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We got our share of excitement out of our up-close and personal sports highlights for the vanishing year of 2014, as UMD particularly continued to put Duluth on the intercollegiate map, even if the Twin Cities big guns like the Twins and Vikings let us down pretty hard.

Naturally, when discussions turn to sports in the region, they gravitate toward hockey, which represents Duluth’s only two Division I programs. And because the calendar pays no heed to the long hockey season, any end of the year evaluation of the teams requires the second half of last season and the first half of this one, and the beauty of that split is that this fall’s strong start for the men has brought to life realistic hopes of title contention in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. Which, in turn, ignites the idea that the Bulldogs could also make a run at national honors.

After a solid first year in the NCHC, the UMD men staked out some pretty heady territory in the first half of this, the second season of the nation’s best collegiate hockey league. Consider that if Minnesota is the clearcut favorite in the Big Ten, the Bulldogs stunned the Gophers with a home-and-home series sweep. And if Minnesota State-Mankato and Michigan Tech are solid cofavorites in the WCHA, the Bulldogs split with both of them.

But it is within the NCHC itself that the Bulldogs have been most impressive. Early, when they seemed unsure of their stature, the Bulldogs split with Denver and Miami of Ohio. As they gained traction, they swept two games at St. Cloud State, and split a pair at Nebraska-Omaha. That leaves UMD tied with Miami for first place, with the start of the second half coming this weekend. UMD plays at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, then prepares for a critical series at North Dakota.

The primary reason for UMD’s prominence is that the freshmen from last season have made solid improvement to become forceful assets as sophomores. But perhaps the biggest single key is a young goaltender from Finland. Kasimir Kaskisuo stepped out of the Minnesota Wilderness nets in the North American junior league and into the UMD nets with fantastic results, leading the Bulldogs to six straight victories and the top of the NCHC.

UMD Women Challenge
No team in college hockey can match the UMD women for being sizzling hot. The Bulldogs have won 12 of their last 13 games after a rocky start, moving up to third behind Minnesota and Wisconsin in the Women’s WCHA. Once again, a tough start featured a series each against Wisconsin and Minnesota. The Bulldogs lost both to Wisconsin, and lost the first game to Minnesota, before taking control in the second game and finally winning in a shoot out.
Unfortunately for the UMD women, the story of the first half of the season ended in turmoil and hostility. The UMD administration announced just after the five-week holiday break, and during first semester exams, that it would not extend coach Shannon Miller’s contract, that she and her staff would be let go when the season ends.

Ironically, while women’s hockey has a difficult time attracting fans, even in larger regions like the Twin Cities, with vast promotion, the coach herself may wind up being the biggest attraction the school’s program has ever had. Miller led UMD to prominence during a superb 16-year tenure that includes five NCAA championships, and now that the announcement of her forced exit has been made, the Bulldogs players and fans may rally to show their support when the second half of the season begins next week.

UMD’s hockey programs are far from the only big sports stories of the year 2014, but they do lead the way for fans’ anticipation for the New Year.

Grandma’s, Football, Volleyball Set 2014 Apart

Veteran viewers of Grandma’s Marathon had seen it all before. A lead group took off from Two Harbors and pulled immediately away from the hopeful hundreds behind, and they ran at a pace that was right there with the record pace set by Dick Beardsley 33 years earlier. But 32 of those times, the leader took over but then faded, enough to make some feel that all these dozens of slim, swift Africans might never break Beardsley’s mark.


But Dominic Ondoro, a 26-year-old from Endoret, Kenya, came to Duluth with other ideas. It was his first Grandma’s, but he intended to break the record, and he did. While Beardsley had Garry Bjorklund pushing him almost all the way in 1981, Ondoro almost mystically led a cluster of 11 African runners out of the North Shore fog, and he stayed ahead. He even pulled off a strategic gem, slowing down a bit and noting the others in the lead group slowed too, and then he put on a burst of speed that left the rest behind.
When Ondoro hit the bricks of Superior Street at 5th Avenue East, he was running alone. Nobody was in sight until he made the turn at 5th Avenue West and headed down the hill and on to Canal Park. Ondoro finished in 2 hours, 9 minutes, 6 seconds, leaving no chance for survival of Beardsley’s 2:09:37.

Superb UMD Grid Season

UMD football has become a fall staple of sports fans for its excellence, but possibly no other team in recent years has been a champion by surprise as much as the 2014 team.

Living dangerously, the 2014 football Bulldogs continued to find ways to win, whether with running power, trickery, great defense, and the clever selections of quarterback Drew Bauer. And sometimes all of those things, at the same time. With junior Logan Lauters carrying the ball primarily, and Brees running as much as passing to pull out victories, the Bulldogs also got play that was nothing short of spectacular from seniors like Aaron Roth.

Roth was something special, because he is a skilled pass receiver who helped out at running back. Then he helped out on kickoff returns, punt returns, and kickoff and punt coverage, plus a little defensive back work. If Roth was 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds, that would be impressive; at 5-11 (maybe) and 175 pounds, Roth’s play was incredible. And it was more incredible because he played half the season with his left arm in a partial cast.
Volleyball No. 1

While the football crusaders were operating outside, inside Romano Gym the UMD volleyball team put on amazing shows all season long, losing only once in a nonconference match against No. 1 Tampa early in the season. Romping through an undefeated Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference season, the Bulldogs highlights came from sweeping Concordia of St. Paul, the five-time defending NCAA Division II champion, and using that as a springboard to an astounding season.

Winning the NSIC tournament title as well, UMD was host to the regional, but in the championship game of the region, the string came to an end at the hands of a brilliantly prepared and red-hot Southwest Minnesota State team in a four-game classic. Only two defeats in the entire season, and neither of them in any way could discount the brilliance of the rest of the season.

Coach Jim Boos had a very balanced attack, with a different player leading in kills almost every match. But it made UMD very difficult to defend against. The best thing about not making it to the national finals is that there are enough talented Bulldogs returning next year to use that as incentive to go one more step in 2015.

High School Hockey Thriving

One of the highlights of 2014 came back in March, as usual, when Duluth East won the Section 7AA championship over Elk River, and Hermantown again led the way to an ever-improving Class A section.

Once again, the first half of the 2014-15 season shows nothing but great promise for another rousing March for area high school teams. Marshall, the prime challenger for Hermantown, made the biggest news in Section 7A by declaring it would move up to Class AA and challenge East, Grand Rapids and Cloquet-Esko-Carlton in 7AA.

The rivalry among Hermantown, Marshall, and Denfeld makes 7A very intense, but everyone is watching if Marshall’s move might inspire Hermantown to do the same thing. That was, in fact, a prime topic at Mars-Lakeview Arena this week, at the Hilltopper Classic tournament, where Marshall beat Madison Edgewood 5-0 and Hermantown stunned Notre Dame, a Green Bay private school and highly ranked Wisconsin state power, to send the Hawks and Toppers into the semifinals against each other. Classes don’t matter when it comes to a rivalry as strong as the Hermantown-Marshall duel.
 
All in all, there was a lot of sports excitement in the Northland in 2014, but really all it has done is fire us up for bigger and better things in 2015.