Sports

NRHEG's All-Conference pitcher Sophie Stork practices her pitching with her long-time catcher senior Cloie Arndt on Thursday, April 8.

NRHEG’s softball team leans on returning All-Conference athletes

Unlike most spring sports teams, the New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva (NRHEG) softball team has four varsity starters returning and all of them have competed at the varsity level for at least three seasons. Not only do the Panthers have a good quantity of starters returning, but they also...

Center fielder Alex Miller, one of the two returning starters from Blooming Prairie's 2019 team, works on his hitting in the batting cage on Thursday, April 8.

Miller, Larkoski return to lead the Blossoms’ baseball

In 2019, Blooming Prairie baseball went 8-13, but with a large group of seniors and two returning starters, the Blossoms believe they can do much better this season. Even though there’s just two returning starters and he’s one of them, senior center fielder/pitcher Alex Miller said that doesn’t put...

NRHEG freshman guard Daxter Lee (3) tries to drive past Blooming Prairie forward Mitchell Fiebiger. Lee led the Panthers with 16 points, but it wasn’t enough; the Awesome Blossoms won 63-60.

A freshman rarity

New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva (NRHEG) boys basketball Head Coach Isaiah Lundberg believes his team can be a top three team in its subsection next season. A big reason for his optimism is the play of freshman guard Daxter Lee, who was the Panthers’ leading scorer with an average of...

Blooming Prairie point guard Bobbie Bruns gets ready to pass the ball to an open Megan Oswald during the opening minutes of the Awesome Blossoms’ Section 1A semifinal game against Kingsland.

Rewriting the record books

Before the Blooming Prairie girls basketball season concluded, junior point guard Bobbie Bruns had already achieved a pair of distinguished honors. She’d broken the girls career assists record and she was one of only 17 girls basketball players from around the state to be named Class A Honorable...

Senior Payton Beyer attempts a jump shot during Thursday’s game against Lakeville South.

Stunning win earns Huskies trip to state

In a stunning upset, the Owatonna boys basketball team captured the Section 4A championship to earn its first trip to state in a decade. The Huskies upset No. 1 seed Lakeville South on its own court 94-85 March 25. “It’s pretty amazing. It has been 10 years since we qualified for the state...

Landen Johnson wrestles for position during Thursday’s state individual tournament. He went on to capture a state wrestling title in the 160-pound division.

Johnson claims state title

After a dominant year where he won 34 of his 35 wrestling matches, Owatonna junior Landen Johnson capped off the season by winning the state championship in the 160-weight class. Johnson earned his place in the state tournament after placing first in individual sections, and he proved quickly that...

Freshman Samantha Bogen, sophomore Ezra Oien and senior Grace Wolfe share a moment together during a recent hockey game. Bogen and Oien proved to be big assets for the team on offense this season, coming up with 75 points for the Huskies.

YOUNG TALENT

While the team may not be heading to state this season, the Owatonna girls hockey team still has a bright future ahead of them, and this is in large part due to the young talent currently on the team. Out of the 27 players on the team’s roster, 17 are either freshmen or sophomores, and they already...

Seven wrestlers from three area high schools qualified for this week’s Minnesota State High School League Wrestling Championships. Above, Westfield’s Tyler Archer lifts his Blue Earth Area opponent off the mat during his 3-2 win by decision at the state individual preliminary competition on Saturday, Mar. 20.

ON TO STATE

Seven area wrestlers will be representing three Steele County schools this week in the state individual wrestling tournament in the Twin Cities. Tyler Archer of Blooming Prairie’s Westfield, Tommy Elwood, Josiah Hedensten and Brennon Hoffman from Medford and Cael Robb, Landen Johnson and Matt...

While Huskies star Evan Dushek is defending in this photo, it’s his shooting ability that’s perhaps most noteworthy. The junior recently scored his 1,000th point of his career, a milestone only achieved by seven other Owatonna players.

Dushek’s Magic

During the March 8 Owatonna boys basketball game against Northfield, junior Evan Dushek accomplished what only seven other players in team history had before him. He scored his 1,000th point as a Huskie. “It's super cool,” Dushek said. “Obviously living here my whole life and growing up here, it's...

Blooming Prairie tight end Mitchell Fiebiger breaks loose for some yards after the catch during the Awesome Blossoms’ 49-6 win over Randolph in the Section 1A Championship. For his play on the field, both offensively and defensively as a linebacker, Fiebiger was chosen as one of the 31 players from the state nominated for the Mr. Football Award. He was selected to participate in the Minnesota Vikings Showcase Game.

Fiebiger’s super senior season

Besides getting a chance to compete in the state tournament, Blooming Prairie tight end/linebacker Mitchell Fiebiger’s senior season couldn’t have gone much better. His team went undefeated and won the Section 1A Championship, he made the All-District team and was named District MVP and he was the...