MINNEAPOLIS — Marqueis Gray’s fourth-down sprint for the pylon from the 2-yard line in the closing minutes lifted Minnesota to a 22-21 victory over Iowa on Saturday, giving the Gophers possession of the Floyd of Rosedale bronze pig trophy for the second straight year.

Gray went 11 for 17 for 193 yards and a touchdown passing and ran 11 times for 62 yards and the go-ahead score for the Gophers (2-6, 1-3), who lost their first three Big Ten games by an average margin of 38 points. Minnesota students stormed the field in celebration and surrounded the players afterward.

Marcus Coker carried the ball 32 times through several huge holes for 252 yards and two touchdowns, but the Hawkeyes (5-3, 2-2) missed a chance to move into a four-way tie for first place in the Legends Division with a rough November schedule ahead.

James Vandenberg went 16 for 24 for 177 yards and a touchdown to Marvin McNutt, who caught seven of those passes for 101 yards. Mike Meyer missed two field goals for Iowa in the first half.

Trailing 21-10, Gray sneaked for a first down on fourth-and-1 at the Minnesota 42 and hit a jumping Da’Jon McKnight for a 21-yard completion before Duane Bennett capped the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run with 8:22 left.

Then the Gophers caught Iowa playing almost 15 yards back on the kickoff, and Kim Royston — who had a game-high 16 tackles — recovered the onside attempt. Gray had a pair of sharp passes for first downs to move the ball forward and then, on fourth-and-goal at the 2, ran to his right to scrape the edge of the end zone with 2:48 remaining for Minnesota’s first lead of the entire month.

Vandenberg was out of sync when Iowa got the ball back, and after three straight incompletions he escaped a sack but was well short of the first down on his scramble, giving the Gophers consecutive victories over Iowa for the first time since 1999 and 2000.

This was an all-around effort for first-year coach Jerry Kill’s young team.

Minnesota was 118th out of 120 teams in the nation in sacks entering the game, but the Gophers took down Vandenberg three times — giving them eight for the season to match last year’s paltry total.

Bennett had 20 carries for 101 yards and a touchdown despite a lost fumble, and Devin Crawford-Tufts caught two passes for 100 yards. Even the crowd played a part, despite Iowa backers filling at least one-third of the stadium. The fans were as into the action as they’ve been here since, well, last year’s Iowa game.

They heartily cheered after a scoreless first quarter, a deserved ovation for a team that had been outscored 48-0 in the first quarter in its first seven games. The cumulative first-half score coming in for Minnesota was 103-3 in favor of the opponents.

The Hawkeyes lost three straight games to finish the regular season last year, ending with a 27-24 defeat here. Coach Kirk Ferentz was still miffed this week by his team’s effort on that cold afternoon, when asked what he remembered from the game.

But this was more of the same. The Hawkeyes lost their fifth straight road game, and Vandenberg has yet to win away from Iowa in the regular season.

Meyer, who was named one of 20 semifinalists for the Lou Groza Award given to the nation’s top kicker, missed from 24 and 43 yards on consecutive possessions, with the latter attempt bouncing off the left upright.

Gray found a wide-open Crawford-Tufts, a speedy freshman from the Minneapolis suburb of Edina, for 61 yards right after Vandenberg’s touchdown toss to McNutt, the longest play from scrimmage this season for the Gophers.

Gray has struggled mightily with his accuracy in his first year as a starting quarterback, but this was by far his best game throwing the ball. He hit tight end Colin McGarry on third-and-goal from the 3 to tie it just before the half.

Kyle Henderson leveled Vandenberg on a blind-side cornerback blitz, knocking the ball out on third down at the Minnesota 14 for the first forced turnover by the Gophers in five games. Brandon Kirksey brought the fumble to midfield. Jordan Wettstein, subbing for the injured Chris Hawthorne, finished that drive with a 28-yarder on his first college field goal try.

But Coker passed the 250-yard mark on the next possession and powered past the goal line from the 1 to push Iowa’s lead back to 21-10.

Griswold Tigers Freshman cross country runner Rebekah Topham capped off a brilliant season with the best girls performance at the state meet.  Topham won the Class 1A state title running a time of 13:59. (4th fastest all-time and 1A record).

Team Finishes: 3rd- Griswold, 6th- Tri-Center Neola, 8th- Corning

In Boys 1A action St. Albert took home the team championship while Riverside finished 7th and Guthrie Center 9th.

Individually Cade Cleaveland of Riverside finished 2nd with a time of 16:05.  Josh Sindelar of St. Albert finished 4th.  John Gunderson of Riverside finished 7th.  George Doll of St. Albert 15th.  Spencer Rochholz of Adair-Casey 21st.

In Boys 3A Glenwood finished 11th with Mark Abrams leading the team with a 9th place finish.

Ali Krogman took 6th Place today at the 3A Girls State Cross Country Meet in Fort Dodge.  She ran a time of 14 minutes and 59 seconds which was 50 seconds behind the state champion Madison Waymire of Dallas Center Grimes.

Harlan finished 11th in the team competition with Shenendoah-Essex finishing 13th.  Times for those teams are listed below:

11.   233  HARLAN                                 (  16:05  1:20:21   1:42)
=====================================================
  1     15    156 Jessica Feldman       11   15:22
  2     17    159 Bailey Kuhl           10   15:26
  3     28    158 Marissa Klindt         9   15:40
  4     84    157 Shelbie Jacobsen      11   16:49
  5     89    155 Dru Beach             11   17:04
  6   ( 96)   161 Chantel Schmidt       10   17:26
  7   (104)   160 Rachel Pauley         11   18:41

 13.   315  SHENANDOAH-ESSEX                       (  16:18  1:21:29   0:34)
=====================================================
  1     50    186 Mariah Johnson        11   16:00
  2     51    185 Megan Hart            10   16:01
  3     65    188 Alexis Saner          11   16:22
  4     73    184 Jasmine Glasgo        11   16:32
  5     76    187 Delaney Kinghorn       9   16:34
  6   ( 83)   183 Frannie Clark          9   16:47
  7   ( 86)   189 Jamie Schubert        12   16:56

The 2011 State Cross Country Meet is scheduled for Today (Saturday 10/29) in Fort Dodge at the Lakeside Municipal Golf Course.

Here are the local qualifiers that will be competing today:

BOYS

w/ Chris Parks

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     MLB-WORLD SERIES GAME 7
     Cardiac Cards sit atop baseball world
     ST. LOUIS. (AP) – The cardiac St. Louis Cardinals are World
Series champions for the 11th time after beating the Texas Rangers
6-2 in Game 7 of the 107th World Series. It’s their second World
Series title in six years.
     Cardinals’ ace Chris Carpenter got the win. He was pitching on
three days’ rest and went six innings, allowing two runs on six
hits, striking out five. Four relievers followed Carpenter with
Jason Motte (maht) getting the save with a scoreless ninth. Motte
was six-for-six in save opportunities in the postseason.
     The Cards rallied to win the final two games of the series,
falling behind in both those must-win games. But that just capped a
series of comebacks for St. Louis, which was written off by most
experts before putting on a dramatic late-season run.
     The World Series triumph ends a wicked two-month run for the
Cards, who were 10-1/2 games out of the playoffs in late August.
They made the playoffs on the final day of the season as the wild
card. They needed five games to beat Philadelphia in the first
round, went six against Milwaukee in the NL championship series and
went the distance against the Rangers. Texas failed in its second
straight trip to the Fall Classic and has never won a World Series.
     Cards manager Tony La Russa won his third World Series title. He
won in 1989 with Oakland in the American League, and with St. Louis
in 2006 and this season.
    
     MLB-WORLD SERIES-MVP
     Freese named MVP for heroics, dramatics
     ST. LOUIS (AP) – St. Louis Cardinals third baseman David Freese,
the hometown boy made good, is the MVP of the World Series. He hit
a two-run double in the first inning of Game 7 and batted .348 with
a homer and seven RBIs for the Series.
     Freese is the sixth player to win the NLCS MVP and World Series
MVP in the same year. He had a record 21 RBIs in the postseason.
     His two-run double in the first inning of Game 7 tied the game
at 2-2. After the Cards were down to their final strike in Game 6,
Freese was the hero of that wild 10-9 Cards victory, hitting a
walkoff home run in the 11th inning that forced Game 7.
     Freese got some competition in the hero department from Allen
Craig, whose pinch-hit single delivered the victory in the opening
game of the World Series. Craig hit an opposite field home run in
the third inning for the go-ahead run. Craig also saved a run in
the sixth when he made a leaping catch to rob Nelson Cruz of a home
run.

ST. LOUIS, Mo., October 28, 2011 – The St. Louis Cardinals announced this afternoon that outfielder Matt Holliday suffered a sprained right wrist last night in World Series Game 6 and will be replaced on the
Cardinals active roster by rookie outfielder Adron Chambers for tonight’s Game 7.  Chambers, 25, has appeared in 10 games during the postseason, going 1-for-5 with 2 RBI.

w/ Jim Field

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ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) – Commissioner Jim Delany insists expansion remains on the Big Ten’s back burner.  While the national landscape continues to change, Delany says his conference is “as happy as could be” with 12 members. He says the Big Ten is “not in an active mode,” and the conference is simply “monitoring” what’s happening.  Nebraska jumped from the Big 12 and started Big Ten play this year, allowing for two six-team divisions and a championship game in football.  Notre Dame is often linked to the Big Ten. Delany says he spoke to athletic director Jack Swarbrick a few months ago about hockey – not expansion.