control of the matches, sweeping them 3-0. The doubles victories truly marked a sense of confidence for all of us going into singles. To be honest I was impressed with our players from 1-6, we all played amazing singles and proved to be getting ready for the individual competition during Conference weekend.”

Alarcon was also named the MWC Women’s Tennis Performer of the Week.

This Saturday, Oct. 8, the Pioneers host Monmouth College at 11 a.m. and Grand View University at 2 p.m. on their home court. The team plans on using all of the players during these match-ups.

“The matches this weekend are a little less competitive than the ones we had last weekend, but I feel like it’s a great opportunity to keep working on [our] doubles chemistry and perfecting our shots in singles.” Alarcon wrote. “I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of our team members participate in the lineups and demonstrate how deep our lineup is.”

“This weekend will provide an opportunity to play every player in the program, and I am very excited about that because typically our lineup has 7 or 8 players but we have 16 players on the team,” Coach Hamilton said. “It will be nice to put everyone in a uniform and give them a chance to play.”

Both Coach Hamilton and Feldman felt that Lawrence might be the biggest challenge for Grinnell. The North division standings may change a bit once St. Norbert and Carroll play Lawrence University.

“[St. Norbert is] first in the North along with Carroll, I don’t believe either of those teams has played Lawrence yet. If you notice, Lawrence is 1-0 in the North but they haven’t played those 2 teams,” said Coach Hamilton.

“We haven’t played Lawrence and we’re thinking we’ll probably play them in the championships.” Feldman said.

Coach Hamilton sees this team going far.

“Not to be too bold, we are the defending Midwest Conference champions.” Hamilton said.  “At the very least our success suggests that we will be in the thick of the race for another title.”

Mallory Messin ’13 led the team, taking second place individually on a two-day tally of 165 (21-over-par). Also on the leader board, Hailey Speck ’15’s debuted with a 168-stroke (24-over-par) performance earning her a third place finish. Grinnell’s team score of 693 placed them 11 strokes behind hometown champions Central.

“That was actually one of the hardest courses I’ve ever played,” Elaine Teo ’12 said. “For such a tough course, I think we did really well, especially coming in second.”

The second place finish ended a stroke of less competitive performances.

Grinnell’s 333 and 330-stroke rounds at the Sept. 10-11 Wartburg Invitational were good enough to break and then re-break school records, but their cumulative score of 663 only yielded a seventh-place finish in the 20-team tournament. In the following weekend’s Illinois Wesleyan Fall Classic, the team placed 14th in a 26-team field, with a score of 677.

While Grinnell regularly ranked in the middle of the standings at these tournaments, the team’s coach, David Arsenault, feels they can compete at a higher level.

“We have been consistently inconsistent. … Everyone has had a good tournament and everyone has had a tough tournament,” Arseneault said. “To date, we have not pieced it all together.”

The team hopes to work on this issue in time for the upcoming Midwest Conference Championship, scheduled for Oct. 17-18 in Springfield, Ill. The ultimate goal is to improve on their third-place finish in last year’s tournament.

Towards this end, the team has stepped up the intensity of their practices.

“This year we have a more set schedule,” Teo said. “I’ve seen it develop from a very social thing [to where] it is very competitive now.”

This means more structured practices, a serious attitude on the part of the players and weekly trips to the Harvester Golf Club in Rhodes, IA to train on greens of a similar speed to those found in tournament-play.

“We’ve been taking our training pretty seriously,” Hailey Speck said. “Thursdays we go 45 minutes away to practice putting and chipping to ensure we’re getting the best quality of short-game practice. … [At the Grinnell Country Club] we make sure that we get to the range and that we also get plenty of time on the course.”

The team hopes that their hard work will pay off in the MWC Championship, where Wisconsin’s Carroll University looks to be the main competition.

“The Midwest Conference tournament is shaping up to be a ‘two-horse race,’” Arsenault wrote. “Carroll University beat us fairly soundly at the Illinois Wesleyan tournament and is the two-time defending conference champion. We will need to be operating ‘on all cylinders’ to beat them.”

According to Arsenault, the difference could be one Pioneer who isn’t necessarily at the top of the leader board, but has made her presence felt throughout the season, both on and off the course.

“Natalie Klee [’13] has been consistently shooting in the high 80s and is always in the middle of everything that goes on with this team,” Arsenault wrote. “She is due for a breakout performance, but regardless of whether or not that occurs, she is the ‘pulse’ of this team.”

In preparation for the upcoming Conference competition, Grinnell will host their own tournament: the Grinnell College Invitational scheduled for 11:00 a.m. this Saturday, Oct. 1, at the Grinnell Country Club. It will be the team’s first home tournament in three years.

According to Speck, playing on their home course may very well give the team the edge they need to win the tournament.

“We’ve all played the course so many times that you can picture every hole in your head,” Speck said. “That’s a definite advantage going into a tournament, as opposed to being completely blind and working off of a blank slate.”

The Grinnell College Invitational will begin at 11 a.m. at the Grinnell Country Club on Saturday, Oct. 1.

Mike McCabe '13 denies a Lake Forest defender's attempt to tackle him during Saturday's game. Photograph by Andrew Kelley.

“We were able to march the ball down the field,” wrote wide receiver Logan Granera ’13 in an email to the S&B.

The Pioneer offense was very much led by the passing game.

Quarterback Mike McCabe ’13, who earned Midwest Conference Performer of the Week honor, anchored the offense, accounting for five passing and two rushing touchdowns, in addition to his 320 yards in the air. Robert Seer ’12 also impressed with 11 receptions totaling 156 yards and three touchdowns. Granera contributed 81 yards and two TDs.

“Mike McCabe had a great day,” said linebacker Ryan Creps ’12. “I would love to have him on my fantasy team.”

The running attack was led by Cody Weber ’13, who gained 30 yards on nine carries. Weber is usually a slot receiver, but is playing in the backfield due to injuries to the top two running backs, T.J. Schaid ’13 and Nick Hinojosa ’13.  The passing game dominated offensive output this past week, but Coach Jeff Pedersen ’02 didn’t see that as a problem.

“When you have to start moving guys around a little bit, we’re probably not going to be as productive on the ground,” Pedersen said. “And that’s okay, as long as we move the ball.”

The Pioneers allowed more points (34) than they would’ve liked, but Pedersen doesn’t think they played poorly.

“No matter what the score looked like, the defense did some key things for us and put us in position a couple of times,” Peterson said.

Among these crucial defensive plays were a couple of turnovers and a deflection by nose guard Tom Brinkman ’13 on a fourth down when the Foresters were driving.

However, the defense still has work to do.

“I don’t like giving up over 20 points, let alone any points,” Creps said. “I feel like there is a lot of room for the defense to improve. … One of the big things we’re working on now is communication.”

Special teams also showed up on Saturday.

“Our special teams had a huge impact on the game. We were able to get some big returns and our coverage teams did an excellent job so we had considerably better field position the whole game,” Granera said.

This weekend, the Pioneers will travel to Beloit College to play the Buccaneers, who are 1-3 on the year and 1-2 in conference. Last year, the Pioneers hung on for a 24-21 victory.

“It was a nail-biter and we expect the same this year,” Pedersen said.

Pedersen is preparing for Beloit’s tough offense, led by wide receiver Derek Carrier ’12, who has five TDs and 553 yards receiving in four games this season.

The defense will look to shut down Carrier and prevent scores while the offense will try and repeat last week’s performance against a Beloit defense that returned only two starters from last year’s team.

“We are going to keep doing what we have been doing,” Granera said. “Their defense is young, and hopefully we will be able to take advantage of their lack of experience and discipline.”

Despite the solid victory on Saturday, the team hopes to improve as it moves on in MWC play.

Pedersen noted that the team still has work to do.

“[We could improve] offensively, getting the running game going, and then keeping an aggressive defense … and gaining an advantage through special teams,” Pedersen said.

Despite the room from improvement, the Pioneers still believe they are an adept group.

“This is probably one of the more talented defensive units I’ve played with,” Creps said.

“Our team has the potential to be unstoppable. … If we can take it one game at a time from here on, there is still a chance we could win the conference,” Granera said.

The next home game is on Oct. 8 at 1 p.m. against Knox College.

The men’s team was divided into two groups, as one travelled to Rock Island, Ill. for the Augustana Invitational while the other travelled to Minneapolis for the Roy Griak Invitational. The Men were unable to match their first place Les Duke finish, but Head Coach Will Freeman attributes the losses to uncontrollable factors.

“Both races were terrific,” said Freeman. “[It was a] great competition and the conditions were near perfect. We just were not at top form due to illness and injuries.”

At the Augustana meet, Harry Maher ’15 led the Friday’s run for the team, finishing 114th in the 403-runner field in a time of 27:05.3. Chris Gallo ’14 and Doug Anderson ’15 finished next for the team as they finished 167th and 169th respectively.

“Augustana was a really flat course, which was nice for a fast time, but running three large circles for five miles [got] pretty boring,” Maher said. “If you look at team place overall it looked like we did worse, but there were some huge improvements in times for individuals, so it was really only a few injuries that weakened our scoring.”

In the Griak meet, Erik Figge ’13 was the top performer for the ’Roos, posting a 51st place finish with a time of 26:52.3. Ben Tyler ’14 came in 57th while Nate Kakazu ’13 came in 86th.

Although the team as a whole may not have finished at the top of the field, many individual performances showed improvement. Maher’s time of 27:05.3 is the best time in Grinnell history at the Augustana meet. He also shaved his time by 1:05 from his previous run at the Duke.

With improvements like Maher’s time being made and injuries beginning to heal, the men are not worried at all about their future races.

“Frank Canady ’14 is fighting an ankle sprain and Evan Griffith ’15 is having some issues with a strained calf [while] Dan Krauss ’12 is coming off a virus,” Freeman said. “There is plenty of time to get folks healthy and over the stuff going around.”

The women finished in the top five for the third time this season. Stephanie Rouse ’13 led the Skull Crushers with an 11th place finish in 22:39.2. Her mark was the fourth fastest 6K time Grinnell Women’s Cross Country History.

“We had talked about amping up our intensity for races and they came through,” said Women’s Head Coach Evelyn Freeman. “Just about everyone had their best times of the season thus far and many had lifetime bests.”

Sarah Burnell ’14 had a time of 23:10.2, giving her a 24th place finish. Burnell’s time is the ninth best finish in team’s 6K history. Hannah Colter ’12 came in 29th, while Diana Seer ’15 and Meg Rudy ’14 finished 45th and 52nd, respectively.

Like the Men’s team, individual performances by runners from top to bottom were significantly improved.

“The first year runners are coming along nicely and adapting to the training as well as Grinnell College,” Freeman said. “Diana Seer had a big drop in time finishing as our number four runner. Metzere Bierlein ’13 has also improved significantly each race this year and is one of our top runners.”

Although the injuries and illnesses did not hurt the women as much as they did the men, there is no doubt that staying healthy will be crucial for the Pioneers.

“Physically we were maybe struggling a little bit because a lot of our women were sick or still recovering from being sick,” Colter said. “But we were mentally really strong heading into Augustana because we’d had a team talk about goals earlier that week and decided we really wanted to go for it.”

The Pioneers will be tested in their next meet at the Wartburg Invitational on Oct. 8 in Waverly, IA.

What’s that, Paul Scheer of The League and guest from the finale of my last column? (Next time I will call him a “friend of the column,” kind of like Steve Martin is to SNL.) Shall I, to again borrow the immortal words of SMB, take the money and run? All I do is references anyway—it’s how the manatees write my column. Maybe you’re right, P-Scheerz. Maybe you’re right. … I’ll do the tired old bullet-point sports column, but I’ll make it fresh and original with some awesome-ass references. Leitmotif on!

CBS’s rebooted “Two and a Half Men” is the MLB Playoffs

This one works on a few levels. First, both maintain their respective massive popularity without me ever watching a minute of them. Second, neither features Charlie Sheen. Third, I have no idea why they work they way they do. I’ve very publicly staged the battle against my own baseball apathy before in this column, so I won’t reopen old wounds now (though I have to point out my Royals). I vowed to make a concerted effort to follow the MLB’s interminable regular season with at least a fraction of the interest I devote to sports that are actually interesting. It didn’t really work out. I tried a few times over the summer, but baseball announcing combined with the heat and humidity of [iasummer] is a recipe for a nap. Many things are recipes for a nap to me—recipes, for one. Now the playoffs, the most exciting time in any professional sport, are set to start Friday and even if they added Ashton Kutcher and his corporate shill laptop, I still wouldn’t care.

Part of the reason for that is baseball’s wonky playoff system, which allows only six teams to compete to play in the World Series. The introduction of the wild card playoff spot in 1995 was a good move for the typically stodgy MLB, which seems to cling to its past with more unwarranted nostalgia than any other league. But the playoffs still leave out teams that are not just good, but pretty great. The Boston Red Sox won the exact same number of games as the St. Louis Cardinals, with both teams boasting matching 90-72 records. Admittedly, the Cardinals did it in “thrilling” (for baseball) fashion and got in by the skin of their teeth, coming from behind the Atlanta Braves to seize their spot in the postseason by a single game. The Cardinals posted a very respectable run differential of +70 for the season, but the BoSox managed to nearly double that with +138. Yet Boston will not play in the postseason this year because the Tampa Bay Rays beat them out by a single game for the AL wild card. The Cardinals, playing in the less top-heavy NL, are apparently more deserving than the Sox, despite the latter ranking first in the league in runs scored, second in batting average, first in on-base percentage and first in slugging percentage. Sure, their pitching was pretty bad this year (22nd in the league in ERA, though 9th in batting average against), and if they had won a single additional game, they’d be in the playoffs. In that case, I would just be talking about the Rays getting screwed out of a playoff spot instead of the Sox.

Six teams out of 30 is not enough, and it’s a shame that the MLB playoffs don’t showcase all the teams that have a legitimate chance at the World Series. Wild card selection, as I’ve outlined above, is fairly arbitrary. Yet nine wild card teams have made the World Series and four have won it. Doesn’t that indicate that a few more teams deserve a shot? I propose allowing two wild cards from each league to make the playoffs along with division winners for a total of 10 teams. The wild card teams would play a preliminary round against each other, then the playoffs would proceed as usual but with more legitimacy since all the teams capable of winning it all got to compete. All right, enough about baseball. I’ve saved my favorite references for my favorite athletic endeavor!

Lana Del Rey’s gangster Nancy Sinatra indie heat-seeker “Video Games” is LSU’s defense

The Tigers of Baton Rouge are my number one team in the nation after dismantling a talented but inconsistent West Virginia Mountaineers team in Morgantown, 47-21. The Tigers have already played one of the toughest schedules in the nation, with a neutral site victory over Oregon and road wins against Mississippi State and WVU. Les Miles’s always-stout defense has thrived against top-tier competition, ranking 14th in the nation in points allowed and picking off six interceptions in their four victories, including drubbings of Heisman hopeful QBs Darron Thomas of Oregon and Geno Smith of WVU. Stud CB Tyrann Mathieu also scored a defensive touchdown against Oregon to seal the win at Cowboys Stadium. LSU’s defensive is dominant like my MU Tigers team in NCAA Football 2011 for the PS3. I don’t think scores like 49-0 against lesser SEC foes is unreasonable if the Tigers keep playing like they have so far. “Get over here and play a video game” against Kentucky this week, LSU.

Courtney Stodden’s vampy and vapid “Don’t Put it on Me” is LSU QB Jarrett Lee

Senior QB Lee was thought to be the Tigers’ most damning liability but has been an extremely proficient game manager for LSU. The Tigers’ strengths are their defense and ground game, but Lee hasn’t been too shabby either, throwing six TDs and only one interception. Miles hadn’t out it on Lee, and Lee has been able to work well within his limited role. Simply letting running backs Spencer Ware and Michael Ford carry the load is probably a BCS National Championship caliber game plan. As for teen bride and hilarious television “personality,” Stodden is of a lower caliber, as we see in the following tweet: “Tastily trotted through such a delicious day as the sun sweetly shined upon my body & kissed it like a piece of chocolate-coated candy! ”

Foster the People’s “Pumped Up Kicks” is Alabama RB Trent Richardson

Both are ubiquitously hyped but pretty worth it. While the indie dance ditty grows increasingly annoying with each excessive play (it is rapidly becoming this year’s “Kids” by MGMT), Richardson’s play has been more low-key. And kind of in a bad way, if he wants to be the Crimson Tide’s second Heisman winner in three years after fellow feature back Mark Ingram won it in 2009. He would also make it the third year in a row the Trophy has gone to a player in the state of Alabama after Auburn Phenom and current Carolina Panther Cam Newton (a.k.a The Camchise) won in 2010. But Richardson will have to step it up on the field and show that he can “run faster than a bullet.”