Sixty years ago this month, Jerry Keller hit the pop-music charts with his one-hit wonder “Here Comes Summer.” It’s a great song, one of those happy tunes from the late ‘50s that tells about school being out and a long summer looming.
As we’ve come to know, summers usually are not long — they seem to fly by. In just over two weeks, the daylight minutes will start to decline. That’s a depressing thought, let’s not dwell on that. Let’s appreciate the increasing minutes in the days ahead.
Men’s slow-pitch softball action began Monday night with six teams competing over a 10-week schedule in the Heron Lake-Okabena-Rost-Dundee League. The season-ending double-elimination tournament is scheduled for Friday, August 9 and Saturday, August 10.
With impressive overall scores, both the Murray County Central girls and the Heron Lake-Okabena / Fulda boys won Section 3A golf team championships Monday and will advance to next week’s (June 11-12) state meet at Pebble Creek near Becker.
Paced by individual champion Abby Hamman, who was girls’ medalist by 33 strokes with her incredible two-day, 36-hole total of 163 (82-81), MCC finished with 809, which was 52 strokes better than Adrian’s second-place total of 861, while W-WG (903) edged HL-O / F (905) for third.
Leading the well-balanced Coyote boys were Payton Marquardt (second, 177), Joe Fischer (third, 179), Cory Renneke (fifth, 186) and Ethan Koep (seventh, 190) which produced a winning score of 732, a total of 67 strokes ahead of runner-up MCC (789). Southwest Christian (791) and Wabasso (821) were the other competing teams at the section meet. Isaiah Schmid and Tyler Madison complete the Coyotes advancing six-member squad.
MCC will send eight golfers (six girls and two boys) to Pebble Creek, while four Adrian golfers (three girls and one boy) qualified individually.
Cierra Tutt (fifth, 211), Vanessa Dahlgren, Amber Boock, Paige Behrends and Kylie Frisk join Hamman on MCC’s winning girls’ team, while boys’ individual medalist Jack Pierson (165) and Cole Ahlers (sixth, 188), along with Adrian’s Brock Henning (seventh, 190), will play at Pebble Creek as individuals
Three Adrian girls — Madelyn Odell (fourth, 206), Josie Altman (216) and Gracia Elias (218) — qualified individually for the state golf meet.
I extend congratulations and wish the best of luck to all 18 advancing area golfers and to both sectional championship teams.
Congratulations to Fulda sophomore Morgan Gehl, Murray County Central junior Aaron Johnson and Adrian junior Scot Edwards on qualifying for the upcoming high school state track and field meet.
Gehl is a repeat qualifier in both the 1,600 and 3,200 after winning each of those long-distance races at last week’s Section 3A Meet in Luverne. Johnson ran a great race to finish second (also bettering the state-qualifying standard) in the 110-meter high hurdles and Edwards earned his advancement to compete at Hamline University’s Klas Field (in St. Paul) by placing second in the shot put at Luverne.
Among the best non-qualifying performances in the section meet was a third-place effort by MCC junior Justin Clarke in the boys’ 1,600. While Clarke was not quite able to catch the two advancing Lac qui Parle Valley / Dawson-Boyd runners — Mike Kvaal (4:40.12) and Ezekiel Sather (4:40.25) — ahead of him, he was able to outkick Yellow Medicine East senior Rory Shackelford (4:44.21) with his time of 4:43.98 and claim six third-place points for the Rebels.
Gehl set a new meet record in the girls’ 1,600 as her time of 5:05.36 was a bit faster than the 5:06.09 run by Julie Gifford of Tracy-Milroy-Balaton back in 2001.
Another long-lasting meet record — the girls’ shot put — held since 2002 by Fulda’s Jenna Wendorff (42-8.5) was bettered this year by Windom sophomore Delany Smith’s distance of 42-11.75.
After winning three games in a row — following a 14-3 loss — over the Tampa Bay Rays, the Twins have improved to an amazing 40-18 (.690), which is still the best record among all 30 Major League teams. The Dodgers (41-19 .683), Astros (40-20, .667) and Yankees (38-20, .655) are close, while the Rays (35-22, .614) are the only other team with a winning percentage above .600.
The Indians have lost four of their last 10 games and are now tied with the White Sox (29-30, .492) for second in the American League Central, a whopping 11.5 games behind the first-place Twins.
The most remarkable statistic about Minnesota’s fantastic start has been its incredible 15-3 record after a loss. That’s right after their 18 losses, the Twins have won 15 times (a percentage of .833), which is among the best in Major League history! They have yet to lose three games in a row this season — that’s practically unheard of after playing 58 games.
