Updated on 5/9/24 at 8:12 p.m.
On the evening of May 5, St. Olaf’s Boxing Club hosted a sparring showcase in the Pause Mane Stage. The event featured about two hours of fighting between members of the club, and drew a relatively large and enthusiastic crowd.
The boxing matches took place on an improvised ring in the center of the Pause’s dance floor, which was surrounded by chairs. The Pause techs clearly had fun a good time hosting the event — red and blue lights danced across the room, and the smoke jets were used very frequently. The crowd seemed to love their playlist, which featured multiple Eminem hits, as well as the “Rocky” theme.
There were seven matchups in total, with each match consisting of three two-minute rounds. The fights featured a diverse array of weight classes, and each match drew cheering and excitement from the crowd.
The last two fights — a heavyweight match between Michael Cornelius ’24 and Pavel Karasek ’25 and a cruiserweight match between Odin Milbury ’27 and Forrest Dorsey ’24 — were especially intense. The crowd was rowdy and excited. These matches were won by Karasek and Dorsey, respectively.
Other exciting matches included a lightweight fight won by Ben Cermak ’24 against Tore Michaelson ’25, a flyweight fight won by Brenda España ’27 against Maddie Alexander ’27, a featherweight fight won by Sophia Nastari-Case ’27 against Xuân Dipman ’27, a middleweight fight won by Tim Sullivan ’27 against Gareth Sweet ’27, a middleweight fight won by Cora Harpel ’26 against Claire Malone ’27, and a middleweight fight won by Natalie Wilson ’24 against Theresa Worden ’24.
Last spring, the Boxing Club hosted a “Chess Boxing” event in the Pause. Members of the Boxing Club and members of St. Olaf’s Chess Club competed in combined rounds of boxing and speed chess.
Unlike last year’s event, this sparring showcase was refereed by the leaders of the Boxing Club, who were able to get coaching and sparring certification from Boxing USA after a successful fundraising campaign this year.
After the success of Boxing Club’s second public showcase, it seems like students can look forward to boxing events being an annual part of the Pause’s programming. In an email interview, Boxing Club Coach Ethan Robinson ’24 said that “Boxing club is hoping to host one to two events a year from now on. We hope these events will help spread the word about our club across campus and get more people interested in boxing, whether they want to fight, or because they are interested in the sport as a form of exercise.”
Robinson added that, “Overall, we are very happy with how our sparring showcase turned out, and how much support we received from the campus community. We hope to continue to streamline our events and look forward to bringing more boxing to the Hill.”
Boxing Club is open to new members of all abilities and experience levels, and they will start practices again in the fall.
Correction: A previous version of the article incorrectly listed Xuân Dipman ’27 as the winner of the fight against. Sophia Nastari-Case ’27. Nastari-Case won the fight.
