Budget cuts coupled with scheduling conflicts caused MSU’s intramural co-ed flag-football champions to punt on the opportunity to compete for the regional title.

MSU student Justin Drane’s team won the intramural championship at MSU and normally would have competed at the regional tournament at Oklahoma State University.

In years past, MSU paid the $300 entry fee for the intramural champions to enter the three-day tournament, but budget cuts forced MSU to eliminate this expense.

The extra cost to attend, coupled with some scheduling conflicts among team members, caused Drane to decide to withdraw his team from the tournament.

“It was really disappointing,” Drane said. “We had a good coed team, and I thought we had a good possibility of winning it.”

Teams from around the region will compete in the tournament this month, and the winners will go to Florida for the national tournament.

Drane hopes to bring his team to the regional tournament next year.

Football

Missouri State evened their record to 2-2, losing to the University of Northern Iowa 35-7 in Missouri Valley Conference play last Saturday in front of over 15,000 fans at Plaster Sports Complex.

The crowd was the ninth largest ever for a Missouri State football game.

UNI, ranked third in the nation coming into the game, picked up where they left off in last year’s 42-0 beat down of the Bears and established a comfortable 21-0 lead at halftime and coasted to the end of the game.

The Bears were finally able to get on the board with seven seconds left to go on a five-yard touchdown pass from Cody Kirby to Clay Harbor.

The Bears, now 0-1 in the Missouri Valley Conference, head to Youngstown State the first weekend of October for another tough Missouri Valley Conference matchup. In their previous game, the Penguins, 3-1, shut out Indiana State 28-0.

Ice Hockey

The Missouri State Ice Bears opened up their season with an impressive sweep of Eastern Illinois.

The Bears beat the Panthers 9-2 on Sept. 25, with Senior BJ Norman putting up three of the Bears’ nine goals.

The Ice Bears continued their dominance in Saturday’s matchup, handing Eastern Illinois their second loss of the season 8-3.

Missouri State plays on home ice for the first weekend of October in a two-game series against the Ferris State Bulldogs at Mediacom Ice Park.

The first game starts at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2, and the second will be at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3.

Cross Country

The Missouri State Cross Country team hit the ground running, literally, finishing first in their opening dual against the SBU Bearcats and finishing fourth overall in the Missouri State Classic.

Led by Sophomore Terry Philips, who was named the Missouri Valley Conference Cross Country Athlete of the Week on September 22, the Bears will head to Chicago on Saturday, Oct. 3, to compete in the Sean Earl Lakefront Invitational.