Speaking of Sports

By John Fragodt, Sports Reporter

Wow, what a way to end the winter sports season!  The Minnewaska Area girls basketball team highlighted a great season of sports with a fourth-place finish at the State Class AA Girls Basketball Tournament.  The Lakers beat Sauk Centre in an exciting opening round, 60-53, but then fell to top-seeded Providence Academy in the semifinals, 88-43, and to the third-ranked team from Minnehaha Academy in the third-place game, 61-42.

The girls routed Lac qui Parle in the season opener, Nov. 22, 70-21.  Almost four months later, the Laker girls team finally ended its season with an impressive 28-5 overall record, which broke a record for number of wins in a girls’ season.  The previous record was 24 set twice.

While the fall and winter sports seasons last only a few months, the winter season is about four months long and it’s always nice to have some good teams to cover during the winter season.

It was another fantastic season of sports at MAHS.  I’m continually amazed and impressed at the great success the Laker sports teams have.

The boys basketball team went 12-15 overall this year after winning just seven total games over the last three seasons combined.  The dance teams had great seasons with the Jazz team advancing to state and the High Kick team missing out by one placing.  And, the wrestlers made it to the Final Four while also sending three wrestlers to State where Miles Wildman highlighted the Laker efforts with a second-place finish after placing fifth and fourth the previous two years.

Yes, what a fun time it was at the State Tourney!  I had never been inside Williams Arena so that was great and it was also nice to see such a great turnout from the community, including the student section and Pep Band.  

Thanks for another great season of sports, Lakers, and congratulations on a fantastic season to the girls basketball team.  This was such a fun season to be a part of.  “We’re going to miss our seniors (Megan Thorfinnson, Sydney Dahl, Addy Kath, Amber Peabody and Lauren Stryhn),” girls coach Nick Danielson said.  “They have done a great job this year and they have been outstanding teammates.  The camaraderie has been excellent this year and it starts with them.”  

•  There was a lot of success by area teams at the state tourney.  MACCRAY, West Central Area and Alexandria also won their first-round games and MACCRAY and WCA went on to play for the state Class A title with the Knights pulling off a 58-41 victory.  WCA (from the West Central Conference) and MACCRAY (from the Camden North Conference) both finished third in their conference before advancing to the state finals.  Wow!

And, just how tough is the WCC?  Well, two boys teams (almost three) also made it to state from the WCC after three girls teams qualified to the State Tourney this past weekend.

Montevideo edged Jackson County by one point for the Section 3AA title after trailing by seven points with 1:08 left in the game and BOLD earned the Section 2A title with a dominating win over Madelia, but the WCA boys fell short of joining the WCA girls at state when they were topped by Henning for the Section 6A championship.

Either way, it’s always nice to have some area teams to watch in the state tourney to add to the excitement of the state tourney.

Ready for more sports?  The spring season for the Lakers starts Tuesday, April 1. Can’t wait!