The St. Thomas athletics department hosted a kick-off event titled “Hoops Hysteria” for the men and women’s basketball teams Thursday at Schoenecker Arena.
The event helped the teams tip-off the upcoming basketball seasons in style with shooting competitions, skills competitions and intrasquad scrimmages by both teams.
“It was good to put the jerseys on, have the fans out and have the gym filled,” women’s basketball first-year guard Phoebe Frentzel said. “It was exciting and fun and we start next week, so it was good to get it going.”
Frentzel took first place in the women’s three-point contest over her teammate, senior guard Maggie Negaard. Frentzel was excited about her win and said it was “fun to get out there and throw a few shots up.”
The men’s team also held a three-point shooting competition where senior guards Anders Nelson and Riley Miller tied with 14 three-pointers made in the first round of 60 seconds. The two players got one more shot to make another basket, where Nelson sunk his attempt to advance to the championship round.
Nelson faced off against graduate student guard Burt Hedstrom in the championship round. Hedstrom made 18 three-pointers in his opening round against graduate student guard Ryan Lindberg before beginning the championship round moments later.
Hedstrom was on fire and defeated Nelson with 14 made three-pointers in the final round over Nelson’s eight.
The event was open to the public and St. Thomas students were encouraged to attend via emails from the St. Thomas athletics department. The email also offered 50 randomly-selected students a chance to win $500 in a shooting competition.
Students began by shooting one layup before moving on to free throws. If the student made both shots on the first try, they were given one chance to make a three-pointer. The two students who made the three-point attempts moved onto the final stage of the competition: the half-court shot.
Junior Jalen Wight made his half-court shot as the men’s and women’s basketball teams swarmed around him in excitement.
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The men’s basketball team also did a dunk contest where two players, senior guard Parker Bjorklund and junior forward Courtney Brown Jr. faced off, scoring 25 and 26 points on their dunk attempts respectively.
However, a St. Thomas student from the crowd entered into the competition and made his own dunk, receiving a perfect 30 from the judges.
Senior Ella Leipzig enjoyed the competition, stating that it was her favorite contest of the night.
“I’ve never actually seen someone dunk, so I really liked it,” Leipzig said with a laugh. “I’m definitely coming to games this season.”
The night finished out with intrasquad scrimmages by both teams. Miller made his team’s scrimmage interesting with a three-pointer at the buzzer to secure a 26-26 tie for his team.
The men’s basketball team heads to Chicago State University Tuesday at 7 p.m. The women tip off their season at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“I’m ready to go out there and compete against a different jersey,” Frentzel said. “We’ve been competing against each other for so long, so if we go out there, play together and play against someone else, it’ll be fun.”
Cam Kauffman can be reached at kauf8536@stthomas.edu.