A look back at '22-'23
Jun. 20—With baseballs back in their buckets and golf clubs back in their bags, the prep sports season wrapped up in Minnesota last week.
And 2022-23 was one for the record books around west central Minnesota.
The area produced two team champions with New London-Spicer football and Lac qui Parle Valley girls golf. Individual champions were crowned in both wrestling and track and field. Willmar produced two of the best players in the state for their respective sports. And legendary coaches added to their already lengthy and impressive resumes.
We're now about two months away from prep sports returning; fall practice for 2023 begin on Aug. 14. So to help fill in that gap, here's a look back at some of the highlights from 2022-23.
No matter the season, Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa's blue-and-silver found a way into the state tournament.
Five sports represented the Jaguars at state: volleyball in the fall, girls basketball and wrestling in the winter and boys golf and baseball in the spring.
BBE volleyball began the run with a fourth-place showing in the Class A state tournament. The Jaguars began their trip to the Xcel Energy Center with a
four-set victory against Badger/Greenbush-Middle River
before losing in
straight sets to eventual state champion Minneota
. BBE lost the third-place match to
Mabel-Canton in five sets
.
On the wrestling mat, the Jaguars won the Section 5A championship with a
38-25 win over Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg
in Benson. Back in St. Paul,
the Jaguars took fourth
, beating Medford 42-22 and losing to Caledonia/Houston 33-27 and Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 32-30. Before the end of the three-day weekend, the Jaguars left with a state champion as junior Maximus Hanson beat HLWW's Collin Boese for the Class A 170-pound championship.
The girls basketball team made it to the University of Minnesota campus and wound up with a third-place finish, just one place behind the 2021 BBE squad that placed second The tournament began with a
60-44 win over Underwood
before losing to eventual state champion
Mountain Iron-Buhl 61-57
. The third-place game saw the
Jaguars upend Hayfield 65-54
at the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul.
After a long thaw delayed the spring season, the BBE boys golf team
repeated as Section 5A champion
. The Jaguars placed sixth in the Class A state tournament with a two-day score of 688. Senior Brady Schwinghammer earned All-State honors after a two-day total of 151 put him in seventh place.
The baseball team had the most dramatic run of any BBE squad. To make state for the first time, the Jaguars won four straight Section 6A games by two runs or less. They beat Upsala/Swanville, KMS, top-ranked New York Mills and
Parkers Prairie in the final
. In the Class A state quarterfinals, the unseeded Jaguars used a fake pick-off play to
beat top-seeded South Ridge 2-1
. They lost to eventual state champ (sense a pattern?)
Fosston 7-5 in the semifinals
, then took fourth after a 2-1 loss to New Ulm Cathedral in the third-place game.
Willmar laid claim to two of the top players in the state during the fall season.
Cardinals senior boys soccer player
Kadar Muhumed was named 2022's Mr. Soccer
for Class AA after leading the Cardinals to a 14-3-1 record. With Muhumed playing center back, Willmar's defense surrendered just 13 goals during the season, six of which came when Muhumed missed three games due to a concussion. He also contributed on offense with three goals and three assists.
"It's great," Muhumed said of the honor. "I couldn't have done it without my team. I'm very grateful."
On the volleyball court, Willmar senior Sydney Schnichels was
named 2022 Ms. Baden Volleyball
, given to the state's outstanding senior player.
The 6-foot-4 outside hitter and University of Minnesota commit finished her final season with 490 kills, 232 digs, 51 ace serves and 28 blocks. With Schnichels leading the attack, Willmar went 24-4 and won the Central Lakes Conference with an 11-0 conference record.
"(At that moment), I reflected on everything that it's taken to get here — all the hard work," Schnichels said. "My younger self would be really amazed. ... This was an amazing way to end and I'm so thankful that it ended this way."
This is THE moment from 2022-23 that no one will forget.
Class AAA state football championship between New London-Spicer and Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton. NLS trails 26-21 with four seconds left and the ball at the 48-yard line. Quarterback Blake Schultz heaves the ball to the right side into the hands to Grant Paffrath. The game looks to be over as Paffrath is being dragged down onto the US Bank Stadium turf.
Along the sidelines, Brycen Christensen is sprinting. Paffrath has the wherewithal to pitch the ball to Christensen, who has a clear path to the end zone.
The Wildcats win 27-26.
Potential heartbreak turns into utter disbelief.
"I knew that I could throw him the ball, so I threw him it. Then I got tackled," Paffrath said in the post-game press conference. "I didn't even see the end of the play. I just heard everyone yelling."
Christensen added, "It was a perfect throw from Blake to Grant. I saw (Grant) was getting tackled, so I was yelling his name and he found me."
The play earned the No. 1 spot on SportsCenter's top 10 plays on Dec. 4. "NFL on CBS" announcers Jim Nantz and Tony Romo made a video congratulating NLS on the miraculous victory.
"These guys (kept) pushing, and sometimes, it does take a miracle," NLS head coach Chad Gustafson said. "You just got to keep fighting and I was so proud of them for not giving up."
Speaking of champions at NLS, Mike Dreier's resume has few equals.
Dreier's a two-time state champion, with Class AA titles in 1997 and 2002. His 20 state tournament appearances is tops among girls basketball coaches. Dreier also owns the record for consecutive seasons with 20-plus wins with 21 from 1991 to 2011. In the 2021-22 season, he became the first girls basketball coach in state history to reach 1,000 career wins.
With a
52-50 victory over Delano
on Dec. 9, Dreier surpassed Bob McDonald for most career victories — boys or girls — with 1,013 wins. McDonald, who retired at Chisholm in 2014, had 1,012 career wins.
In typical Mike Dreier fashion, he deflected the credit to the players around him through the years.
"The total history of NLS basketball and girls basketball, it's a reflection to me on the players and their parents, all the support they've given over many years," Dreier said. "A lot of coaches that have worked in the program, it's a salute to them too. Our administrators who support us at a high level, it's a good thing for them. I just thank them for their unmatched commitment to what I've worked with for a long time."
The Wildcats finished 30-2 this winter and
won the Section 3AA championship
. After losing
50-28 to Minnehaha Academy
in the Class AA state quarterfinals, NLS regrouped with wins over
Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial (74-38)
and
Perham (65-38)
to take the consolation championship.
Dreier now has 1,039 career victories.
After losing in the state tournament as a freshman, Thomas Dineen never wanted to feel the sting of defeat again.
It wasn't just youthful hubris. Dineen kept his word.
The Benson standout won 135 straight matches — going undefeated as a sophomore, junior and senior — and won three straight Class A 195-pound championships.
That final prep match was against St. Clair/Mankato Loyola's Jacob Schimek. And
Dineen dominated in his final go-around
, winning by fall in 2 minutes, 50 seconds.
"Walking off that mat when I held up the three, I looked at my fans and thought, 'I did it,'" Dineen said. Benson had five rows of people in the stands clad in yellow-and-maroon cheering on Dineen.
"Everything I woke up for at 5 a.m. when I didn't want to crawl out of my bed, it all came true. I can't believe it."
With a career record of 203-14, Dineen is the fourth area wrestler to win three state championships, joining Renville-Sacred Heart's John Miller (1982-85), KMS' Kevin Steinhaus (2007-09) and Minnewaska's Tyson Meyer (2019-21).
Anchored by a suffocating defense that gave up a paltry 42.2 points per game, the BOLD girls basketball team made a run into the Class A state final.
Going 26-6 on the season, the Warriors clinched the Section 2A championship with a
54-31 win over Sleepy Eye
. At the state tournament, third-seeded
BOLD beat United Christian Academy 67-29
in the quarterfinals. The Warriors followed that with a
58-46 victory against second-seeded Hayfield
in the semis.
"The thing with small schools, these things aren't about a team necessarily, it's about a community," BOLD head coach Brian Kingery said after the win over Hayfield. "We are going to be competing tomorrow for everybody because you never know when this opportunity is going to come again, and so, you have to take advantage of it and give it everything you got."
The run ended with a
52-21 loss against top-seeded Mountain Iron-Buhl
in the Class A championship at Williams Arena. In that game, the Rangers' defense held BOLD to 17.4% shooting.
"It was an incredible run and I'm very proud of them," Kingery said. "The biggest thing I'm proud about is they've been together the whole time. ... They've been a great family."
One of the area's most successful softball coaches called it a career this spring.
Eileen Suter — known as "Blondie" to those around her — put together a career record of 532-182 over 31 seasons as coach at KMS. That puts her eighth all time in state history, according to the Minnesota Fastpitch Coaches Association. She led the Fighting Saints to five state tournaments in 2004, '07, '11, '12 and '13.
She earned a victory in her final home game as
KMS beat Benson
in the Section 3A playoffs, 17-0.
The Fighting Saints made it into the final four of the section in Marshall. The
season came to an end
after a loss to eventual state champion Edgerton/Southwest Minnesota Christian 5-1 in the championship bracket and 9-8 to Wabasso in the elimination bracket.
In Blondie's final season, KMS went 18-6 overall and 13-2 in the Camden Conference.
"It's hard to leave because I love this game and I love working with the kids," Suter said. "I will be back next year helping out with some practices and some things, so it won't be all cold turkey."
A trio of area athletes became state champions at the state track and field championships at St. Michael.
The Montevideo Thunder Hawks secured a pair of them. The first came from junior thrower Francis O'Malley, who
won the Class A boys shot put
with a toss of 57 feet, 6 inches. He beat Park Rapids' Luke Hartung by more than five feet. It was a bit of redemption for O'Malley, who was the state runner-up in 2022.
"It's just pure joy," O'Malley said. "We knew coming off the past years this was our goal and we set it from day one that we just had to do all the little things right to hopefully get to this point. I'm just thankful for the opportunity, but to come home with it (the title) is a great feeling.
The next day, senior Avery Koenen
won the Class A girls triple jump
. The North Dakota State University women's basketball commit wrapped up her final performance in Montevideo purple with a winning jump of 37 feet, 11.25 inches. She beat Perham's Jaden Hackel by a half-inch.
"If I didn't get it, I knew that I'd still be happy for them because they're insane jumpers," Koenen said. "I just said a quick prayer and focused. My heart was racing. But I knew what I had to do and was going to be content with whatever outcome. I can't really look back and regret anything, so I'm very happy with how I finished and thankful that that's how it went."
Litchfield junior Blake Aller wrapped up a title in the
Class AA boys 200-meter dash
. During prelims, he set a new Class AA state meet record with a run of 21.85 seconds. Then in the finals, a late kick from Aller helped him secure the championship with a wind-aided time of 21.50. A tired Aller had to look up at the STMA scoreboard to believe what he accomplished.
"I had to soak it in and see the time," said Aller, who placed eighth at state last season. "It felt really good. I saw it and I was like, oh my gosh, let's go."
Granite Falls has a strong baseball history with 28 appearances in the state amateur baseball tournament. However, that state tournament experience eluded Yellow Medicine East High School.
That changed this spring.
Going 18-5 this spring, YME locked up its first ever trip to state after beating Russell-Tyler-Ruthton for the Section 3A championship. Down 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh inning,
the Sting won 3-2
after a two-run, walk-off double by Nolan Hildahl.
Before this season, Granite Falls made state in 1953 and Clarkfield qualified in 1986, but never as YME.
"We have the crew to do it," Hildahl said after sending his team to state. "This senior group, we've kind of been trailblazin' all year. We've been trying to keep it steady and get this tide rollin'."
YME placed sixth in the Class A state tournament after going 1-2. The unseeded Sting lost
7-0 to No. 2 New Ulm Cathedral
. In the consolation bracket, they beat Hinckley-Finlayson 11-0, then lost 5-1 to South Ridge.
With a song in their heart, the Lac qui Parle Valley girls golf team won its third state title in six years in the Class A state championship at Pebble Creek Golf Club in Becker.
Down eight strokes after Day 1, the Eagles stormed back on Day 2 and
won the state championship
with a two-day total of 696. Fillmore Central was second with 697.
"It feels really good," Eagles junior Kaitlyn Kittelson said. "I think a lot of us were nervous to start off, but once we got going, it seemed like a normal day of golf."
The mood was light for LQPV. The team sang songs during the half-hour drive from their hotel in St. Cloud to the golf course.
Three of the Eagles' golfers — Isabella Jacobs (fourth, 165), Molly Halvorson (tied-fifth, 169) and Kittelson (tied-fifth, 169) — earned All-State honors.
