SPORTS WRAP
Grab your winter jacket and sunscreen. High school spring sports is about to begin. Owatonna will have 10 varsity teams attempting to get in their allotted number of contests around the weather and end-of-school-year events. Many of the Huskies’ teams bring back a significant number of key contributors.
Circle these dates on the Huskies’ sports calendar: April 11 (baseball home opener), April 18 (one of just two home meets for the girls’ golfers), April 22 (girls’ lacrosse hosts Lakeville South, the defending state champs) and April 24 (boys’ lacrosse hosts the defending section champ, Farmington).
You can add May 11 (the only home date for Huskies’ track and field, in addition to a home boys’ golf tournament), May 15 (the start of the boys’ tennis section tournament), May 18 (the final regular season varsity softball game at Morehouse before the team moves to the new high school next year), and June 23 (the MSHSL clay target tournament and the final day of the 2022-23 athletic season).
The first spring sports postseason event is about five-and-a-half weeks away.
Clay target is a hit
The sport of clay target shooting has taken off in Minnesota and around the country. Owatonna is no exception. With 108 student-athletes registered this season, the Huskies have the largest roster in the state and will compete in the biggest conference. Clay target conferences are based on the number of team members, not school attendance or region.
Coming into the season, teams don’t know who their conference opponents are. That’s announced in mid-April. But there’s no issue with long bus rides. Teams shoot at their home range and compare scores online. Owatonna was third in their conference last spring behind Prior Lake and Foley.
OHS is led by a group of four senior captains who are each multi-year letter-winners. Taylor Busho is a hold-over from the Huskies’ appearance at the MSHSL state meet in 2021. “She led the team with the highest overall average for 2022,” says coach Mike Kingland. “Taylor is the first girl in our short history to accomplish both leading the team in average and making the state tournament.” She shot her first 100-straight over the summer and has signed with Upper Iowa University.
Anna Fox finished as a top-25 female in the conference the last couple of seasons. Teagun Ahrens “has steadily improved and worked extremely hard last summer and fall,” said Kingland. He dusted 99 of 100 one summer night. Dawson Risser “is a fundamentally sound and technical trap shooter,” adds Kingland to round out the captains.
But the depth doesn’t stop there. More multi-year letter-winners include senior Alyssa Kiefer who was on the top-25 female list and junior Aven Aaseth who led the team in scoring at the Minnesota state championships in Alexandria last spring.
Kingland is also looking for contributions from junior Kayden Glynn who earned his first letter last year. “He has figured things out pretty well in just two seasons,” said Kingland. Glynn had the third-highest average on the 2022 team. Sophomore Ethan Schubert earned the Most Improved Award last year by upping his average by more than eight targets over the previous season.
Sophomore Darren Leckner was a member of the 2021 state team as an eighth-grader. That just scratches the surface says Kingland. “Of course with 108 athletes on the team, including 36 that are brand new, there is a ton of unknown and untapped potential just waiting to rise to the top.”
College hat trick
Preston Meier (OHS Class of 2022) netted his first collegiate lacrosse hat trick recently. The Concordia University-Wisconsin freshman credited his teammates during a post-game interview on Twitter @CUWFalcons saying, “It was all on the team. We were just working together in that second half. Getting open, teammates were finding me on cuts. So, really it was just the offense was all clicking together.” The accomplishment highlighted a come-from-behind win over Kalamazoo on March 27.
Meier ran cross-country for the Falcons last fall and competed in the Division III North Regional. At OHS he qualified multiple times for the state cross-country meet, led the lacrosse team in scoring last spring, and was the starting goalie for the hockey team. He captained all three of those teams and was named the Senior Male Athlete of the Year.
Game at the U
Blooming Prairie will host a softball game at the University of Minnesota’s Jane Sage Cowles Field. They’ll play NRHEG on Tuesday, May 9 at 6 p.m. Awesome Blossom baseball played at the University of Minnesota a few years ago and BP Activities Director Ali Mach was watching for a chance to offer the softball team the same opportunity.
Scheduling fell into place this year to hold the non-conference meeting with their chief rival at the Gophers’ home field, “I think it’s a great experience for our kids to play on a top-level field. I’m excited for them, and I know the girls are really excited too,” Mach expressed.
Home games on the road
Speaking of hosting games on the road, the Blooming Prairie baseball team will play their home games at Riverland Community College in Austin. The high school field is affected by the new construction encroaching on the outfield.
“Overall it’s a positive thing for our school, for our district. There’s some construction going on, and they had to move the fence for our varsity field. So, that’s not playable right now,” said BP head coach Matt Kittelson. He also said it’s a good lesson for the team. “That’s something we can’t control. We just have to go with it. We get to play at a really nice facility in Austin.”
He believes they’ll be able to use their regular field next spring, and adds that there is some talk of adding fields across the street at some point. As far as the team goes, Kittelson says the squad didn’t graduate any seniors. That gives BP some nice depth on the mound. “I think guys gained some valuable innings last year. I think that should help them out a lot this year.” Many of the players hit the batting cages during the offseason as well.
Play ball
At least three recent OHS grads are on college baseball rosters this spring. Payton Beyer (2021) is a freshman for Division II Winona State University. Beyer, who was the Big Nine Conference player of the year during his senior year for the Huskies, is playing centerfield. He had a two-hit game in late March where he doubled and drove in a run. Beyer was Owatonna’s Senior Athlete of the Year in 2021. He played on a section championship football team in 2020 and was a part of the boys’ basketball state tournament team in 2021.
Matt Seykora (2021) is a red-shirt freshman for D-II Southwest Minnesota State University, playing second base, and starting most games so far this season. He also played on the state-qualifying football team in 2020 and went to state as a wrestler. Both played in the Lions’ All-Star Baseball Series as seniors. The Mustangs play a doubleheader in Winona on Wednesday, April 12.
Caleb Vereide (2022) is a freshman for the University of Northwestern in St. Paul. A nice thing about baseball is that we usually get to see these players competing in summer ball back in Owatonna.
Owatonna Live play-by-play schedule
Thursday, April 6
Randolph at Medford baseball, 5 p.m.
Monday, April 10
Triton at Medford softball, 4:30 p.m.
Tuesday, April 11
Austin at OHS baseball, 5 p.m.