DULUTH – As a three -sports show in New Richmond High School, the spring season was strictly reserved for baseball diamond at the start of the Brock Uger career with Tigers.
It was only by the Pandemic of Covid-19 during his second year that the plans changed for the 2022 graduate, when his goal has shrunk on his two best sports: football and hockey.
“Once I am a covid, I left baseball, because I wanted to improve in football and hockey,” said Unger. “So I joined the track, and it ended up being one of my best sports …”
After showing promise during his first season in long jump competition and several Sprint events as a junior, Uger has taken off the following season, helping to deliver the title of Tigers First Division 1 for boys at Wisconsin Inteerscholastic Athletic Association State Championships in the 4×100 meter relay.
His relay team, which posted a quick time of 42.19 seconds, was fully supplied with the football players of the northern intercollegial conference, Andrew Trandahl, a ball carrier in Umary, and Kennan Stowers, a defensive return to Minnesota State Moorhead. The anchor of the relay, Ethan Turbeville, is now sprinter from division III to Wisconsin-la Crosse.
Thanks to its rapid ascent in the new sport, Unger has officially hung.
Contributed athletic / UMD
“I have always been the kind of guy who wants to compete in everything, and I think that the track is really one of the only sports where it just comes down if you are faster than the other guy,” he said. “I love this part on this subject.”
His new passion for the track led him to hang up his skates as a former captain of the New Richmond hockey team and to briefly deposit his football career to pursue an opportunity with the athletics team of the State of Minnesota.
Finally, after a season with the Mavericks, the itching to resume contact sports led him to reach out to the UMD football coach, Curt Wiese, with whom he had previously connected during a summer camp as a junior in high school.
Not wanting to abandon his budding talents on the track, Unger inquired about the possibility of participating in the two sports at the UMD and won the blessing of Karly Brautigam, director of athletics and cross-country.
“They said they are doing both, and it is the greatest blessing of my life,” said Uger. “I am eternally grateful for what they did for me and how they worked …”
Unger won the field in nine games with the UMD football team last fall, recording their first career interception in the fourth quarter of a September 21 match against Umary. The following week against the state of southwest Minnesota, Unger broke two passes.
Contributed athletic / UMD
On the track, Unger has already engraved his name in school records in three events, including 60 meters with a time of 6.89 at the NSIC indoor championships last February.
During the same event, Unger and the 4×400 relay team with Austin Kehr, Billy Auvin and Brady Johnson displayed a 3: 20.16 to set another best school note. UNGER, Johnson, Reid Olson and Cole Brisbois also won the 4×200 record at Maday Classic in superior with a time of 1: 30.02.
“He is just an incredible addition since he walked on this campus, just in terms of enthusiasm to be excellent and he brings people with him,” said Brautigam. “He has a competitive fire that has repercussions among our entire team whenever he is in training.”
Unger entered the NSIC Outdoor Championship Weekend in Duluth with great hopes and a lot of momentum after helping the 4×100 relay team to display a record time of 41.02 during the meeting of the Hamline University of members of the Johnson, Olson and Brisbois relay.
Unger missed a place in the final in 200, but made the 400 with a preliminary time of 48.23. He then broke this issue in the final by performing a 47.60, good for third place and a personal record.
UNGER and his teammates were a third solid of the 4X100 relay in 41.06, then crowned the event with a fifth place in 4×400.
The men of the UMD ended eighth in the field of 11 teams with 48 points, with individual third parties and relay of Unger corresponding to the best finishes of the weekend for the team.
With his participation in two collegial sports while being double in statistics and actuarial sciences and economics, finding downtime is rare for Unger, although it is the way he loves him.
“It's really busy, but it's a good thing. I love to stay busy and I like to have several things to do,” he said.
Unger admits that the absence of off -season can sometimes be wreaking havoc.
“I would say that the biggest challenge is probably only my body and my recovery,” he shared. “I have never gone up to be backwards with football or off -season elevators with a track, because I'm still in season for one of them and sports overlap a little.”
With juggling two sports, coordination between the two coaches employees and the Unger has been vital for the arrangement to work.
Contributed athletic / UMD
“He does it very well,” said Brautigam. “I think the two coaches employees understand how engaged in the program. And then to work alongside the Wiese coach and the football staff and to help ensure that he is centered on the fact that Brock has great experience and to make the most of the two worlds…. Was also very transparent. ”
