MIAC All-Conference Teams

WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's soccer team turned up the offensive heat this season—and Sean Butcher (Cave Creek, Ariz.), Garrett Grunke (Verona, Wis.), and Jared Wolt (Farmington, Minn.) were the ones fanning the flames.
 
And with the talented trio spearheading the Cardinals' offensive resurgence, Saint Mary's put together one of its best seasons in years.
 
The Cardinals compiled an 8-9-1 overall record—the most wins in a season since going 8-8-2 in 2002—while also going 3-6-1 in conference play and missing out on its first Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference post-season tournament berth on the final day of the regular season.
 
Thursday afternoon, Butcher, Grunke, and Wolt—who combined to score as many goals in conference play as the entire Cardinal team had in each of the two previous seasons—were all recognized for their accomplishments, being named honorable-mention All-MIAC.
 
Grunke started all 10 conference games for the Cardinals, scoring a team-leading three goals and adding an assist for a team-best seven points. The junior forward was one of just three players to start all 18 games this season. He shared the team lead in goals with four—a single-season career high—while also picking up three assists for a career-best 11 points.
 
Butcher, like Grunke, enjoyed a career year in 2016. The junior forward did not miss a start this season, scoring two goals and adding two assists for six points in Saint Mary's 10 MIAC contests, while joining Grunke atop the team's goal-scoring lead with four, and leading the Cardinals in both assists (5) and points (13) in 18 overall games.
 
Wolt picked up his second honorable-mention All-MIAC honor this season, collecting one goal and adding an assist for three points in 10 conference games—all starts—while finishing his junior campaign with two goals and two assists for six points in the 17 games that he appeared in.
 
St. Thomas' Mark Heydt, who helped the Tommies to the conference's regular-season and playoff titles, was named MIAC Player of the Year, while UST's Jon Lowery earned MIAC Coach of the Year honors.
 
As part of the conference-wide sportsmanship initiative, the MIAC also announced the 10th annual All-MIAC Sportsmanship team for men's soccer, which included Saint Mary's James Larson (Polson, Mont.).