Bleacher Views 11-14-2018

Drealan

Congratulations to Fulda native Anthony Drealan, who was a key player on the Raiders’ highly-successful boys’ basketball team, coached by Harvey Carroll, which advanced to the finals of the 2006 South Sub-Section Tournament, playing Ellsworth in the championship game at Marshall.

Drealan also ran cross country for the Murray County Central / Fulda co-op and did well, frequently running 5,000 meters in the 17:30 range as a senior in the fall of 2005, including a sixth-place finish in the Red Rock Conference Meet after placing 11th the year before as a junior. He was good, but not great.

Over the next five years, Drealan became a great small-college distance runner, excelling in both cross country and track at Dakota State University in Madison, South Dakota. As a junior in the fall of 2008, he qualified individually to compete in the NAIA National Meet in Kenosha, Wisconsin — where his high school coach Dominick Damm had run 12 years earlier as a member of a qualifying DSU team. The next year, Drealan became a NAIA All-American cross country runner when he finished 25th as the Trojans lead runner in the 2009 National Meet at Fort Vancouver, Washington.

Drealan was later an All-American in track and field as a key member of a DSU distance medley relay which placed second in the 2010 NAIA National Indoor finals. He still holds school records at DSU, including the outdoors 5,000-meter run (15:00.34 set in 2011). Drealan’s action picture is displayed on the athletic accomplishment board at the entrance to the gymnasium at the DSU Field House.

Most recently, Anthony has been named the North Star Athletic Association (NSAA) Coach of the Year for men’s cross country after the Trojans impressively won the seven-team conference meet near La Crosse, Wisconsin on November 3. That victory qualified DSU to run as a team in the NAIA National Championship at Cedar Rapids, Iowa later this week (Friday, November 16).

Lonneman, Hartle, Olsem, Mathias, Place performing well at college

Adrian’s Mitchell Lonneman, a 6-6 sophomore, is playing well for the Mount Marty College (Yankton, S.D.) men’s basketball team, splitting time between the varsity and JV. I saw Lonneman score a bundle of points and grab his share of rebounds when the Lancers’ JV team defeated DSU (83-63) in Yankton last Monday evening (November 5). My son Logan played about 13 minutes of the game for the Trojans in his first-ever action as a collegiate basketball player.

Chandler native Clayton Hartle is again running cross country for the Southwest Minnesota State University Mustangs. Hartle was the team’s third finisher (out of 10 who competed) at the 12-team Northern Sun Conference Meet in Aberdeen, S.D. (November 3) with a five-mile time of 27:07.5, placing 83rd overall and 67th in the team scoring among a field of 121 total finishers. Hartle will be running with the Mustangs in the NCAA Division II North Central Regional Championship at Joplin, Missouri this Saturday (November 17).

Fulda’s Isaiah Olsem, a teammate of Hartle’s for several seasons with the combined Murray County Central / Fulda program, also ran well in two recent meets for St. Mary’s University (of Winona). Olsem finished 128th (out of a total of 203 finishers) at the MIAC Conference Meet at St. Olaf in Northfield (October 28) as the team’s sixth runner, clocking an 8K (five miles) time of 28:50.8. Olsem completed his freshman season for the Cardinals with a faster time (28:07.3), placing 140th (out of 200 finishers) at Sunday’s (November 11) 31-team NCAA Division III Central Regional Championship in Northfield, hosted by Carlton College. Olsem was St. Mary’s fourth finisher in the huge meet which just allowed a maximum of seven runners per team.

Heron Lake’s Rachel Mathias finished a stellar collegiate volleyball career with another exceptional season as a dominating 6-1 middle hitter for the University of Minnesota, Morris Cougars. Rachel finished the year with a team-leading 333 kills, along with 89 blocks (second highest on the squad), giving her a two-year total of 635 kills and 172 blocks.

Okabena’s Courtney Place has also completed her brilliant volleyball career at Augustana University in Sioux Falls. A Northern Sun All-Conference player, Place finished the season with 416 kills, 303 digs and 36 ace serves, giving her three-year career totals of 1,267 kills, 800 digs and 72 aces for the Vikings. Her 416 kills this season was way more than twice as many as any other Augie hitter (172 was next), her digs were second-best (402 was the most) and she led the Vikings with 36 aces (27 was next). Despite playing just three years for Augustana (she played her freshman season at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks), Courtney ranks ninth on the all-time kills for the Vikings.