Wrestling

The No. 22 ranked Simpson wrestling squad traveled to Storm Lake for the Buena Vista Duals and finished 3-1 for the day.

The team first met up with Dana College and won 25-16. Sophomore Clint Manny,, 149 lbs., improved his record to 27-2 after this dual with a fall over Brian Welle in 2:34.

Other winners were sophomore Quent Christensen at 133, freshman Cole Christensen at 141, freshman Chase Weller at 157, junior Jason Mitchell at 174 and junior Bart George at 197.

In the second dual of the day, the Storm faced Northwestern College and won 39-9. Mitchell improved his record to 27-9 after this dual with an 8-6 decision over Ben Hummel of Northwestern.

Other winners in the dual were freshman Justin Allen with a forfeit at 125, Cole Christensen at 141, Manny, Weller, freshman Josh Stirling at 165, George and Eli Taylor at Heavyweight.

In the afternoon session, the Storm faced Cornell College and won 41-12. George improved his record to 31-8 after this dual with a fall over John O’Ferrell in 2:34 of Cornell.

Other winners included Allen, Quent Christensen, Cole Christensen, Manny at 149, Chase Weller, Mitchell, George, and Brett Christensen.

In the final dual of the day, the Storm faced South Dakota State and fell 30-12. The only winners were a forfeit by Allen, Quent Christensen, and Brett Christensen.

The Storm is now 18-8 and finished 4-5 in the conference dual schedule.

“I am very happy with the progress of our team. I feel like we will be ready for the conference and national tournament when the time comes,” said Head Coach Ron Peterson.

Men’s Basketball

The basketball team traveled to Luther and lost 82-74.Junior Josh Richter led the way with 16 points, while Barry Moore had 15 and Matt Brown with 13.

Leading the rebound column were senior Matt McCulla and junior Matt Brown with 7 a piece.

Simpson had a tough deficit to overcome at halftime, being down 37-24. One of the main reasons for the deficit was that Luther shot 7-11 from three- point land in the first half.

On the weekend, the Storm had home games against Wartburg and Buena Vista. They lost to Wartburg by the score of 76-68, with senior Jesse Harris having a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds.

The difference in the game was Wartburg was 30-40 from the free throw line, while Simpson shot only 16-29 from the strike.

Head Coach Bruce Wilson said, “We didn’t have much confidence on the offensive end and we didn’t make our free throws.”

Then Buena Vista came to town and the Storm lost 74-61. Junior Dirk Walker lead the way with 13 points and McCulla had 11 points and 8 rebounds. Simpson shot 52 percent in the first half, but still trailed 41-35. In the second half, the Storm only managed to shoot 29 percent in the loosing effort.

The Storm had a tough week this week, but is still 12-7 overall and 7-5 in the conference.

“Our team had some tough competition and we just didn’t play very well,” said Wilson. “We need to push the tempo and create turnovers with the press.”

Women’s Basketball

The Simpson women’s basketball team picked up another win at Luther, 70-53.

Five Simpson women were in double figures with junior Jessica Capper leading the way at 13 points. The leading rebounder was senior Amanda Pilcher with 9.

The Storm shot 61 percent from the field for the game, including 70 percent in the second half to put Luther away.

The Storm had Wartburg up next and the women’s team defeated them 89-82. Senior Sara Sonderman had 24 points for the game, while senior Tiffany Whitsell added 18 points and senior Amy Van Pelt had 12.

Simpson also set a new school record for most 3-point shots made in one game, 12. The old record was 11 from the 1999-2000 season. “We played very well on Friday and we played with a lot of emotion,” said Head Coach Brian Niemuth.

The second game of the weekend home stance was not so great for the Storm. Buena Vista came into town and defeated them 73-67. Sonderman was the leading scorer with 15 points and Pilcher added 14. Capper led the rebounding column with 10.

“We played well for about 33 minutes and the last 7 minutes we played with no emotion. They (Buena Vista) played with a lot of emotion in the last 7 minutes,” said Niemuth.

Buena Vista ended the game on a 22-5 run and Simpson’s last field goal was at the 7:19 mark in the fourth quarter.

“Both games, we really let up in the second half and we were able to pull it out on Friday night,” said Sonderman. “We were really lucky because Loras lost this weekend, so we are still tied for first.”