2011-12 MIAC Playoff and Championships end with baseball, outdoor track and field

The 2011-12 MIAC postseason events came to an end over the weekend with the 2012 MIAC Baseball Playoffs at Veterans Field in Minnetonka, and the 2012 MIAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Concordia College in Moorhead. The second-seeded Saint John's baseball team claimed their first-ever postseason title with a title-game win over St. Thomas on the diamond, and the Tommies swept the two track and field titles on the Concordia campus. Use the links below to visit each event's home page, featuring complete results, stats, recaps, photo galleries and more.

| 2012 MIAC Baseball Playoffs | 2012 MIAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships |

MIAC awards season in full swing

The 2012 MIAC spring awards continued this week with golf honors Monday, baseball Tuesday and outdoor track and field Wednesday. The awards include top individual honors, All-Conference teams and the All-MIAC Sportsmanship Team selections. Use the links below to view the complete honors for each sport. The awards releases conclude Thursday with the 2012 MIAC Softball Awards.

2012 MIAC Awards | Men's Golf | Women's Golf | Baseball | Men's OTF | Women's OTF |

MIAC Coaching Carousel
There were several coaching changes announced in the MIAC this week, with Concordia and Saint Benedict making a change in the dugout for their softball programs, and the Blazers also have a changing of the guard in swimming and diving, and Hamline hired a new men's soccer coach.

Concordia-Moorhead Athletic Director Rich Glas announced that Mike Reese has been named the new head women’s fastpitch softball coach. Reese takes over for Megan Johnson who resigned from the position after coaching for four seasons. For the second week in a row, Hamline has hired a men’s coach who already knows his way around campus. Alex Morawiecki, who played both hockey and soccer for the Pipers before graduating in 2006, returns to take over the reins of the soccer program. Morawiecki takes over a team that won just four games last year. But he knows something about turnaround projects. In his first season as an assistant at Xavier, he was part of a team that improved form 2-13-1 the year to the Atlantic 10 championship and a NCAA appearance. The next year, the Musketeers invaded the Top 25 ranking pool. Morawiecki, a Winona, Minn. native, has also coached a Northern Illinois and Concordia (St. Paul).

The College of Saint Benedict welcomes new head softball coach Rachael Click to the department. Click comes to the Blazers from Jacksonville University where she served as a graduate assistant coach for the Dolphins in 2010. Prior to coaching at Jacksonville University, Click served as an assistant coach for the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire from 2009-2010. College of Saint Benedict swimming and diving Head Coach Kathy Walker has resigned effective at the end of May. Jordan Wolfrum, who has served as an associate and assistant coach at CSB for the last three seasons, has been named interim head coach. Walker served as head coach for eight seasons at Saint Benedict and has been a coach for the Blazers since the 2002-03 season. She has accepted a position as Aquatics Coordinator at the American International School of Muscat in Muscat, Oman.

St. Olaf's Erickson finishes as national runner-up as Oles are ninth as a team at NCAAs

St. Olaf junior Molly Erickson fired a final-round 76 on Friday to finish in a three-way second place tie overall, one stroke off the winning score, and lead the Oles to a ninth place finish at the NCAA Division III Championships. The Oles' team score of 314 matched the first round as their best of the championships and was the third best score of the season.

Erickson had a very clean scorecard in Friday's final round. After her only double bogey on the 11th, her second hole of the afternoon, she made pars on 14 of the final 16 holes to finish with a 76. Erickson was one back of Catherine Wagner of UW-Eau Claire, who survived the final three holes to win the individual title. Wagner had a three-stroke lead onto the 16th tee where she made a bogey. She then made a par on the par-3 17th and a bogey six on the par-5, 471-yard 18th to hold on by a stroke. Wagner is a two-time All-America.

Sharing second place with Erickson were Centre's Emily Bachert -- a four-time first team All-America -- and Sarah Paulson of Central College. The second place finish at a national tournament is the best for a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference player since 2004, when Concordia's Katie Taylor was runner up as well. The Cobbers had another in 1992 when Lisa Hanson was also a runner up.

2012 season ends in D-III playoffs for five MIAC teams

The Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) had five teams in NCAA Division III National Championships action over the weekend, as the Gustavus men's tennis team, Carleton women's tennis team and St. Thomas softball team all concluded their seasons in regional tournaments. Meanwhile, St. Olaf and Gustavus both earned Top-11 finishes at the Division III Women's Golf Championships.

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This year, the MIAC enters its second season with weekly television exposure in the Twin Cities and beyond thanks to GameON! The weekly sports show features "The MIAC Minute" each week, where host/producer Rod Simons sits down for an interview with a coach, student-athlete or administrator from the conference.

This week, Simons will take a look back at an exciting weekend in the MIAC as the 2012 MIAC Baseball Playoff champion was crowned in Minnetonka, and the 2012 MIAC Outdoor Track and Field Championshps wrapped up in Moorhead. Last week, St. Thomas football coach Glenn Caruso was the featured guest on the show in a must-see appearance for all MIAC fans. Last week's show can be viewed online here.

Tune in to GameON! every Sunday at 10:30 a.m. on MY29 in the Twin Cities. For MIAC fans outside the metro area, visit the show's home page to watch full archived episodes. Fans are also invited to attend the weekly tapings, which are Tuesdays at 7 p.m. at Seven Steakhouse/Sushi/Ultralounge & Skybar on the corner of Hennepin and 7th in downtown Minneapolis.

In addition to the MIAC home page, stay connected to the conference through its various social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.