SJU football and cross country prepare for NCAA competition

11/17/2008

Pack up the suitcase, warm up the bus, get to the airport and prepare to travel across the Midwest this weekend.

That’s what two Saint John’s University athletic teams are preparing to do as both the SJU football and cross country teams qualified for their respective national tournaments over the weekend.

The Johnnies’ football team, thanks to their dramatic 14-10 victory over Carleton on Saturday, Nov. 15, face defending Division III national champion Wisconsin-Whitewater at noon Saturday, Nov. 22 at Perkins Stadium in Whitewater, Wis.

Saint John’s, which won the MIAC title with the victory over Carleton and earned the conference’s automatic playoff spot, is 8-2 overall. The Warhawks, who have advanced to the Division III national championship game each of the past three seasons, are 9-1 overall.

The Johnnies are making their 23rd postseason appearance (and 10th in the past 11 seasons) under Coach John Gagliardi, and have posted a 39-17 record in those games. Saint John’s is 18-3 all-time in the first round of either the Division III or NAIA playoffs, and are 15-0 in the first-round of the playoffs since suffering an opening-round loss to Occidental (Calif.) in the 1985 playoffs.

A fan bus will be available for those interested in attending the playoff game. The bus has three pickup points on Saturday: at 4 a.m. at Warner Palaestra in Collegeville;  at 4:20 a.m. at Cash Wise Foods parking lot in Waite Park (by the Olive Garden Restaurant side); and at 5:20 a.m. at the Northland Inn, 7025 Northland Drive, Brooklyn Park. The bus will leave Whitewater immediately after the game.

The cost is $55 per person, and will need to be paid in advance with a credit card.  Participants are encouraged to bring their own food and beverages. For more information or to RSVP, please register online or contact Heidi Goebel at 320-363-2591. Please note at least 40 people need to be signed up by 3 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20 to make this a reality.

Meanwhile, the Saint John’s cross country team finished second out of 26 teams at the NCAA Division III Central Regional Saturday, Nov. 15 in Grinnell, Iowa, to advance to the Division III national championship on Saturday, Nov. 22 at the L.S. Ayres Complex at Hanover College, Hanover, Ind. The men’s eight-kilometer race starts at 10 a.m. (Central Standard Time).

It marks the fourth consecutive year the Johnnies have qualified as a team for the Division III national meet. In 2006, the Johnnies finished fifth nationally, their best performance since a fourth-place finish in 1998.

Senior Zach Hunter (Billings, Mont./Central H.S.) led the Johnnies at the regional meet, placing 16th individually with a time of 26 minutes, 8 seconds. Juniors Andrew Stevens (Stillwater, Minn.) and Ryan Noack (St. Cloud, Minn./Cathedral H.S.) finished 21st (26:15) and 26th (26:28), respectively.

For updates and results on both the Johnnies’ football and cross country teams, please visit: www.gojohnnies.com