Let's get caught up...track, golf, fastpitch (VIDEOS**)

The B-B-E Jaguars fastpitch team has pushed through to the second day of the Section 4A tournament. After an initial 8-5 loss in the first round on Tuesday to Mayer Lutheran, the Jaguars responded with a 2-1 walk-off eight-inning win against Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart. The 1-1 record at Fenway Park in Forest Lake sets up a trip to No. 2-seeded Braham on Thursday this week. The elimination playoff game against the Bombers is at 4 p.m.

Against BL-H-S, Brielle Worms pitched a complete game in the circle with 10 strikeouts, 5 walks and 5 hits.

By the way: Fenway Park fields in Forest Lake to the Wisconsin border is a distance of less than 15 miles. That's absolutely wild to have a high school fastpitch team from our part of central Minnesota open the playoffs that close to Wisconsin. I will never understand.

In Day One games played in the Section 4A fastpitch playoffs:
Gentry Academy 17, Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart 1
Braham 17, Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop 2
West Lutheran 10, Ogilvie 5
West Lutheran 9, Braham 3 (this knocked the Bombers into our bracket for tomorrow's game, while West Lutheran moves into the 4A semis)
Gentry Academy 6, Mayer Lutheran 1 (Gentry advances to the 4A semis)

Elimination games of 4A
B-B-E 2, BL-H-S 1 (8 innings)
Ogilvie 9, G-F-W 5

In track and field news...
Six members of the B-B-E Jaguars track and field teams have earned tickets to the Section 5A state qualifying meet. They competed in the Sub-Section 5A-West meet in Litchfield on Tuesday.

The section qualifiers includes two boys' athletes and four girls' athletes as follows:
Taylor Pieper: 400 dash and long jump
Mason Douvier: 800 run
Brooklyn Breitbach: 1600 run
Ziva Miller: 400 dash
Laken Anderson: high jump
Whitney Anderson: pole vault

Here's a video from subsections on Tuesday in Litchfield:


Here's Anton Zins during the long jump in Litchfield:


Any time a student-athlete can push past track and field subsections, it's an exciting achievement. They now get another week of practice plus a memorable trip to Collegeville next Wednesday, May 27 to compete at Clemens Stadium.

In golf news...
The B-B-E Jaguars boys' and girls' golf teams competed today in the opening round of the Section 5A meet at Eagle Creek Golf Club in Willmar. Updates are forthcoming tonight.

UPDATE: Cash Lehner, Walker Winte and Owen Roering have all advanced through to the Section 5A finals. For the girls' team, both Olive Olson and Kragen Wiener saw their 9th grade seasons conclude today. Olson shot a 110, and Wiener had a 121. Both had terrific freshmen seasons this spring, with Olson being B-B-E's lone All-Conference golfer from both squads. Wiener was in the running for All-Central Minnesota Conference honors and ultimately finished in 8th place. The top 6 individual girls' golfers in the CMC earn All-CMC hardware. For the boys, the top 8 are given All-CMC honors because that group has more overall athletes in the conference.

B-B-E boys' scoring, Section 5A first round today: Cash Lehner 89, Walker Winter and Owen Roering 90 each, Jaxxon Koetter 92, Treyson Nemmers 126.

Later tonight, I will get some video posted here. It has been a wide-open, full-speed sprint for the past few days. Tonight, I'm back in Morris at the Regional Fitness Center, University of Minnesota-Morris, with AAU Wildcats basketball practice.

In baseball news...
The baseball team hosts LP-GE in the last regular season game on Thursday this week: JV at 5 p.m. and varsity to follow in Elrosa. The Jaguars (12-9) are currently ranked No. 22 by QRF in Class 1A out of 117 teams. The Thunder hold a 14-3 record and are ranked No. 19. The winner of this game has almost a lock on the No. 3 seed in Section 6A for next week's playoffs.

LP-GE finished 9-1 in the Prairie Conference to claim the title outright. Upsala/Swanville Area (13-7) took second with an 8-2 record.

Section 4A fastpitch playoffs begin tomorrow, golf regular season concludes

The B-B-E Jaguars fastpitch team has earned the No. 4 seed via the QRF rankings in the Section 4A seeding. This was announced by the MSHSL on Sunday. It gives just a day basically for the team to prepare for the playoff opener. It's a shoddy way to operate a section, and it's a huge disservice to the teams and athletes in the section.

The Jaguars (11-8) open the playoffs at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, May 19 at Fenway Park in Forest Lake (near Wisconsin)...the opponent will be No. 4-seeded Mayer Lutheran. The Crusaders are 10-7 overall. Teams with seeds of 7 or higher are guaranteed two playoff games. The Jaguars play at 4 p.m. in either the winners' or losers' bracket.

Section 4A fastpitch seedings:
1. Gentry Academy of St. Paul (10-4)
2. Braham (15-5)
3. West Lutheran (11-4)
4. Mayer Lutheran
5. B-B-E
6. Ogilvie
7. Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop
8. Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart
9. Lester Prairie

Gentry Academy is a first-year fastpitch program. Braham is the defending Section 4A champion. The Bombers went 4-0 in the section tournament a year ago and took home the fourth-place trophy at the Class 1A state tournament.

In golf news...
The Central Minnesota Conference season concluded today with the last 18 holes of the season, with all boys' and girls' teams competing at The Lynx National Golf Course in Sauk Centre. Freshman Olive Olson with the B-B-E Jaguars girls' golf team earned All-CMC status by shooting a 98. She finished in 6th place individually to earn the final All-CMC spot. Fellow freshman Kragen Wiener also had a solid outing today, and she shot a 102 and finished in 8th place in the conference.

Fastpitch Jaguars record big win at Long Prairie; girls' golf pulls 3rd place at Osakis (UPDATES*)

The B-B-E Jaguars fastpitch team banged out 22 hits in an 18-4 five-inning win on Friday against Long Prairie-Grey Eagle. Playing at LP-GE high school in Long Prairie, the Jaguars were led by 4 hits each from Abby Lieser and Kamie Fischer. Fischer, who batted 4-for-5, had 4 RBI, and Lieser tripled and scored 4 runs.

LP-GE, currently in fourth place in the Prairie Conference, dropped to 2-5 overall. B-B-E improves to 3-4 overall going into Monday's home border battle game against Paynesville (3-5, 3-2).

Time for some golf news...
In Central Minnesota Conference meets on Friday, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' golf team earned third place at the Osakis Country Club. In scoring a 165, the Jaguars were led by Kragen Wiener's score of 49 at Osakis. At Osakis, Wiener placed fourth overall, while Olive Olson took 8th place with a 56.

In the afternoon on Friday, the Jaguars placed fourth in the home CMC meet at Prairie View Community Golf Course in Brooten. Wiener led the Jaguars with a 50, and Olson shot a 53. Sophomore Marlie Schlangen, in her return to the team after golfing her first season back in 8th grade, is showing terrific early-season improvement. She carded a 60 in Osakis and a 60 in Brooten. The addition of Schlangen brings turnout to 3 for girls' golf at B-B-E. While this number is small, it is the magic number needed in order to turn in a girls' golf team score in the Central Minnesota Conference. This is a change that occurred for the 2025 season.

At Prairie View, the Jaguars took fourth with a 163. Kimball/Eden Valley-Watkins shot a 162 to take third. In first was Paynesville Area with a 138, and Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City took second with a 139. Crazy close scores in Brooten!

At Osakis, A-C-GC took first with a 134. The Bulldogs were second with a 146, and Kimball/EVW was fourth with a 178.

On Sunday morning, I'm reviewing boys' golf scores from Friday. They will be updated in a new blog post later on Sunday night. On Sunday, the B-B-E speech team holds their season-ending banquet at The Eagle's Nest bar and grill in Regal. At some point, I need to catch up on the baseball team's games that were played in Ashby on Saturday. They had a non-conference doubleheader with the Owls.

Additional updates to this blog post won't take place until (probably) later tonight (Saturday)...in the morning, I'm packing up for an AAU basketball drive to Burnsville senior high school...131 miles away! Thank God for $1.99 a gallon E-85 at Coop's Corner! Thank you, Belgrade Co-op.

MORE updates on Sunday morning...
The Elrosa Saints amateur baseball team opens their 2026 season on the home diamond with a 1:30 p.m. game against Lake Henry.

Exciting news about the B-B-E Jaguars baseball team, who went 2-0 in Ashby on Saturday. In game one, the Jaguars out-hit the Arrows by an 8-to-1 margin in an 8-0 shutout win. In game two, the Jaguars racked up 11 hits to 3 by the Arrows in a 12-0 five-inning win. Lance Radermacher pitched a complete game in the series opener, and Noah Jensen (3 innings) and Walker Winter (2 innings) pitched in the second contest. B-B-E's record is now squared up at 4-4 overall.

That's it for now. I have to conserve laptop battery while working on the road with my second Burnsville trip of the weekend.

Been rather busy! Spring sports are getting back at it

I have been rather busy on the home front, but a concerted effort on the sports front has paid dividends. I am excited that recruiting efforts for the girls' golf team paid off with a commitment from a fourth student! This becomes official tomorrow with the opening day of girls' golf practice. It is also terribly exciting to see the two golf simulators that are now in full use at the Lucky Shots Bowling Alley in Brooten. This is an outstanding asset to our community! The high school golf teams will be able to utilize them as part of their preseason training.

That's all I've got right now. We had a great day of Easter on Sunday. I hope you did too.

Not surprisingly...due to the snow we got last week, the fastpitch and track and field teams will not begin their seasons tomorrow. The track and field teams have had one indoor scrimmage, which was a couple weeks ago if I remember correctly. I hope in another week, we'll finally be talking about outdoor spring sports competitions!

Tuesday night update:
The spring sports got back into the swing of things today now that we're on the back side of Easter. The fastpitch squads practiced indoors and outdoors at the elementary school. They have a robust number of 41 girls in their grades 7-12 ranks. In grades 7-11, they have 38 players, which is truly outstanding. This marks the largest number of girls in the fastpitch program since 2012. Awesome! Three senior players are on the varsity team: Brooklyn Fischer, Anna Jaeger and Faith Radermacher. On the other end of the program, the junior high team is composed solely of seventh graders. Their team has 15 players, which is also really terrific. One player remains out due to a knee injury, so their number should include 16 players next spring when they're in eighth grade. The seventh graders are coached by B-B-E Class of 2021 graduate Josie Knutson. Her dad, Brian, is a dear friend of mine. We grew up on Norway Lake Township dairy farms separated by just a mile "as the crow flies".

I hope to catch up with baseball and track and field later this week. First, I have another newspaper to publish!

Girls' golf to state!

I can finally catch up to Minnewaska/B-B-E Blue Jackets girls' golf...It's exciting to share the terrific news that the Blue Jackets won the Section 3AA title to advance to the Class 2A state tournament! They defeated Redwood Valley by a crazy, crazy one-stroke margin. ONE stroke!!! Crazy!

B-B-E seniors Morgan Schwinghammer and Paige Rupp are part of the Blue Jackets girls' golf team.

Blue Jackets fourth at state golf

In a solid ending to the 2021 season, the Minnewaska/B-B-E Blue Jackets girls' golf team finished in fourth place at the Class 2A state meet today in Belle Plaine. Minnewaska/B-B-E finished with a score of 732, which was five strokes behind third-place Fergus Falls. Providence Academy shot a 717 for state runner-up honors. Lake City is the state champion with a score of 673.

More to come later. I have to get back in the garden!

How's your garden coming along?

Boys' and girls' golf section playoff update: Girls' Golf to STATE!

The Bluejackets girls' golf team with their Section 3AA trophy and medals at Oakdale Golf Club in rural Buffalo Lake this afternoon. PHOTO SUBMITTED

The Minnewaska/B-B-E Bluejackets girls' golf team is heading to state! This is the second time in the two-year existence of the paired program that they are Section 3AA champions, the first coming in 2019. M/B-B-E's Annika Stensrud was the tournament medalist with an outstanding score of 75 (80-75-155 two day total) in the second round of action today at Buffalo Lake's golf course. The Bluejackets shot a score that was 75 shots better than runner-up Redwood Valley (686 compared to 751). B-B-E's Paige Rupp shot a 187, while Morgan Schwinghammer shot a 201. Both are juniors.

At Oak Creek golf course in Willmar today, the B-B-E Jaguars boys' golf team finished in fourth place at the Section 5A meet. It was a very competitive tournament, with the Jaguars finishing just 23 strokes behind first-place Benson. The Benson Braves are heading to state for the first time since 1978! Wow! They are coached by Belgrade high school graduate Roger Lindahl.

I had a wonderful evening at Crow River Lutheran church! It was magnificent!!! Details on the event were published on page one of the May 27 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.

More to come later tonight. 

**Update: the No. 3-seeded B-B-E Jaguars baseball team continues their journey in the playoffs when they travel to Clinton, Minnesota, tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon for a 2:30 p.m. semifinal game. Their opponent will be No. 2-seeded Upsala/Swanville Area, who the Jaguars lost to by a 1-0 score on May 20 in Elrosa.

Here's the link to view multiple spring sports photo galleries, courtesy of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper sports department = https://bonanzavalley.smugmug.com/BBE-Jaguar-spring-sports-2021.

West Central Conference champions!

The Minnewaska/Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa girls' golf team has earned the 2021 West Central Conference championship. They repeat as champions after winning the WCC in 2019, the last season of girls' golf. The M/B-B-E girls' golfers won the final WCC meet held on Wednesday (yesterday) at the Benson Golf Club. They shot a 191 to beat second-place Melrose Area's score of 202. B-B-E's Paige Rupp scored a 50, and B-B-E's Morgan Schwinghammer scored a 51.

Earning the co-medalist title were Minnewaska's Annika Stensrud and Benson's Alissa Maurer, each shooting a 44.

I'm still tracking down overall WCC team standings.

State golf: day two

The Minnewaska/B-B-E Blue Jackets girls' golf team holds an eight-stroke lead over second-place Red Wing after the first nine holes were complete today in Jordan.

Update: the Blue Jackets finished in second place at the state meet. They finished one stroke behind Red Wing with a two-day score of 647. Detroit Lakes took third place with a 662.

*In Elrosa tonight, the Saints Little Dipper baseball team won 7-6 over Roscoe.

State golf

The Minnewaska/B-B-E Bluejackets girls' golf team is in first place after Day One of the Class 2A state meet.

They lead second-place Red Wing by six strokes! B-B-E's Jacqueline Gossen shot a 73.

Minnewaska/B-B-E has a 313, Red Wing has a 319, and Detroit Lakes sits in third place with a 325. In a distant fourth place is Jordan with a 351.

The second and final day of the state golf tournament takes place tomorrow at the Ridges at Sand Creek golf course in Jordan.

State golf

After both days of the Class 1A state golf meet were completed, Jacqueline Gossen and Jaden Gossen earned Top-12 finishes with glowing performances on day two. Jayden Miller took 27th place in the boys' division at state.

Great job to all three!

Section golf

Three B-B-E golfers have advanced from Section 5A to the Class 1A state golf meet. They are Jacqueline Gossen, Jaden Gossen and Jayden Miller. It will be Jaden Gossen's third trip to state. For Miller, it will be his first state trip. He is the first boys' golfer to get to state since Corey Tonn did it in 2010.

In other news...on Wednesday, the fastpitch season for Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg came to a close in a 7-2 loss to Camden Conference rival Lac qui Parle Valley in the elimination bracket of Section 3A.

I looked at the Section 6AA fastpitch playoffs, and I noticed that Holdingford is one of four teams remaining in contention. They are in the elimination bracket and face St. Cloud Cathedral on Thursday to stay alive.

In Section 3A baseball, K-M-S defeated Minneota 8-0 on Wednesday to advance to the winner's bracket final game. That will be played on Saturday at noon in Milroy.

Updates

Today's fastpitch playoff game against WCA will be aired on Smooth Magic 107 FM of Glenwood. It begins at 4 p.m., and a second game will follow (win or lose) at 5:30 p.m.

Also, at least 10 members of the B-B-E Jaguars track and field teams are advancing to the Section 5A meet! I heard that the boys 4x400 relay team earned the Sub-Section 6A-21 title!

Also, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' golf team advanced to the Section 5A finals and sits in second place behind LQPV after the opening round was completed on Wednesday this week in Willmar.

Two members, Parker Schwinghammer and Jayden Miller, both advance to the Section 5A finals for the B-B-E Jaguars boys' golf team.

That's all for now.

**Thursday night update: the B-B-E Jaguars baseball team will take a 9-10 overall record into the Sub-Section 6A-South playoffs. They defeated Hancock 8-0 tonight to conclude the regular season.

Conference golf updates

At the Osakis golf club, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' golf team shot a 196 to take second place behind conference front-runner Osakis.

The Silverstreaks now sit in a commanding position to win the Central Minnesota Conference title with just one meet remaining. Osakis has a cumulative score of 1,083, while B-B-E sits in second place with a 1,107. In third place is Pierz with a 1,180.

The last meet is this afternoon at Prairie View Community Golf Course beginning at 1 p.m. That meet will also conclude the regular season.

Friday night updates: the B-B-E Jaguars baseball team lost 11-1 to Willmar in the first day of the Max Bats Classic Invitational. In the other varsity game, K-M-S defeated Browerville 12-0 in five innings.

Also, at Swanville, the B-B-E Jaguars fastpitch team won 7-5 to improve to 5-14 overall heading into the playoffs.

##ConquerEveryDay

Golf at Sauk Centre

The B-B-E Jaguars girls' golf team took second place by a slim margin at an invitational at Greystone of Sauk Centre. The Jaguars shot a 369 compared to first-place BOLD's 367. Osakis was not far off in third place with a 376. Jacqueline Gossen led B-B-E with an 87, which was third-best overall. Next: the girls' golf team is at the Central Minnesota Conference meet hosted by Maple Lake on Thursday and then Benson next Wednesday. The Minnewaska Invitational on Friday was cancelled.

The B-B-E Jaguars boys' golf team also competed at Greystone this afternoon, and they scored a 368 while finishing in fifth place out of nine teams. They were led by Jayden Miller's score of 81. Melrose was team champion with an incredible score of 313. Minnewaska Area was in a distant second with a 337. BOLD took fourth with a 365, while Pierz took third with a 362. Next: the boys' golf team is at a CMC meet hosted by Kimball on Thursday.

*Update on Wednesday night: at the Smooth Magic 107 FM sports banquet at Lakeside Ballroom in Glenwood, B-B-E's Adam Jaeger was named 2017-2018 Outstanding Male Athlete of the year.

State golf results

The Class 1A state golf meet wrapped up yesterday afternoon, and two members of the B-B-E Jaguars girls' golf team had a strong showing. In her first trip to state, Jacqueline Gossen shot a 174 to finish in tie for 21st place with Makayla Snow of BOLD, while Jaden Gossen, in her second state trip, shot a 178 to tie for 30th place with Amy Jacobson of Park Christian.

A total of 84 golfers competed in the Class 1A state golf meet this year.

BOLD won the state title with a two-day score of 693, edging runner-up Fillmore Central's 697. Minneota, champions of Section 5A for the second year in a row, finished in fifth place with a 745.

On the boys' side, Section 5A champion Lac qui Parle Valley shot a 671 (334/337) to finish in second place behind Mahnomen/Waubun's state champion score of 653.

State golf update

The two members of the B-B-E Jaguars girls' golf team who are competing at the Class 1A state golf tournament had a solid day on the links at Pebble Creek Golf Course in Becker. Jacqueline Gossen shot a 90 (45-45) to sit in a tie for 18th place, while Jaden Gossen shot a 94 (49-45) to sit in 40th place heading into the final day.

State-bound

Two members of the B-B-E Jaguars girls' golf team are heading to the state meet.

Jaden Gossen and Jacqueline Gossen qualified for state after two days of competition at the Section 5A meet in Benson.

As a team, the Jaguars took second place in Section 5A with a score of 727. They barely missed out on a trip to the state meet, with Minneota winning the section title with a score of 723. Lac qui Parle Valley, the section favorite coming into the tournament, finished with a score of 729 to take third place.

The B-B-E boys' golf team finished in third place. Scores and other information will be posted on Thursday.

By the way, Thursday is section track and field day! I'll be making the trip to Fergus Falls. It will be an exciting day!

Champions!

Today I will be posting a website article link talking about a very special achievement by one of our spring varsity teams.

Check it out! http://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com/story/2017/05/04/sports/champs/451.html

We are very proud of you, Jaguars!

A day for golf

Today (Friday, May 19) is a special day for our B-B-E Jaguars golf teams. It marks the last day of competition in the Central Minnesota Conference. Our girls' squad has a slim lead in their respective CMC standings and will compete in Osakis in the morning before returning home to Prairie View Community golf course in Brooten to try and clinch the championship.

Meanwhile, the boys' squad sits in second place by a fair margin behind Kimball/Eden Valley-Watkins in the overall standings. The Jaguars took second place yesterday in a CMC meet with a 183, trailing first-place K/E-VW's top score of 176.

I look forward to getting out on our local course to finally get action photos of our golf student-athletes. It's been a long spring for the Bonanza Valley Voice sports department.