SPORTS WRAP

Owatonna High School clay target shooters Jackson Davis and Aiden Anderson have qualified for the MSHSL state tournament on June 20 in Prior Lake. They finished the regular season among the top 100 performers in the state. Davis averaged 24.5-out-of-25 over the five-week schedule. Anderson was at 24.1.

Davis, a sophomore, is excited to reach this goal. “I’ve been trying pretty hard for a couple of years and finally did it this year. I’m kind of happy about that,” he said.

Coming close in the past provided motivation. “I shoot a lot of rounds throughout the summer. I’m out here every week. I’m always shooting, trying to get better. I just shot my first 100 end of last summer,” said Davis.

Coach Mike Kingland says, “Jackson works on it all the time. He works at the gun club. He shoots here. He shoots winter league over in Austin. He shoots all the time. And from what I’ve learned tonight, Aiden shoots at the farm a lot too.”

Anderson, a junior, is surprised to earn the trip to state. “It’s the first time I shot this well in a while,” he said.

This is his first year with Owatonna after shooting with Medford.

Coaches have worked with him on his stance. “Different footwork. Focus more. Have an anchor point on where you start,” said Anderson.

In addition to being a hunter, he enjoys the team aspect of the sport. “Being able to hang out with friends.”

Kingland says Anderson joined Owatonna for the instructional fall league. “We work on skills. We work on lefts. We work on rights. We back them up… If we can make the technical stuff second nature, then you can work on your mental management side,” said Kingland.

Team season

The Huskies finished second behind Bemidji in their Class 9A conference, which consists of the largest teams in the state. Clay target divides up schools based on roster size, not geography. The other schools are Rosemount, Hastings, New London-Spicer and Nicollet. Competitions are held virtually.

Next up is the Minnesota Trap Shooting Championships in Alexandria on June 17. “It’s like our section tournament… We know we’ll be at the MSHSL meet in the afternoon for the individual. Now we just got to get there for the team side of it,” said Kingland.

“We’ve got boys and girls both that have been up there, around 45 and up (out of 50) and we just need five of them. We’ve probably got 12 to 15 kids that can do that besides those two (Davis and Anderson.) It’s looking good,” said Kingland.

The top 40 teams, based on top five athletes, over the nine-day tournament qualify for the MSHSL event June 20 at the Minneapolis Gun Club in Prior Lake.

Medford, a Class 1A team, won their conference title and competes in Alexandria on the opening day of the tournament on June 9. Tigers Reid Wildgrube (24.4), Brendan Mueller (23.9), and Blake Cammock (23.8) qualified for the MSHSL individual tournament.

Blooming Prairie (Class 6A) shoots on June 14. NRHEG shoots on June 16 as a Class 8A team. More than 8,000 athletes representing 335 schools make this the biggest clay target event in the world.

Commencement speakers

Family plays an important role for Rosalina Sanchez-Lemus. Her niece and nephew inspire her interest in an elementary education career. Her parents encouraged her to try out to be a graduation speaker at Owatonna High School.

She was thrilled to be selected. “Reading my name on an email was just really shocking and really emotional for my parents as well… I think it was a big opportunity to feel that Hispanic families are now going to be involved more.”

Erin Baker found a home at OHS and wants to share that message with the Class of 2025 during commencement on Friday, June 6 at Federated Field at Owatonna Stadium.

“When I first came to OHS, I didn’t really have a place to go yet. Then I joined the Owatonna robotics team, and I really found my home in that activity. So, I’m trying to put a message out there about finding a home in OHS, but also about finding a home somewhere later in life.”

Upperclassmen made a substantial impact on her and she appreciated filling the same role for younger students.

Baker, a member of the speech and mock trial teams, says, “I’m definitely more comfortable with a script on the podium, which there will be. I’ve spoken in front of three judges in speech and up to about 300 elementary schoolers for robotics. So, a lot of my public speaking experience actually comes from robotics. More of my speech stuff comes from polishing my speaking skills,” said Baker.

Baker polished her revisions with language arts teacher Polly Shives and practiced with speech coach Marcia Anderson.

Sanchez-Lemus, who participated in Mixed Roots and Link Crew, does not have much public speaking experience and is working in-family to craft her presentation. “I’ve been working with my sister to translate and make sure that I’m not going too far deep into or out of topic.”

She anticipates excitement when she steps to the podium. “I want to put into by speech we should have the audience included as well. Tell them to look around, soak up this moment because it won’t last forever. I want the audience to also be involved not to just sit down all in the same outfit,” she said.

Sanchez-Lemus received the MEP Teacher of Tomorrow Award and scholarship and will attend Minnesota State University, Mankato to study elementary education. Baker will volunteer in Costa Rica for six months before pursuing a political science or international relations degree there.

View the full interviews on the OwatonnaLive.com Coaches Show.