Willmar notebook: Eagle Creek hosts 3AA golf

Eagle Creek in Willmar is again the site of the Section 3AA boys and girls golf tournaments starting 9 a.m. on Thursday. The 4-5-6 team golfers go off first, followed by individual qualifiers, and then 1-2-3 team members - boys on one nine, girls on the other.

Qualifying boys teams are Benson, New London-Spicer, Marshall and Redwood Valley. For girls, Benson, Minnewaska, Marshall and Windom.

The Minnewaska girls won five state titles consecutively starting in 2006. The Lakers finished third in 2011 and second to Detroit Lakes in 2012. Jenna Janu and Alexis Guggisberg tied for 10th individually and are back leading the Lakers, who have been pretty much unbeatable again this spring.

Marshall has four boys back from last year’s section championship team but this well could be New London-Spicer’s year.

Dave Guertin of Granite Falls is in his last meet as Section 3AA Tournament Manager. The YME Sting drop into 3A next year and Guertin will head that section.

Also worth noting, we’ll try and pin down BOLD coach John Johnston at the meet. We understand he is calling it a career after just a half-century of coaching.

Willmar section golf comes up next Monday and Tuesday with the boys at Greystone, Sauk Centre, and the girls at Long Prairie.

This moist, cool weather while less than ideal for golfing has promoted the darkest, thickest carpets of green ever seen. The leaves are still popping fresh and the flowering trees elegant against the emerald background. Golf courses in these parts have never looked so good.

Track to

Detroit Lakes

The Willmar track and field team is at Detroit Lakes today for the Section 8AA preliminaries; the finals come up on Friday, closer to home, at Sartell. The Sabres athletic director, John Ross, informs me that live results for Friday’s meet will be available at sabrerunning.com.

The athletes are out to qualify individually (top 2) or relay (winner) or by state standard for the Class AA meet June 7-8 at Hamline University in St. Paul.

To catch up on the Cardinals’ winning relays at the CLC meet: Boys 4x800, Nic Coquyt, Colton Carlson, Jeff Castro, Ryan Sawyer; Girls 4x200, Sami Doering, Miranda Roelofs, Shelby Schneider, Rose Jackson.

Four program records set so far this spring: Chris Cunningham, boys 100 dash, 10.86 at Glencoe; Haley Mottinger, girls 100 hurdles, 15.56 at Glencoe; Rose Jackson, girls long jump, 18-6¼ at Stillwater; Miranda Roelofs, girls 300 hurdles, 46.47 at Sauk Rapids.

Club baseball

College is no reason not to play baseball recreationally at Minnesota State, Moorhead.

The Dragons club team went 9-6 this year, won a conference title and reached the regional final four where they lost twice to Wisconsin at Sheboygan, Wis., 6-2 and 1-0.

Ex-Cardinal John Sawatzky was the team’s top hitter with a .475 average while catching every game. Eric Hulterstrum of Litchfield batted .403 and his former high school teammate, Austin Jones, also was on the club team.

John, who is playing for the Raymond Rockets this summer, said team members fundraised selling programs at North Dakota State Bison football games (making $1 per program), a windfall considering the sellouts and three postseason home games on the way to a second national title. That left each player a fee of $450 but that included a trip to Florida where the team got in six games.

MSUM is a member of the National Club Baseball Association. More on club baseball at msumdragonbaseball.com

Clean Bees

How is it that those Stingers look so keen every game playing day after day?

Thank the laundry man.

Each night, some minutes after the last pitch, Stingers staff gathers up the dirty uniforms, as well as those of the enemy in town for a series, and drop them off at Schwegman’s Cleaners.

Bright and early each morning, Danny Tollefson and his professional workforce go at it. Uniforms are washed in computerized machines that distribute just the right amount of soap, bleach and stain removal to return the visual snap. Drying, folding and delivery follow.

Schwegman’s has been the Stingers’ clean-up hitter since the college summer league debuted here in 2010.

Tollefson knows the lift a clean jersey gives a player. He’s coach of the Willmar boys hockey team and played on the Cardinal team that won the 1987 big-school baseball championship at the Dome under coach Jon Horning.

On the fly

n Rep. Dean Urdahl, former educator and coach at New London-Spicer, called to tell us that when the Governor signed the education bill it included a sentence to further protect varsity coaches from being dismissed without cause. Specifically, the new language reads: “The existence of parent complaints must not be the sole reason for a board not to renew a coaching contract.” Coaches already had the right to request to respond to reason for being terminated. It’s up to the coach if the meeting is open or closed.

n Katie Kienitz, sophomore from Raymond, is one of two Southwest Minnesota State women’s tennis players named to the NSIC Spring All-Academic Team.

n Kyler Vossen, a Cardinal cross country and track leader graduating in 2011, will run his third Grandma’s Marathon on June 22, aiming to hit the Boston qualifying standard. His sister Zoe will run the 5k at Duluth the day before. Kyler’s mom, Julie Vossen-Henslin, who is also running the full marathon, said Kyler’s enthusiasm for running encouraged both she and Zoe to start running as well as one of Kyler’s college roommates, who will run the half-marathon.

n Based on the success of the national mixed tournament in March, U.S. Curling has urged the Willmar Curling Club to apply to host the 2015 U.S. Junior Nationals, a 20 team event.