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Sports Memories by Tom Jones

15 years

• The Albert Lea girls’ soccer team fell 2-0 to Rochester Lourdes in the Class A state quarterfinals at Park High School. The Tigers ended their season 15-5-2.
• Albert Lea’s Ethan Marquardt placed fourth and Chrissy Monson placed second at the 1AA meet at the Brooktree Golf Course in Owatonna to qualify them for the state cross country meet.
• For the second year in a row, Albert Lea’s Sophie Miller was named to the Class A All-State girls’ soccer team.
• The Alden-Conger Knights football team advanced to the section finals with a 39-14 win over Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton. David Troska rushed for 129 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Knights.
• The Albert Lea Thunder hockey team picked up their first win in franchise history with a 3-1 win over Bismark in front of 406 fans at the Albert Lea City Arena.

20 years

• The Albert Lea Tigers football team saw their season come to an end with a 31-0 loss to Austin in a Section 1AAAA game played at Austin. Ross Habben carried the ball 16 times for 53 yards to lead the Tigers.
• The Albert Lea girls’ swimming and diving team ended their regular season with a 99-72 win over Waseca. The Tigers 200-medley relay team of Kaeli Wayne, Leah Matheson, Samantha Cole and Lonna Vanderploeg took first place as the Tigers won all but one event over the BlueJays.
• The 13th seeded Albert Lea girls’ volleyball season came to an end with a 3-1 loss to Red Wing. Amber Edwards led the Tigers with 10 kills, one block and two digs.
• The Minnesota Gophers football team defeated Illinois 36-10. Laurence Maroney ran the ball 22 times for 179 yards and Marion Barber III ran 24 times for 129 yards in the win.

50 years

• Only 10 players showed up for practice for the upcoming third season of University of Minnesota basketball under coach Bill Musselman. One of the players was Dennis Schaffer of Mason City. Gopher freshman quarterback Tony Dungy was also expressing an interest to join the team.
• Mike Stanek, Steve Falk and Mike Tubbs each scored touchdowns as the 49ers defeated the Browns 19-6 in YMCA flag football.
• Coach Gary Neist’s Albert Lea girls’ gymnastics team defeated Red Wing 56.9-41.55. Kristi O’Brien took first in the floor exercise and Linda Dokken took first on the beam in the win.
• Shirley Schmidt scored 10 points to lead Freeborn over the Frost Vikingettes 39-28 in girls’ basketball. With the win, Freeborn was 4-1 on the year.
• In the District Two cross country meet held in Austin, Jim Johnson placed third and Mike Thompson fifth for the Tigers. No team scores were kept but Albert Lea, Austin and Southland advanced to the Region One meet.
• Former Albert Lea High School distance runner Doug Petersen was leading the Golden Valley Lutheran College cross country team into the Minnesota Junior College Athletic Association’s State Championship Meet that was being held in Coon Rapids.
• Warm weather was pushing back the skating schedule at the Freeborn County Ice Arena at the fairgrounds.

Tiger football history

The football rivalry between Albert Lea and Austin dates back to 1916. At one time the two teams competed for a traveling trophy called the Bum Steer Award that was presented to the winner of the contest each year.