As we enter March and near the completion of the high school winter sports season, I would like to make special mention of several sparkling accomplishments by area athletes.
First a huge congratulations to Adrian / Ellsworth wrestlers Scot Edwards and Brayan Anaya for exceptional performances at the Minnesota State High School Wrestling Tournament in St. Paul, winning five of their eight matches — three of them by fall (pinning their state-caliber opponents).
Edwards, a senior, repeated as state runner-up in the 285-pound class. He won his opener with a quick pin in just 32 seconds. Following a dramatic 3-1 overtime victory in the quarterfinals, Scot advanced to the championship match with a fall at the 3:36 mark, after trailing 5-0, in the semifinals.
Edwards was pinned (at 3:07 midway through the second period) in the title bout by defending state champion Craig Orlando of Bertha-Hewitt / Verndale / Parkers Prairie. It was the third consecutive state championship for Orlando, who finished the season undefeated (50-0).
Edwards, who qualified for last spring’s state track and field meet in the shot put, finished another exceptional wrestling season with a stellar 34-4 overall record.
Anaya, a sophomore, won the Section 3A champion at 106 pounds and won twice in St. Paul. He opened with a first-round fall (4:30), lost a 9-4 overtime decision in the quarterfinals, wrestled back with a pin at 3:35 and was defeated in his final match (11-3), finishing an excellent season with an impressive record of 24-4. It was a repeat state-tournament individual qualification for Brayan.
“Those two wrestlers really represented our school and community well at state,” praised Dragons coach Gregg Nelson. “It was a nice year for our team, finishing with a 16-7 dual meet record, our best season in the last four years.”
A pair of Fulda / Murray County Central wrestlers — Keigan Behnke, fourth at 182, and Christian Kuball, fifth at 170 — both placed among the medalists at the Section 3A Meet at Canby, performing very well in that two-day affair on February 21-22.
On the hockey scene, HL-O’s Elly Bang, playing for the Windom Area Eagles, earned All-Conference honors (Big South) as the team’s top all-around player this winter. It was the second all-conference award of the school year for Elly, who also earned that distinction in volleyball as the setter for the HL-O / Fulda Coyotes.
Heron Lake-Okabena / Fulda boys’ basketball player Eli Fest surpassed the 1,000-point mark for his varsity career back on February 3 when the Coyotes defeated Edgerton (84-69) at Fulda. He started the game with 972 varsity points and following a 31-point night was at 1,003 for his varsity career.
After scoring two varsity points as an eighth-grader in the 2016-2017 season, Fest tallied a team-leading 300 points as a freshman in ’17-18 before ripping the nets for 370 points last year as a sophomore in ’18-19. Averaging 17.4 points per game for his entire junior campaign, Eli finished ’19-20 with 471 points, including a recent 36-point performance in a closely-contested 79-77 overtime loss to Westbrook-Walnut Grove at Okabena (February 18).
The versatile all-around performer, who can attack the hoop equally well with either hand, still has his senior season of hoops remaining and has a total of 1,143 (2-300-370-471) varsity career points.
Best of luck to the Adrian / Ellsworth boys’ basketball team as it tangles — for the third time — with Westbrook-Walnut Grove in Thursday (March 5) evening’s second semifinal game (3A South Sub-Section) at Worthington. Undefeated Southwest Minnesota Christian plays Hills-Beaver Creek in the first game (6 p.m.) followed by the Dragons versus the Chargers.
The Dragons edged W-WG in an overtime thriller (92-89) at Adrian back when winter was new (December 13), but came up short at Westbrook (66-55) just nine days ago (February 24).
The Chargers (19-8) are riding an eight-game winning streak and advanced with a hard-fought 57-50 victory over Murray County Central in Saturday’s quarterfinals. The Dragons (13-13) snapped an end-of-the-season five-game losing streak by holding off a gallant effort by Russell-Tyler-Ruthton, earning a 66-62 win on “Super Saturday” at Worthington.
Based on their high-quality returning rosters, MCC and R-T-R will each field improved teams next winter. I predict both the Rebels and Knights to be very good in boys’ basketball in 2020-2021.
There’s been a lot of “slamming” of the Minnesota Gophers and Coach Richard Pitino following four close losses in the past two weeks, with a huge 83-57 victory over Northwestern (in Evanston, Illinois on February 23) sandwiched in between back-to-back home-court losses to Iowa (58-56) and Indiana (68-56), along with the recent very-close losses to Maryland (74-73) at Williams Arena and to Wisconsin (71-69) in Madison.
The Gophers (13-15 overall, 7-11 Big 10) have certainly been competitive in all of these games, but just can’t seem to finish them out and get a win. That happens as the other team is striving to win, too! Making a few free throws at the end of the Maryland game — after the Terapins rallied and sliced into the Gophers big lead (up 16, 47-31, at halftime) — could have clinched a big-time victory in that one.
But when your free throws aren’t going in, you absolutely need defensive “stops” on the other end.
The Gophers (10-5 at home) finish the season with the rematch at Indiana Wednesday (6 p.m.) and host Nebraska Sunday (March 8) at noon. Maybe they can win the last two and then make a “splash” in the Big 10 Tournament, which begins in Indianapolis on March 11.
