SPORTS WRAP
Sevy Enter is usually found behind the camera pursuing a newly found passion. He was thrust in front of the lens last week after being announced as Owatonna High School Homecoming King. Queen Lauren Waypa said, “It’s a big honor to keep up this tradition and have people in the school look up to me and respect me as a person.” Coronation was Sept. 26.
Both said they enjoyed the dress up days and were looking forward to the parade. Enter said, “I think it’s pretty cool that everyone builds their own float…seeing all different things they come up with.” Waypa was also excited for the dance the candidates were preparing to perform at halftime of the football game. “Ezra Oien and Sarah Snitker came up with the different songs, put them together, and they helped teach us all the dances,” Waypa said.
Enter joined the OHS Magnet this year and goes to most of the home sporting events to take pictures. “Last year I started showing up to games to take pictures. They reached out to me to join the class, and I thought it would be a good idea and it would be fun.” Currently, Enter only takes pictures but says he will probably need to write at least one story “eventually.”
He says he got a camera last year to earn credit through the Options Class at OHS. He studied proper settings for the camera and the best ways to take sports photos, “You look for emotions. You try to get pictures during all the highs and lows.”
Waypa starts for the soccer team and says the season is going well. “We have really connected as the season has progressed. (We’re) working together as a team more and more and creating that bond together has been really fun. I’ve been really enjoying it this year.”
She added it’s “really special” to play alongside her sophomore sister Kelli. “I’m very happy that we are on the same team because this is my last year and she’ll just keep going.” Kelli scored her first varsity goal recently, “It was really cool because it was off one of my corners,” Lauren said. “Yeah. It was fun that she finally got her first one and I kind of got to be a part of it.”
Waypa will be a captain for track in the spring. She participates in orchestra, dinner ensemble, NHS, Key Club, SHOC, and YOLO. She plans to study elementary education.
Enter takes pictures for the Steele County Times and is doing senior photos as well. He may like to be in the photography business down the road.
A volleyball sweep
Homecoming week held special meaning for the Huskies’ volleyball team, playing in the OHS gym for the first time in three weeks on Sept. 27. Owatonna swept Winona 3-0, taking the back-and-forth first set 25-17.
The Hawks built a 14-7 lead in the second set. Owatonna came back with a steady serve from Bella Barrie and attacks from Lauren Bangs and Mehsa Krause for a 25-20 win.
OHS was down 11-6 in the third set when they took a timeout. Miana Risser entered the game and led a 9-0 service run that included a pair of aces to rally the Huskies to a 25-13 turnaround and the sweep. Risser earned Player of the Game honors with her service night as well as setting up some key kills for Bangs, Krause, and Brooke Miles. (Report from Brad Betterman with Owatonna Live)
The Huskies play four of their final five matches at home.
Rallying past the Rockets
After falling behind Rochester John Marshall on Senior Night, the Owatonna girls’ soccer team controlled much of the action the rest of the way in a 3-1 victory. The shot count on the board at the end of the night was 15-3 in the Huskies’ favor. The Rockets’ goal came at about eight minutes on a play where keeper CJ Frear-Boerner came out to challenge JM’s top goal scorer. Ayana Robinson got the best of the clash for her sixth marker on the year.
Owatonna’s Ava Stanchina had many opportunities from in front of the goal during the night but cashed in with a tough angle chance from the right corner, slipping the ball between the goalkeeper and the post in the 21st minute to level the game. Stanchina set up Kennedy Schammel with about three minutes to go in the first half on a cross from the left that the Rocket keeper got a piece of before it came to Schammel’s feet to make it 2-1 OHS at the break.
Stanchina tipped a ball off her left toe midway through the second half for the 3-1 final. OHS recognized their 12 senior players and two senior managers before the game and went with an all-senior starting lineup.
The Huskies lost 1-0 at Mankato West on Sept. 29 and close out their season this week.
Swimming against the best
OHS hosted the definitive Big Nine Conference favorites when No. 9-rated Rochester Century came to town. The defending champs got the 95-83 win. Huskies’ junior Elice Tolman won the diving competition to earn ‘Athlete of the Night’ honors.
Owatonna’s next home meet is Tuesday, Oct. 18 versus Mankato West. The conference meet is Oct. 28-29.
Huskies pull away
The Owatonna boys’ soccer team beat Mankato West 4-1 on Sept. 29. The Scarlets carried much of the play early. But OHS broke through first, springing Garrett Karsten on a breakaway for his eighth goal of the season with eight minutes left in the first half. Then in the closing minute, a Nolan Kubat throw-in went off a West player into his own net for a 2-0 advantage at halftime.
The Scarlets converted a penalty kick early in the second half to pull within 2-1. That seemed to spark the Huskies, who controlled most of the possession after that. Ty Svenby scored on a penalty kick midway through the second half after Benny Bangs was fouled. Bangs finished the scoring.
Earlier in the week the Huskies came from behind to top Rochester JM 2-1 in a key section and conference game. Svenby scored both goals.
Perfect pitch
Owatonna Huskies’ soccer will continue to play their home games at the Lincoln Soccer Complex when the new high school campus opens in the fall of 2023. And girls’ coach Nate Gendron wouldn’t have it any other way. “We definitely think it’s an advantage playing on grass because everywhere else has turf. And it’s a completely different style of play,” he said, adding the team can control the ball more while playing on the natural field “rather than chase, chase, chase.”
“We’re used to playing on turf because it’s everywhere, but we’d much rather have a home game…We have a great facility here and we’ve put a lot of money into it, and we value what we have. But that’s going to be a great asset at the high school too. A couple of years ago it was snowing, and we couldn’t play here,” Gendron continued, referring to 2020 when a playoff game was moved to Albert Lea’s artificial turf. “So, if we need, that’s going to be an all-sports surface there and we’ll be able to utilize that.”
He says they will have the opportunity to practice on the turf field if preparing for a road game. There will be multiple turf fields at the new OHS.
Blades newcomers make impact
A pair of new players made a big impact in their Steele County Blades debut on Sept. 23 in a 5-2 win at the Minnesota Blue Ox in Coon Rapids. Noah LaFleur (West Salem, Wis.) netted a hat trick in his first-ever junior hockey game, “There's only one way to start one and that's full speed for me. And that's what I did. I was fortunate enough to have a good group of guys behind me. It's not tough to go in there and try and make a play, to trust in these guys.”
Goalie Levi Preugschas (Buffalo) made 39 saves on 41 shots to earn USPHL Player of the Week honors. The Blades were outshot 16-4 in the first period but went to intermission tied at 1-1. After playing a year in the league in New York, he was named an assistant captain for Steele County, “I’m taking that with a chip on my shoulder so I can lead these guys on the team in the right direction.”
Steele County holds its home opener on Friday against Isanti at the Four Seasons Centre in Owatonna at 7 p.m.
Owatonna Live schedule
Thursday, Oct. 6
OHS boys’ soccer vs. Mankato West, 7 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 7
OHS football at Rochester JM, 7 p.m. (simulcast on KOWZ 100.9 FM)
Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop at Blooming Prairie football, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Oct. 11
OHS boys/girls soccer playoffs, TBA
OHS volleyball vs. Mankato West, 7:15 p.m.