Here’s a huge and hearty welcome to the year 2020. It’s hard to imagine that it’s been 20 years since we brought in the 21st Century with the Y2K scare? As the old saying goes, “time sure flies” — we are already a fifth of the way through the 21st Century and it’s been more than 50 years since the historic first moon walk.
Looking back at 2019, I am going to attempt to recall some of the most memorable sports highlights of the year, both locally and nationally.
The year started with Clemson’s big victory over Alabama in the BCS championship. It was the third victory for the Tigers in the past three years.
In March, Westbrook-Walnut Grove edged Southwest Minnesota Christian (74-73) in a thriller at Marshall for the South Sub-Section boys’ basketball championship. A few days later, the well-balanced Chargers, who finished fourth in the highly-competitive 11-team Red Rock Conference, earned a state-tournament trip with an 80-72 victory over Dawson-Boyd in the Section 3A title game on that same SMSU court.
College basketball’s elimination rounds to the Final Four were electric, as always, before the Virginia Cavaliers won the championship with a triumph over a gallant Texas Tech squad which had pulled a few surprises along its way to the finals.
In May, the Minnesota Twins were red hot and ended the month with a big lead in the American League Central Division, setting the tone for an exciting summer of following them the rest of the way to their first division title since 2010. Remember all of the home runs hit in 2019 by the “Bombas”?
In September, the Adrian High School volleyball team again played with precision and hustle as they won nearly every match on its way to Red Rock Conference and South Sub-Section championships. The Dragons finished the season with a 28-3 overall record and were a perfect 9-0 in conference action. Over the past two years, Adrian was 18-1 in conference matches and an incredible 55-7 overall — that’s a winning percentage of .887, or 89 percent, which is really amazing!
In late October, the high school football season came to end for Adrian, Heron Lake-Okabena / Fulda and Murray County Central as the Dragons (4-5), Coyotes (3-7) and Rebels (5-4) each had their share of highlights and competed well throughout the entire fall.
In early November, Fulda High School’s Morgan Gehl, a junior distance-running sensation, representing the combined Murray County Central / Fulda Warriors, impressively — and I mean impressively — won the 2019 Minnesota State High School Class A girls’ cross country individual championship with a 5,000-meter time of 17:53.5, winning the 176-runner race by a remarkable 27.2 seconds. Gehl has consistently moved “up the ladder” at the state meet, improving from 61st to eighth to fourth to third to first over her five years of qualifying for and running at the elite event.
This year, the Warriors qualified as a team and finished fourth at the state meet with 165 points (1-26-27-45-66), just 11 points from third place. The team scores ranged from 103 to 321 among the 16 qualifying teams. There were no seniors on the state-meet team. Running for the Warriors, along with Gehl, were freshmen twin sisters Ashley and Amanda Overgaauw, eighth-grader Brylei Schreier, sophomores Ella Stapek and Ryanna Schreier, and junior Josie Harms.
A week after Gehl’s crowning accomplishment, the Minnesota Gophers football team created state-wide excitement and drew national attention with a thrilling home-field victory over previously undefeated Penn State.
In December, the excitement of basketball, gymnastics, hockey and wrestling has taken over as we approach the middle of another southwestern Minnesota winter. I anticipate the action of 2020 to be every bit as good as 2019.
Don’t forget — the Minnesota Gophers are playing Wednesday (at noon) against Auburn in the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Florida. Here’ hoping that “The Boat” will get “rowed” well in the projected warmth of the “sunshine state’s” west coast.
Happy New Year!
