It was a weekend to remember for the St. Olaf mens and womens swimming and diving teams, who finished up their conference season at the MIAC Championships Feb. 19 at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center. After three days of heated and intense competition, the Ole women cruised to a first place finish over Carleton, and the men finished only 56 points behind Gustavus to take second place.
The St. Olaf mens hockey team earned their 11th victory of the season Feb. 18 with a win over Hamline at the Northfield Ice Arena, moving one step closer to securing a place in the MIAC playoffs. Unfortunately, the team was unable to complete the sweep of the last place Pipers Feb. 19, returning from St. Paul with a 3-3 tie.
Last Saturday marked the end of a season filled with close calls for the St. Olaf womens basketball team. The Oles endured a 67-60 overtime loss to St. Marys, making it one of the five times the women had held leads late in the game and were defeated by a small margin.
Of all the months on the calendar, February always seems to get the short end of the stick. It has the fewest number of days, its main holidays are predominantly arbitrary and overly commercialized and it falls during the time of year when winter seems like it may never end.
It is customary in collegiate athletics for many teams to find weaker opponents to fill the opening slots in their schedules. The reasoning goes that a team with such a schedule will work out problematic tendencies by the time tougher opponents come around.
Continuing what has already been a strong indoor season, the St. Olaf mens track and field team placed second out of five teams at the Tostrud Classic Saturday afternoon. The Oles scored 141 points while the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse won the meet with 220. St. Thomas finished with 113 points, Carleton with 90 and Luther with 49.
