Hamilton College boasts eight recipients on the 2025 Empacher-Intercollegiate Rowing Coaches Association (IRCA) Scholar Athlete list, which was released on Wednesday, June 18.

In order to earn scholar athlete honors, rowers and coxswains must be from an IRCA-member school, be in their second year or more of eligibility, competed in their program’s top three boats during the current season, and have a 3.50 or better cumulative grade point average through the 2024 fall semester. 

Christophe Boivin ’25, Max Klivans ’25 and Ian Vogelsang ’25 were all three-year honorees. The complete list can be found below.

Christophe Boivin ’25 (Mount Laurel, N.J. / Bishop Eustace Preparatory School)

Hunter Howard ’27 (Frisco, Texas / Frisco HS)

Max Klivans ’25 (San Francisco, Calif. / Lowell HS)

Sam Lacy ’27 (Columbia, Md. / River Hill HS)

Robert Neithart ’26 (Montecito, Calif. / Loyola HS of Los Angeles)

Kai Polozie ’27 (Rochester, N.Y. / Allendale Columbia School)

Nicolai Tolstoy ’27 (Stockholm, Sweden / Norra Real Gymnasium)

Ian Vogelsang ’25 (New Hope, Pa. / New Hope-Solebury HS)

Hamilton’s varsity eight tied for ninth in the May 21 IRCA/Intercollegiate Rowing Association Division III Top 15 poll, which was the final ranking of the season.

 

This is the fourth installment among my Favorite 15 John’s Journal stories from my 15 years with the Minnesota State High School League. Watching one of the state’s oldest and best hockey rivalries in an historic arena had been on my bucket list for a long time and I was thrilled to spend time in Roseau. This story was originally posted on January 6, 2022.

ROSEAU – The chapel was quiet a couple hours before services began. A few older congregants had already gathered on a frigid January evening, sitting on wooden benches and chatting in a warm space above ice level, occasionally turning their heads to look through windows that offered a view of the frozen, reflective worship space.

As more and more folks arrived, a theme was clear. Some wore the green and white of the Roseau Rams, with others draped in Warroad Warriors black and gold. The towns are only 22 miles apart, within earshot of the Canadian border, and high school hockey is a binding agent, a cultural touchstone and darn near a religious experience.

On this Tuesday night, the most famous hockey rivalry in Minnesota was on center stage for the first time this season. Even though some fans live in one town and are employed in the other, hockey draws a clear line in the ice. That was evident as Warroad fans grimaced upon paying for admission and having a big green Roseau Ram stamped on the back of their hand.

“We’re small schools and we’ve had hockey forever,” said 81-year-old Bob Lund, father of Roseau head coach Greg Lund and assistant Bill Lund. “It’s our game.”

Bob was sitting on a folding chair that was placed against the boards near the entry, a high honor for someone who has seen it all through the years. Bob was a youngster when Roseau Memorial Arena was built in 1949; he remembers the days before plexiglass when the boards were topped with chicken wire, and when gravel, instead of concrete, provided the base for the bleachers.

The lobby areas of the arena are a Roseau hockey Hall of Fame. Walls are covered with framed photos of all the greats in Ram history who went on to play hockey in college, the NHL and the Olympics. Also displayed are team photos, state championship trophies and all manner of wonderful memorabilia.

The hockey rivalry between Warroad and Roseau is special. Boys in both towns have been smacking pucks with sticks for more than a century, and the first official high school game between the two was played in 1945, the same year as the inaugural MSHSL state tournament. On this glorious Tuesday evening in early 2022, the Rams and Warriors boys would meet for the 179^th time.

Both programs are familiar throughout Minnesota. Roseau has been to the state tournament a record 34 times, winning seven state titles between 1946 and 2007. Warroad has made 22 state appearances and has won four crowns, most recently in 2005.

In pregame discussions, one thing was clear: When Roseau and Warroad meet on the ice, you can throw out the records. Over the years, surprises have happened more times than anyone can remember.

“That’s the thing, every year it doesn’t matter what our records are,” said Warriors coach Jay Hardwick, a 1998 Warroad graduate. “It’s still going to be a great hockey game.”

This was one of the biggest games in the state this season, and certainly the biggest in Roseau County, home of both towns. Warroad came in with a record of 11-0 and holding the No. 2 ranking in Class A. Roseau was 11-1 and ranked eighth in Class 2A.

Warroad had recorded one-goal victories over Mounds View, Bemidji and Grand Rapids, with its other eight wins coming by margins between two and 12 goals. Roseau lost to Andover 4-3 in its second game of the season before starting a 10-game winning streak. Among the teams the Rams defeated were Minnetonka, Moorhead, Grand Rapids, Rogers, Bemidji and Mahtomedi.

A good-sized crowd watched the junior varsity teams play before the Zamboni groomed the ice for the night’s main attraction. Hometown radio crews sat at a table a few rows behind the penalty boxes, Jon Michael from Warroad’s KQ92 next to Jason Merritt and Tracy (Bobcat) Ostby on Roseau’s WILD 102. The exquisite Roseau High School pep band, under the direction of Chris Barnes, pumped out great music. Among the orchestra members were a few junior varsity hockey players, hair still wet from showering, dressed in game-day suits and ties.

Game No. 179 in the series stayed true to the predictions. Surprises can indeed happen, and on this night good things happened for the visiting Warriors. The teams played a fast and scoreless opening period, and the first massive roar from the overflow crowd of more than 3,000 came with Roseau on a power play in the second period.

When Warroad’s Ryan Lund swiped the puck, raced down the ice and scored a shorthanded goal, the Warriors student section waved black and gold pompoms and screamed, the sound reverberating off the ancient and arched and sacred wooden beams in the ceiling.

Matt Hard scored to make it 2-0 Warroad late in the second, and Murray Marvin-Cordes got two in the third period before Daimon Gardner closed out Warroad’s 5-0 victory. Warriors goaltender Hampton Slukynsky stopped 28 shots; Roseau goalie Carter Christianson had 22 saves.

The game showcased plenty of talent, including four of the state’s top scorers. Roseau’s Max Strand ranks third with 44 points, Warroad’s Gardner and Jayson Shaugabay are tied for seventh with 36, and the Rams’ Noah Urness (31) is tied for 10th.

Roseau had been shut out by Warroad only four times previously in all these years. Tuesday’s result made the all-time series standings look like this: 105 wins for Roseau and 69 for Warroad with five ties.

Despite the loss, Greg Lund appreciated the importance of the rivalry.

“This is what everybody looks forward to,” he said. “We saw what happened here, it was a huge, huge game for everybody and the fans love it.”

Before the teams took the ice, Hardwick had asked the Warriors if they were nervous. A few heads nodded affirmatively.

“I said, ‘You know what? It’s OK to be nervous.’ I told them I’ve played in these games, a couple of them for section championships, and I’ve coached in 20-some of these and I still get nervous. But that’s OK because it means you care and it means something to you.”

Roseau has an MSHSL enrollment of 348 high school students and Warroad has 295. With Roseau opting up from Class A to Class 2A, the two teams no longer play hammer-and-tong battles to decide which one wins the Section 8 title and goes to state; they faced off in Section 8 playoff games 23 times between 1947 and 1998.

“These are always great games, and there’s a lot of respect for each other,” Bob Lund said, sitting along the boards in the rink where he watched his kids and grandkids skate. “I wish we had 20 games like this every season.”

After graduating from Minnesota Duluth in 1966, Bob coached hockey in Silver Bay for two years before returning to his hometown. The family business is a furniture and carpet store … and hockey.

A newer rink, known as the North Rink, is attached to Roseau Memorial Arena. (There is a third rink in town, Roseau Sports Center.) Some of the locals joke about the North Rink being a de facto day care center, where kids can be dropped off at any time of day or night. Hockey is so big in Roseau that each youth team has its own locker room at the North Rink, meaning families don’t have to lug equipment back and forth from home. Kids also are allowed to run a tab at the well-stocked concession stand, with parental eyebrows sometimes rising when they stop in to pay off the balance.

During Tuesday night’s game, youth hockey players dressed in blue jerseys wandered through the crowd selling 50-50 raffle tickets. As is the custom, youth teams are not allowed to wear Roseau green and white … they earn that right when they reach high school hockey. A lot of cash was dropped into the 50-50 bucket, with the winner taking home more than a thousand dollars.

After the final horn, the Warroad fans celebrated and the Rams faithful shook their heads and reiterated that you just never know what might happen when these teams meet.

The 180^th game in the series is scheduled for Jan. 25 at the Warroad Gardens arena, built in 1993. There is talk of, at some point in time, having the teams from Roseau and Warroad schedule their two regular-season meetings on a back-to-back, home-and-home Friday and Saturday.

No matter the schedule, the Warriors and Rams will continue to skate under the historic wooden ceiling in Roseau, building memories and making history in one of Minnesota’s hockey cathedrals.

From his folding chair on the glass, Bob Lund looked around the arena and smiled at what has been built … architecturally, athletically and spiritually.

“It just might last forever,” he said.

–Feel free to contact me via email: [email protected]. You can follow me on Bluesky at @minnesotamillea.bsky.social and on Twitter/X @MinnesotaMillea

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office arrested a former gymnastics coach on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, after he confessed to detectives that he had sexual intercourse twice with a girl he was coaching when she was younger than 16-years old.

The investigation began as a missing person case, when detectives were attempting to locate the (now adult) victim, after she failed to participate in a court-ordered detox program. 

The victim was located by detectives at the Lakeland home of 28-year old Alexander Katchalov, her former gymnastics coach. The victim used to attend gymnastics classes at Elite World Gymnastics in Lakeland, where Katchalov was formerly employed. 

Katchalov was already designated as a Florida Sexual Offender and on felony sexual offender probation following a prior conviction for Possession of Photograph Showing Sexual Performance of a Child (in 2017). The victim in the latest allegations against Katchalov was not a victim in his child pornography case.

Detectives interviewed the victim after locating her at Katchalov’s residence, and at that time, she had mentioned having a sexual relationship with Katchalov back when he was her coach. 

During the detectives’ initial interview with Katchalov, he denied having a sexual relationship with the victim when he was her coach, but he eventually claimed that he only had sexual intercourse with her two times when she was 15, and it happened two-weeks apart.

“Given this former gymnastic coach’s deviant background, it is possible that there could be more victims out there. If he has victimized anyone else, we want them to contact our detectives in the Polk County Sheriff’s Office Special Victims Unit. He has a horribly twisted attraction to children, and he needs to be locked away.” – Grady Judd, Sheriff

Detectives also discovered that Katchalov violated his probation by using an unreported internet messaging system during correspondence with the victim and he also possessed an un-registered online gaming account. All “internet-identifiers” by Katchalov must be registered with the Sheriff’s Office per probationary guidelines. 

Alexander Katchalov was arrested and taken to the Sheriff’s Processing Center and charged with: Lewd Battery (F2, 2-counts), Failure to Comply with Sex Offender Registration (F3), and Violation of Probation. 

Katchalov was incarcerated in Florida State Prison between September 30, 2021 to August 24, 2022 following his conviction of child pornography possession. His probation was set to expire on August 23, 2029.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) – The Gator faithful does not have to wait much longer for the Gator football season to kick off. According to Zach Abolverdi of On3 reports the Gators open up fall camp starting on July 30th.

The Gators will practice weekly on Monday through Thursday and Saturday mornings. The off days are Sundays and Fridays for the team, though there is media availability on Friday.

There are two scheduled scrimmages at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on August 9th and 16th.

The Gator football team is in search of its fourth national title for the first time since 2008.

Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.

Copyright 2025 WCJB. All rights reserved.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Stuart Hughes, a 47-year employee of RIT, succumbed to his battle with cancer on July 15, surrounded by family and friends. He was 64.

Mr. Hughes, affectionately known as Stu, was a Henrietta native who began working on the university grounds crew at the age of 18. After serving 20 years tending to RIT’s grounds, he transitioned to become the Ice Operations Manager of Frank Ritter Arena and the newer Gene Polisseni Center when it opened in 2014.

He was a fan favorite of RIT Tiger hockey fans for nearly three decades. Fans would chant “Stu!” while he maneuvered donuts in the large Zamboni after every Tiger playoff series victory.

“Stu was a fixture of our hockey community and helped make an ice rink feel like a second home for players and fans alike,” said Executive Director of Athletics Jackie Nicholson. “You couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride when you set foot in the rink and saw the flawless sheet of ice, he always had ready, just waiting to be skated on. Game nights won’t be the same without Stu.”

Mr. Hughes drove the Zamboni one final time this past season for “Support Stu Night” as he was battling cancer. Fittingly, his last official game was in March 2024, when the men’s hockey team won the Atlantic Hockey Championship.

“Stu was a great friend and co-worker from the very first day I started at RIT,” said former RIT Men’s Hockey Coach Wayne Wilson, who recently retired following 26 years leading the program. “You’d be hard pressed to find someone more meticulous about his job or take more pride in having the best ice in college hockey than Stu. There also are not many Zamboni drivers who fans know by name, but he was a big part of our program that will be missed.”

Mr. Hughes is predeceased by his mother, father, and sister, Deborah. He is survived by his by his daughter, Amanda; brother, Eric; and sisters, Sandra, Nancy, Marilyn, and Victoria.

Public calling hours will be from 3 to 7 p.m., Thursday, July 24 at the Miller Funeral Home, 3325 Winton Road South, Henrietta. The RIT flag will be lowered in his memory and honor on July 24.