Features

Tim Dalluge once issued a challenge to his son in the form of a yellow Post-it note stuck to the refrigerator.

“If Jordan can bench 135 pounds for five reps he’ll earn $100,” the note read.

That was nearly eight years ago. Jordan Dalluge, now a University of Minnesota architecture junior, was 13 years old and had just started lifting weights.

That Post-it note — a little more weathered and a little less adhesive now — still hangs on the refrigerator in the Dalluge household.

It has aged but so has Jordan.

The Gophers football team played with energy and confidence during Saturday’s scrimmage, running the ball well and playing aggressive defense in front of a large crowd at the Gibson-Nagurski Football Complex.

With hundreds of fans and more than 60 kids from the Minnesota Epilepsy Foundation’s Shining Star program in attendance, the Gophers looked sharp on both sides of the ball.

Logan Storley had big shoes to fill as a seventh grader wrestling at Webster High School in South Dakota.

Those expectations followed him four hours east of home to the University of Minnesota last year.

Storley, the top 174-pound college wrestler in the nation as a sophomore, hails from the same hometown as Brock Lesnar, a former NCAA champion with the Gophers.

Lesnar was also a feared champion in the World Wrestling Entertainment and Ultimate Fighting Championship realms.

Gophers pitching coach Todd Oakes knew something was wrong last spring.

Walking up the stairs was tough. He always wanted to sit down. He was “extremely fatigued” all the time.

“You go through the season, and you always get run down,” said Oakes, 52. “But it got to a point where I knew there was something more going on.”

He didn’t expect that something to be acute myeloid leukemia — a cancer of blood and bone marrow cells.

It took him more than three months and a lifetime of practice. He was living out his dream and carrying on the legacy of his father, who passed away when he was a junior in high school. He was finally a member of the highest level of golf in the world.

And he was exhausted.

After 17 rounds of tournament golf over three months, Donald Constable had qualified for the PGA Tour.

Eden Prairie High School has been likened to a minor league for the University of Minnesota.

With 20 alumni currently on University teams, Eden Prairie has one of the most impressive high school sports programs in the state.

Nestled in a suburb about 20 miles southwest of the University, the school has become a powerhouse in state high school athletics. Since 1996, it has won eight football titles and established a winning tradition that extends to nearly every one of its athletics teams.

Katie Frischmann’s day resembles the typical college student’s in many ways.

She goes to class, studies, hangs out with friends and is still unsure of what she’s going to do with her life when she graduates in May.

Frischmann’s roommate called her fun to be around. Her friend called her personable.

But her day also differs significantly from the average college student’s.

That’s because Frischmann is a member of the Gophers women’s hockey team.

Morning workout

Jayson Ness sent a letter to J Robinson as a child that said he wanted to coach the Gophers.

It was a small gesture at the time, one that Ness wasn’t sure Minnesota’s wrestling coach would recognize.

But Robinson did.

“Yeah, I remember that letter,” Robinson said with a grin. “I sent him a shirt and some other stuff after that.”

Now, two years removed from his wrestling career at Minnesota, Ness has fulfilled his dream.