Area notebook: Murray returns to Fighting Sioux football

Josh Murray, a Pepin graduate, leads the North Dakota football team with 591 rushing yards this season. Murray, a junior running back, has carried the ball 95 times for an average of 6.2 yards per attempt.

Murray leads North Dakota with four rushing touchdowns. He is second on the team with 24 receptions. Murray has totaled 177 receiving yards and one touchdown reception. He's also thrown a 25-yard touchdown pass and returned a punt for a touchdown.

He rushed for 47 yards on 10 carries on Nov. 6 in the Fighting Sioux's 35-16 home loss to UC Davis. Murray also totaled two catches and 16 receiving yards in the game.

For Murray, the 2010 season has marked a successful return to football. He was academically ineligible to play last season, according to North Dakota athletics media relations assistant director Christy Kramer.

The Fighting Sioux (3-6 overall, 0-4 Great West Conference) plays today at Montana, which is ranked No. 17 in the Football Championship Subdivision coaches' poll.

• Joe Ellis of Red Wing registered four tackles (two solo, two assisted) for Minnesota Duluth in the Bulldogs' 55-7 victory over Minnesota Crookston.

Ellis, a sophomore defensive back, tied for third on the team in tackles in the Nov. 6 game.

The Bulldogs (10-0) are the top-ranked Division II football team in the country.

• Cannon Falls native T.J. Martin is a junior offensive lineman on the Wisconsin-Stevens Point football team (6-3 overall, 4-2 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference).

• Ken Kuyath, a Red Wing graduate, starts at right guard for UW-River Falls. The Falcons are winless in Kuyath's senior year. He concludes his collegiate career today at UW-Eau Claire.

• Mariah Simonson, a Zumbrota-Mazeppa graduate, earned a National Christian College Athletic Association Division II North Central Region All-Region award for her play at middle hitter for North Central.

Simonson and the Rams lost to Providence College 3-1 in the NCCAA North Central Regional title game Oct. 30.

North Central is located in Minneapolis.

• Goodhue native Alison Albers earned second-team all-conference honors for the second year in a row. Albers is a senior middle hitter at Erskine, a member of Conference Carolinas.

Albers ranks second on the team in blocks with 101. She's also posted 151 kills.

• Rachel Tackmann and her Rochester Community and Technical College team took sixth at the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III women's soccer national tournament.

RCTC lost the fifth-place game 3-2 Sunday to Ocean County College in Largo, Md. The Yellowjackets finished the year with a 16-5 record.

Tackmann is a freshman from Lake City.

• Lindsey Wilson played in 14 games and earned one start during her sophomore season on the St. Benedict soccer team. The Blazers finished the season 11-7-1 overall and lost in the semifinals of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament semifinals.

Wilson is a Red Wing native. She took seven shots and didn't register a point in 2010.

• Red Wing's Rose Alleva has recorded one assist in the Princeton hockey team's first seven games. She is a freshman defenseman for the Tigers.

• Liz Bauer, a junior on the St. Catherine hockey team, scored the game-winning goal in the Wildcats' season-opening 4-2 win Nov. 4 over St. Benedict. Bauer is a Red Wing graduate.

• Minnesota freshman Turner Eckstrom placed third in 3-meter diving (352.20 points) and fifth in 1-meter diving (298.80) in a Nov. 6 home dual meet against North Carolina.

Eckstrom, a Red Wing native, scored four points for the Golden Gophers, but they lost for the first time this season by a score of 165-135.

• UW-Stevens Point sophomore Casey Murnane won the 200-yard individual medley in a time of 2 minutes, 4.25 seconds during an Oct. 30 tri-dual against St. Cloud State and UW-Eau Claire.

Murnane, a Red Wing graduate, also took fourth in the 200 butterfly (2:08.13) and fifth in the 200 backstroke (2:09.32).

The Pointers beat St. Cloud State 164-126 and they topped the Blugolds 213-70.

• Red Wing's Grant Frost earned a pair of wins for St. Thomas at the Hamline Invitational.

The Tommies senior won the 100 breaststroke (1:04.00) and swam the second leg of the victorious 200 medley relay team on Nov. 6. Frost also took fourth in the 200 individual medley (2:10.41).

St. Thomas won the four-team meet.

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