Four Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda athletes headed to state track meet

Three females and one male will be representing the Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda Coyotes in this week's state track and field meet after successfully qualifying at the Section 2A meet recently at Mankato West High School.

Sophomore Alabama Hoonhorst qualified for state in the girls discus by winning the event at sections with a throw of 125 feet, four inches. That effort was a personal record for Hoonhorst as well as more than 10 feet ahead of her nearest competitor.

In the boys 1600 meters, junior Matthew Stapek finished second in an extremely close race at sections. Stapek finished with a personal-record time of 4 minutes, 36.88 seconds, just one-hundreth of a second behind the winner.

In the girls 1600 meters, sophomore Laiken Farris placed fourth at sections but still qualified for the state meet by finishing in a personal-best time of 5 minutes, 19.77 seconds. The state qualifying time for the event for the event was 5 minutes, 22.03 seconds.

In the girls high jump. senior Rebecca Cheadle was one of six girls at sectionals who qualified for state by attaining the qualifying standard of 5 feet. Cheadle placed sixth in the event and will return to the state meet after placing ninth in the high jump there as a junior.

Farris and Hoonhorst will also be heading back to the state meet after competing there in 2024. Farris finished 19th at state last year with a time of 6 minutes, 2.72 seconds, a time she exceeded by more than 40 seconds at the recent sectional meet. Hoonhorst, meanwhile, was 16th in the discus at the 2024 state meet with a throw of 104 feet, 2 inches. Her winning effort at this year's seconds was a little more than 21 feet longer.

State meets across all Minnesota classes will take place Tuesday through Thursday at St. Michael-Albertville High School. 

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The Worthington Senior American Legion baseball team won its season opener Thursday night as it picked up a 5-4 victory at Adrian.

Post 5 benefited from a four-run fourth inning and then held off an Adrian rally. Worthington had a 5-1 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth, but an error helped Adrian score three times and trim the deficit down to one. 

Max Ostrem started on the mound for Worthington and pitched the first six innings, allowing just one earned run while striking out 12 batters. Tucker Brandner came on for the seventh and retired Adrian 1-2-3 for the save, striking out two.

Ostrem and Manny Saravia both had RBI singles in the game for Post 5. Ostrem had two hits in all; also collecting hits were Brandner, Chase Byrne and Dom Pavelko. 

Worthington will take on Jackson in a home game on Monday. It has another home game Tuesday against Windom — a contest that was originally scheduled for June 2 — and then plays at Pipestone on Thursday.

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St. Peter led all Big South schools by having four players named to the all-conference boys tennis team. 

The Saints also had another player named as an honorable mention pick for the East Division half of the all-conference team. For the West Division, St. James Area had three first-team honorees and three honorable mention choices. Redwood Valley had four first-team picks.

Waseca, in the East Division, had three of its players selected for the first team. Worthington, which also competes in the East, had no players chosen.