Buffalo won with 346, followed by Monticello 358, STMA 361, Rogers 380, Big Lake 403 and Cambridge-Isanti 414.

Maree Smith of Monticello was low shooter with 78.

For Rogers, Maddie Holl had 88, Megan Secrist 97, Kayleen Miller 97, and Rachel Dodd 98.

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Mary Elmquist scored 36, Samantha Lindeen 40, Mirandy Raty 40, Morgan Bleyhl 43, Morgan Dietrichs 44 and Alexa Filipiak 45.

The Elks are third in a close conference race, two points behind Blaine and one behind Andover. The conference season will conclude Friday with the full conference meet at Coon Rapids.

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The Sting girls advancing are Sarina Staurseth (100 and 300 hurdles), Kayla Zimmerman (800), Becca Schultz (200 dash), Becca Peterson (3200) and Brittany Waterhouse (3200).

The Sting boys advancing are Kal Diekman (110 and 300 hurdles) and Zach Anderson (3200).

The girls 1600 relay of Zimmerman, Noelle Diekman, Yeji Lee and Schulz also advanced.
Section 5A will be held Wednesday, May 29, at St. John’s University.

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The meet was not completed as three events were postponed to Wednesday due to wet weather.

Rogers won the girls 4×100 with Erika Folk, Heather Kilber, Jenna Braseman and Kirsten Heikkinen.

Rogers also took the 4×200 with Folk, Breanna Stang, Braseman and Heikkinen.

Kilber was also the 300 meter hurdles champion.

The Star News does not yet have the times. Results will be released upon completion of the meet Wednesday.

Heikkinen placed second and Folk third in the 100 dash.

Top finish for the Rogers boys was Mitchelle Bracket, second in high jump with 6-0. He tied a Buffalo jumper but had one more miss.

Reed Parent was fourth in the 3200, Zach Dohmen was fourth in both hurdle races, Isaac Aanerud was fourth in the 200, and Mike Biah was sixth in the 100.

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Most finals will be held Thursday, with action resuming at 3 p.m. Prelims in most events were held Tuesday.

Detloff, a junior, won discus for the third straight year with a 123-6 effort, and eighth-grader Sidney Wentland was fourth (107-0).

Ness, a freshman, won the 3200 in 11:32.32, and eighth-grader Kennedy Warner was third (11:46.19).

Trapp, a freshman, placed second in the 3200 with a personal best of 9:44.66, trailing Andover’s Chris Meados (9:43.51).

Other Elks scoring were Odrey Bechtel, tied for fourth in pole vault (11-5) and Cameron Barringer,  tied for eighth (10-11); and Fanaka Ndege, sixth in triple jump (42-5 1/2).

Other boys winners were Park Center’s Treyton Daniels in triple jump (46-2 1/2), Champlin Park’s Joe Stephens in shot put (54-10), and a trio two tied in pole vault (11-11): Maple Grove’s Brenon Enright, Coon Rapids’ Austen Palmer, and Andover’s Kyle Synowczyski.

The other girl winners were Maple Grove’s Katherine Roertering in long jump (16-3) and Anoka’s Gabbi Guimont in high jump (5-2).

In the girls standings, Anoka has 32.5 points, Elk River 31, Blaine 19.5 and Maple Grove 19.

The Andover boys lead with 30 1/8. The Elks are sixth with 14 5/8.

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After upsetting the No. 3 seed, the No. 6 seeded Royals (11-7) face No. 2 Irondale on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. in the upper-bracket semifinals, while No. 1 Maple Grove faces No. 4 Coon Rapids. Four other teams are alive in the sudden-death bracket.

Emily Hanford led off the fourth inning by slugging a homer to center field, giving Rogers at 2-1 lead. An inning later, winning pitcher Katelyn Kemmetmueller drilled a three-run dinger to the same spot.

The homers highlighted a 10-hit attack led by Madi Anderson 2-for-3 (double), Olivia Olson 1-for-3 (double) with two runs, Kemmetmueller 2-for-4, and Hanford 2-for-4. Elli Anderson, Madie Mikolich and Kaitlyn Lloyd had the other hits.

Kemmetmueller pitched the distance and left 10 runners on base as she allowed six hits and two walks while the Royals made four errors. Normally a strikeout pitcher, she had only two against SLP.

Spring Lake Park starter Alex Reynolds took the loss. Maddy Wallroff and Nicole Griffin were each 2-for-4.

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Gelle was 2-for-4 with his first two round-trippers of the season at St. John’s University’s turf field.

Ryan Gelle

Scott Neubauer was 3-for-4 with three RBI and Tyler Antony 2-for-3 with four RBI. Other RBI hits were by Adam Nauth, Kyle Ellis (double) and Bryanlee Santiago-Martinez (double). Kyle Halseth was 2-for-3.

Nauth and Ellis pitched three innings each, with Nauth (1-2) getting the win.
Rogers (8-9) will close the regular season Tuesday hosting Washburn.

Rogers is seeded No. 6 in Section 5AAA and will meet No. 11 Osseo on Thursday, 4:30 p.m., at Wintercrest Park in Coon Rapids. The winner advances to double-eliminaton and would face No. 3 Totino-Grace on Saturday.

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Elk River suffered uncustomary lapses in fielding and control on Monday and the result was a costly 9-4 loss to Park Center at home.

The setback in their conference finale cost the Elks a share of second place in the NWSC and probably more.

“We were ranked first in the section in QRF before today, but we probably won’t get the top seed now,” said coach Ryan Holmgren.

The Elks’ 4-3 win over highly-ranked Champlin Park on Saturday boosted them in both quests, only to fall to a middle-of-the-pack Park Center team.

In conference, Coon Rapids finished 10-0, Champlin Park 8-2 and the Elks 7-3, still a strong finish for a team in its first season above .500 since 2004. The Elks are 12-3 overall with two non-conference games left.

The Elks gave up three runs in the third after botching a two-out grounder with bases loaded.

In the fifth, Elk starter Brandon Meyer got the first batter out, then lost control as he hit two batters and walked the next three. Reliever Bob Gonrowski was greeted by Austin Ledin with a two-run double. A sac fly then completed a five-run inning that made the score 8-2.

“Park Center is talented and scrappy and I think they are better than their record,” said Holmgren. “But we didn’t do ourselves any favors today, either.”

The Pirates (9-9) used five pitchers because they are starting playoffs on Thursday.

Erik Nyquist finished for the Elks, allowing one unearned run in three innings.

Brady Givens ripped three doubles in four at-bats for the Elks, with one run and one RBI. Meyer was 2-for-4 and Tim Sanford had an RBI single.

The Elks will play at St. Michael-Albertville on Tuesday, 4:30 p.m., and will host Duluth East on Wednesday, 5 p.m.

The Elks are likely to get one of the top four seeds in Section 7AAA, which would give them a bye for the sudden-death first round Monday and put them in the eight-team, double-elim tournament starting next Thursday with a home game.

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Freshman pitcher Ashley Pool does high-fives after the 10-0 win. (Photo by Bruce Strand)

by Bruce Strand, Sports editor

A season of dramatic turnaround by the Zimmerman softball team continued as the Thunder thumped Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 10-0 in their playoff opener Monday.

Freshman pitcher Ashley Pool fired a five-inning one-hit whitewash with 10 strikeouts in the Thunder’s home finale.

Sophomore Abby Canton went 3-for-3 with two runs, freshman Carlie Lage had four walks and three runs, and junior Gabby Antolak was 2-for-3.

Carlie Lage shows a good eye during one of her four walks at the leadoff position. (Photo by Bruce Strand)

The Thunder are 15-4 on the heels of a 4-17 season last year, with pretty much the same roster, and it’s still a young team, with three senior captains and one junior starter, four sophomores and two freshmen.

“We were hoping (to turn it around). It was a matter of whether the kids would put in the work in the off-season,” said coach Emily Zahn. “And they did. Plus, with this extended winter this year, we spent an extra month hitting in the gym, working things out with our swings.”

Antolak, who’s hitting just under .500, is a fourth-year starter, three of those at catcher.

“Our defense is much improved this year, and it’s really nice to have Gabby back there,” said Zahn.

Antolak, also a middle hitter on the 21-7, section runner-up volleyball team, said she was “very proud” of how hard the softball players worked to prepare for this season.

About her pitcher, Pool, Canton assessed: “She has really improved with hitting her spots, and she is a lot quicker than last year. She’s a freshman and she’s striking out seniors who’ve been playing (varsity) for years.”

Senior captains are outfielder Katelyn Bauer, second baseman Morgan Feldick, and first baseman Heather McCormick.

Katelyn Bauer bunts a high pitch successfully as she squeezed a runner home from third base. (Photo by Bruce Strand_

Unfortunately, McCormick, who was having a strong senior year, broke her little finger in the final regular-season game at Mora last week, when it got tangled with a base-runner. She’ll miss the playoffs.

“It’s sad to lose Heather,” said Zahn, who put Canton, her designated hitter, in the first base slot.

Feldick was 1-for-2 plus a walk and sac bunt, Ashley Ryding delivered a sac fly, in the win over HLWW. Taking the loss was Samantha Loebertmann.

The Thunder, seeded third among eight teams in the west half of Section 5AA, will duel either No. 2 Maple Lake or No. 7 Litchfield in Maple Lake on Wednesday at 4 p.m. The Maple Lake-Litchfield game was rained out Monday and moved to Tuesday.

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