High school spring sports have been delayed by late snow falls. It gives the Journal Sports another opportunity to focus on former county athletes playing at the next level. When we left off with Mabel-Canton graduate Belle Sand (2014), she was playing the final volleyball games of her excellent career at Syracuse University. The Orange finished the season 12-8 in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), 22-14 overall. They played three post-season matches in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship, beating Albany (21-25, 25-22, 25-20, 25-21) and Towson (25-22, 25-22, 25-23) before falling to West Virginia (22-25, 22-25, 18-25). Sand, in her senior season, was Syracuse’s starting libero for a third straight campaign. She posted a team-high and ACC second-best 540 digs. Sand ended the regular season with 20-plus digs in her last four ACC contests. She had double digit digs 29 times in 34 matches played, including in each of her last 11 contests. She finishes with the second-highest dig total in a season (540) for an Orange player since 2008 (25-point scoring format/unlimited libero substitutions). Sand also has the third (455) and fifth (416) highest totals (from sophomore and junior years respectively). In all scoring formats, Sand’s 540-dig season is the fifth best in Syracuse history. For her career, the 5’5” defender finishes third all-time in Orange history with 1,620 digs. She finishes fourth all-time in digs per set (3.82). She’s also in the Syracuse records books for digs a in a five-set match with 29 (tied for 10th best ever). Among her career honors are; three-time ACC Academic Honor Roll member, three-time Syracuse Scholar-Athlete of the Week, 2017 All-ACC Academic team, and 2017 Eastern College Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year. She followed in the footsteps of her idol, and M-C’s only other D-1 volleyball athlete, Karlie Urbaniak (North Carolina State). Sand, an Economics Major in the College of Arts and Sciences, is the daughter of Tim and Tricia Sand. The Daily Orange has a couple nice reads on the former M-C Cougar standout; http://dailyorange.com/2016/09/syracuse-volleyballs-belle-sand-provides-path-improvement-syracuse/ and http://dailyorange.com/2017/09/belle-sands-small-town-background-fueled-her-journey-to-su/.
On the basketball court, one ex-Chatfield Gopher made headlines. Makenzie Miller, a 2013 high school graduate, a 2017 University of Wisconsin-La Crosse college graduate, has signed and is playing professional basketball in Australia. She is a member of the Latrobe City Energy, a Division 1 women’s squad in the town Traralgon (a suburb of Melbourne). Through five games (as of April 23), the 6’1” center is averaging a team-best 18.4 points and 13.6 rebounds per contest. She’s double-doubled in four of five games and has made 26 of 35 free throws. The Energy are 1-4 on the season, 11th place in a 12-team league. Miller had 18 (pts) and 20 (rebs) versus the first place Casey Cavaliers. Makenzie was All-WIAC 1st team as a senior in 2016-2017, leading UWL in scoring (14.6) rebounding (9.4), blocks (1.4) and free throws made (83). Miller earned a Bachelor’s Degree from La Crosse in Health and Physical Education. She is the daughter of Tom and Sue Miller. Former Gopher teammate Kirsten Keefe gained notoriety at St. Mary’s University (Winona). Keefe earned the Cardinals starting point guard job. The 5’7” junior averaged 5.6 points, 3.4 rebounds, a team-high 2.8 assists, and 1.1 steals over 24 minutes per game. St. Mary’s top player was Keefe’s former high school adversary, Dover-Eyota graduate Brandi Blattner. The 5’11” forward made All-MIAC first team for a third year after averaging a team-best 17.6 points and 10.0 rebounds per contest. The Cardinals went 10-8 in the MIAC, 16-11 overall. They made the six-team MIAC play-offs, losing to St. Thomas in the semifinals. Rushford-Peterson graduate (2017) Brianna Koop played her freshman year at UW-River Falls. The Trojans all-time leading scorer got her feet wet, seeing action in 19 games. She averaged 2.9 points and 1.5 rebounds per contest. Over the final five games of the year, Koop saw 20-plus minutes of action and including a season-high/game-high 19 points (13-16 FTs) versus UW-Platteville. The Falcons started the year 13-3 versus mostly non-conference opponents. They finished the season 7-7 in WIAC, 16-10 overall. UW-River Falls fell to UW-Oshkosh in the first round of the WIAC play-offs. Chatfield graduate Megan LaPlante (2016) and Mabel-Canton graduate Coranda Vickerman (2017) each were on the Luther College women’s basketball roster. The sophomore and freshman guards (respectively) played sparingly. The Norse finished second in the IIAC at 12-4. They went 19-10 overall, losing to regular season and post-season champion Wartburg in the IIAC finals.
On the guy’s side, Fillmore Central graduate (2012) Nick Powell finished up his basketball career at Hamline University in St. Paul. The 6’3” G/F played in 25 games, starting five. He averaging 5.9 points and 3.6 rebounds per contest. His five starts came in his last five college games, where Powell saw the most extensive minutes of his career. Over his last six games, he averaged 11.7 points and 5.7 rebounds per contest. The Pipers went 9-11 in the MIAC, 13-12 overall. They did not make the 6-team MIAC play-offs. Powell is the son of Lane and Jessica Powell. Omitted from the Journal’s collegiate football players was Trevor Lundberg. The 2016 Houston graduate took the field for Northwestern College, a Division III school in Roseville (St. Paul). The 6’4” 255-pound sophomore played in eight games, catching eight passes for 128 yards and a TD from a tight end position. The Eagles went 6-3 in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference, 6-4 overall. The won their last four games. Lundberg’s older brother Hans was a stand-out tight end at NAIA school Taylor University in Indiana. R-P graduate (2015) Charlie Krambeer played on the Gustavus Adolphus basketball team. The 6’0” junior guard averaged 2.5 points and 1.7 rebounds across 20 games played. Forty-two of his 49 total points came on three-pointers. The Golden Gusties went 10-10 in the MIAC, 12-13 overall. They finished seventh in the conference, missing the MIAC play-offs. Finally, on the mats, Chatfield graduate Jared Goldsmith (2015) completed his third year wrestling at Moorhead State University. The junior 125-pounder went 8-10 on the season. The Dragons went 3-5 in the NSIC, 4-7 overall.