Gridders Crush Benedictine in Banner Sports Weekend; 500 Free Football Playoff Tickets Available to Students

St. Thomas cruised to a 57-10 win over Benedictine in Saturday’s opening round of the NCAA Division III football playoffs, and has a special Thanksgiving treat for students going to Saturday’s second-round game against Linfield College:

Free tickets.

Jane Canney, vice president for student affairs, will give one ticket to the first 500 students who show up Monday at the Box Office in Murray-Herrick Campus Center with their St. Thomas IDs. The tickets will be available beginning at 10 a.m. on a first-come, first-served basis.

Fans will see a rematch of last year’s quarterfinal playoff game against Linfield, which defeated the Tommies 31-20 in Oregon. Linfield (10-1) topped California Lutheran 42-26 on Saturday and will travel to St. Paul for the noon game in O’Shaughnessy Stadium.

St. Thomas dominated Saturday’s game against Benedictine, scoring touchdowns on five straight drives in taking a 36-10 halftime lead. The Tommies set five school records, with Ben Wartman becoming the school’s leading career rusher with 4,035 yards. See tommiesports.com for the highlights.

It was a busy sports weekend for St. Thomas teams:

  • The volleyball team saw its 31-7 season end with a first-round loss in the eight-team national tournament in St. Louis.
  • Junior Ben Sathre finished second among 278 runners in the Division III national cross country championship in Iowa, just one second behind the winner.
  • The men’s basketball team went 2-0 in Seattle, and the women’s basketball team split a pair of games in Los Angeles.
  • The women’s hockey team won and tied with St. Benedict and the men’s hockey team split with St. John’s.
  • And the swimming teams dominated invitational meets at Macalester.

Details on all can be found in tommie.sports.com.