Sports Memories by Tom Jones

 

50 years ago: 1968

• The Lea College Lancers football team was preparing for its Homecoming game against Missouri Valley College with a 5-2 record. For the second season in a row, its Homecoming game was dubbed the Lancer Bowl.

• The Albert Lea Tigers football team captured its 22nd win in a row by defeating Owatonna 34-7, giving the Tigers a 9-0 mark on the season. They established a new Big Nine Conference record for single season scoring with 315 points.

• The Alden Blackhawks football team won its third consecutive Border League championship with a 7-0 league record and 8-1 overall. Warren Greenfield, Tom Wetzell, Carl Rasmussen, Keith Van Deer and Glen Mathiason all earned All-Conference honors.

 

25 years ago: 1983

• The Albert Lea girls’ swim and dive team captured fourth place at the Big Nine swim and dive meet. Mel Maruska placed third in the 50-yard freestyle and fifth in the 100-yard butterfly.

• Local racquetball player Mark Justesen won the Hart-Masonry Open A Division racquetball competition in Columbia Heights, earning him a trip to the Bahamas.

• The United South Central boys’ cross country team qualified for the state meet with a second-place finish at the Section 2A meet.

 

10 years ago: 2008

• The Alden-Conger football team defeated Nicollet 18-0 in the Section 2A football championship. Lucas Kleinschrodt, David Troska and E.J. Knight scored for the Knights.

• Chrissy Monson of Albert Lea placed 28th in the Minnesota girls’ state cross country meet in Northfield with a time of 15:05.05, while Ethan Marquardt of the Tigers finished 27th in the boys’ meet with a time of 16:31.1.

• Joe Mauer won his first Gold Glove as catcher for the Minnesota Twins. With only three errors on the year in 146 games, Mauer had a fielding percentage of .997.

 

This year

• Jens Levisen, a 2000 graduate of Albert Lea and head coach of the Austin Packers boys’ soccer team since 2006, led his squad to a third-place finish this past week in the Minnesota state boys’ soccer tournament. They defeated Holy Family Catholic 2-1 in the quarterfinals, then lost to Blake in the semifinals before defeating Holy Angels 1-0 in the third-place game. Levisen has compiled a 155-77-25 record in his 13 years as head coach and has seen his program grow from 45 participants when he began coaching to over 110 this past season.