SIOUX FALLS The Augustana baseball team just keeps on rolling. The Vikings, who reached their second-ever Division II College World Series last year and are going after their third consecutive NSIC regular season title, moved closer to accomplishing that goal on Sunday with a 14-3 blowout of Concordia-St. Paul at Ronken Field, extending the 17th-ranked Vikings' winning streak to a program record 16 in a row. Augustana improved to 33-6 on the season and 24-4 in NSIC play, giving them a 3.5 game lead over 2nd-place MSU-Mankato. There are still 10 games left to play, so there's still work to d ..read more

SIOUX FALLS Augustana softball coach Gretta Melsted hit another milestone in her decorated career over the weekend, surpassing 800 career wins as the Vikings extended their huge winning streak and won another conference trophy. Melsted, who is in her 18th season at Augustana after three years at Culver-Stockton, picked up win No. 800 as the Vikings swept a double header at Winona State on Saturday, then saw her team extend its winning streak to 22 with another double header sweep, this time of Concordia-St. Paul, on Sunday. With the wins, Augustana clinched the NSIC regular season title, th ..read more

The last time he pitched, Louie Varland’s issue was two-strike execution. This time out, the issue was not getting to two strikes in the first place. A tough start to the 2024 season for the St. Paulite continued on Sunday when Varland gave up four runs and exited early in the Twins’ 6-1 loss to the Detroit Tigers in the series finale at Target Field. Varland was lucky to get through the first inning having given up just two runs after he walked three batters and allowed a single. Just 18 of the 39 pitches he threw that inning were strikes, and before he escaped from the inning, the Twins ..read more

Anthony Edwards had struggled down the back stretch of the regular season. Over his final 13 games, Edwards shot just 42 percent from the field and 29 percent from 3-point range. Not horrifying especially not as opponents stacked their entire defenses against the 22-year-old all-star guard just not Edwards’ usual numbers. Alongside the added defensive attention, fatigue seemed to be a likely culprit for any decline in production for the Timberwolves’ biggest star. Edwards played the eighth-most minutes in the NBA this season (2,770) and was asked to do a lot when he was in the game. That ..read more

With decades of experience, Reno Red Cloud knows more than anyone about water on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. As climate change makes fire season more dangerous on the reservation which covers more than 2 million acres he sees a growing need for water to fight those fires. Red Cloud is the director of water resources for the Oglala Sioux Tribe and he recently received nearly $400,000 in federal funding to revive old wells that have been dormant for decades. He thinks the wells can produce over a million gallons of water a day. But there’s one catch: They have elevated levels of ..read more

Coming off a disappointing loss to Montreal on Thursday, PWHL Minnesota was back on the ice Saturday to face Ottawa, a team they have had much success against this season. However, Minnesota's 3-0 record versus Ottawa did not do them much good the fourth time around, as this game was Ottawa's from start to finish. Brianne Jenner opened the scoring and kicked off what eventually became an incredible effort at the 17:14 mark in the first with a score. She also found the net at the 4:07 mark in the second and then once again at 15:39 in the third. Had it not been for Ashton Bell knocking one in ..read more

Anthony Edwards had already established himself as a playoff performer in his first two trips to the postseason. He was electric in Minnesota’s first-round loss to Memphis in 2022. He was unstoppable in Minnesota’s first-round loss to Denver in 2023. And he was everything Minnesota needed and more in its Game 1 victory over Phoenix on Saturday at Target Center. The legend only grows with each passing playoff appearance. Saturday was another masterpiece. Phoenix, as it has done all season, threw the kitchen sink at Edwards with multiple different defenders. The look flustered ..read more

After being thoroughly dismantled in three regular-season games by Phoenix, the Timberwolves returned the favor when it mattered most. Minnesota sent a major message to open the first-round NBA playoff series en route to a 120-95 Game 1 victory at Target Center. Suddenly, the series looks a lot more like advantage Wolves than the tossup it was originally viewed to be. Game 2 of the series is Tuesday in Minneapolis. What a shift in feelings from a week prior, when the Suns nuked Minnesota on the same floor in the regular-season finale, forcing the Wolves into a first-round date with one o ..read more

VERMILLION Caleb McKenzie paid no mind to the whistles as he made his victory trot towards the end zone. Having just notched his second interception of the South Dakota football spring game thus forcing the play dead the sophomore defensive back was determined to get his money’s worth regardless, and took his time getting down the field before somersaulting across the goal line. It was a celebratory day for the red-clad Coyote defense, which got after the white-wearing offense and its myriad of personnel groupings on Saturday afternoon inside the DakotaDome for the concluding event of the ..read more

SIOUX FALLS The Augustana football team is coming off one of the most successful seasons in program history, having won 11 games and the outright NSIC title last year. But there's an army of key players to replace, particularly on offense. Quarterback Casey Bauman, running back Jarod Epperson, receivers Devon Jones and Logan Uttecht, tight end Mitchell Goodbary and offensive linemen Blake Larson and Trevor Burkhart, among others, all moved on. The Vikings have no plans to scale back expectations for a rebuilding year, though, meaning this year's spring practice season took on added import ..read more