Men’s Basketball

The Storm men’s basketball team took close margin victories over both of its competitors this past weekend.

The Storm defeated Coe and Cornell College each by a single point, 69-68 and 81-80, respectively.

Senior Jesse Harris came away as the leading scorer in the Coe game with 20 points, while junior Barry Moore and senior Matt McCulla were leading rebounders with 5 each.

In the Cornell match-up, junior Matt Brown was the leading scorer with 15 points and McCulla again was leading rebounder with 8 on the night.

“We are a hard team because we have many different ways to score,” said head coach Bruce Wilson. “It makes a challenge for other teams to figure us out.”

The Storm started off its week defeating Luther 76-64.

Junior Dirk Walker was the lead scorer in the Luther game with 17 points. The leading rebounder for the night was McCulla with 8 rebounds.

“The men did a nice job in the Luther game,” said Wilson. “We did a better job on the boards, which is a positive sign for us.”

The Storm’s record is now improved to 11-3 overall and 6-1 in conference standings.

The team travels to Dubuque this weekend to face off with Dubuque and Loras. The Storm will then turn around and head to Decorah to play Luther the following Tuesday.

Women’s basketball

The Storm has boosted its conference record to 7-0 after this weekend’s sweep of Coe and Cornell College.

Even with a great record, the team still realizes that it has to play one game at a time and not get a head of itself.

“From the past we’ve learned not to look past a game,” said senior captain Sara Sonderman. “Every game counts when it comes to regional rankings, and if we want to go to nationals we can’t lose.”

The women started the week off by defeating Luther at home last Tuesday night 53-50.

The game wasn’t expected to be that close, but luckily the women played some great defense to keep them in the game.

“Honestly, it was one of the ugliest wins that we’ve had,” said Head Coach Brian Niemuth. “But obviously we’ll take it. We didn’t shoot well, but our defense kept us in it.”

The Storm then continued its winning streak over the weekend by defeating Coe and Cornell, 90-54 and 77-61, respectively.

This brought the overall record up to 12-2 and allowed the Storm to stay undefeated in the conference standings.

The women will continue play this weekend at Dubuque, playing Dubuque on Friday and Loras on Saturday.

“Right now we are playing well defensively, which is our strong suit,” said Niemuth. “We are inconsistent on offense, but we have a lot of room for improvement which is encouraging with a chance to still get a lot better.”

Wrestling

The Simpson wrestling team defeated its rival, Central, in a dual last Thursday night in Hopper Gym.

“I was pleased with the overall effort,” said Head Coach Ron Peterson. “I thought all 10 of our guys battled hard and to be successful we need all 10.”

The men took Central in a 24-15 battle, with Simpson wrestling six freshmen. “To beat Central with six freshmen, a coach has to be pleased,” said Peterson.

The Storm is a young team this season with no seniors on the squad. The team is instead led by two juniors, Jason Mitchell and Bart George.

“Our two juniors are having great seasons and providing some outstanding leadership to our young team,” said Peterson.

The team is also led by sophomore Clint Manny, who has a record of 23-1.

Freshman Brett Christensen is also on the top of the list with a 26-4 record, as of the interview with Peterson.

The Storm will head to Decorah this weekend to face off with four other teams, which include Luther, Buena Vista, Coe and Loras.

Loras was rated No. 5, Buena Vista No. 7, Luther No. 8 and Coe at No. 16.

“We have to wrestle one right after another, so it will be a really tough day,” said Peterson. “But I think our kids will wrestle well.”

The team will follow up Decorah with a trip to Storm Lake to wrestle in the Buena Vista Duals that will take place on Feb. 1.

Swimming

The women’s swim team traveled to the Grinnell Invitational this weekend and were happy to see improvement.

“The Grinnell meet is a really fast meet and as a team I think we did a nice job,” said senior Amy Post. “We’re not a big team, but I know that everyone gave it their best.”

Post came out in eight place in the 100-meter breaststroke with a time of 1:15.30. Post was also involved in the 50-meter freestyle and finished 11th with a time of 27.00.

One of the two relays that the Storm had in the finals was in the 400-meter freestyle relay. The women came out with 21st place and finished with a time of 4:19.99. They were .6 seconds away from moving up a notch and knocking off Loras. The relay involved post, sophomores Sarah Lauterbach and Molly Bartush and freshman Mandi Rasmussen.

Simpson’s 200-meter medley relay team that included Post, Rasmussen, sophomore Andrea Petska and freshman and Becky Cermak, competed. The team came in last place with a team time of 2:19.62, which was seconds behind Augustana College Vikings-IL who had a team time of 2:16.43.

“There have been lots of times dropped as the season’s progressed,” said Post. “I hope all the girls are happy that all the hard work is paying off.”

The disadvantage that the Simpson team has is that it is a small team. “It’s not that our times weren’t fast enough,” said Post. “It’s just that the other teams have more girls so they can score more points.”

The women will travel to Buena Vista this weekend and then turn around and head to Cedar Rapids for the Iowa Conference Invitational.