Sports

Smith, Wolner play key part in Eagles success

A pair of Redwood Valley athletes were important members of the New Ulm girls hockey team this past winter.Senior Michelle Smith and sophomore Tristyn Wolner - who have played for the Eagles the past couple years under a pairing agreement between RVHS and New Ulm - both played key roles for an Eagles squad that finished 15-11-1 overall and 10-4 in Big South Conference play.Smith - who will be taking her talents to the collegiate level next year for St.

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Cards’ Fuhr, Guggisberg headed to State

Redwood Valley will be sending three wrestlers on to State following Section 3A Individual wrestling action held Saturday in Pipestone.Freshman Lucas Fuhr and junior Zac Guggisberg are both headed to the Class State Individual Wrestling Tournament along with senior Ava Dillon who qualified earlier in the Women’s Section Tournament with a title at 130 pounds.Fuhr (14-1) had the most interesting route to State as he would finish second at 172 pounds.

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Wilson shines at State in final Meet

It was a perfect ending to a great career for Redwood Valley senior Avery Wilson as she finished 11th in the All-Around at the Class A State Gymnastics Meet Saturday in Minneapolis.Wilson - a five-time state qualifier for the Cards - scored a personal best of 36.05 to record her highest finish ever in her final meet.“It was fun to be able to perform well in my final meet,” Avery Wilson said, “I’ve really enjoyed competing with the other girls over the years.”Wilson opened up State on bars and had a solid routine that culminated in a score of 8.85 - good for 16th place - a solid start to the meet.Next was beam where in the Section 3A Meet she fell twice.

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Trojans outlast Cards in regular season finale

A hot shooting Worthington squad took advantage of an eight-point halftime lead to hold off Redwood Valley 79-73 Saturday afternoon in the Big South Conference showcase held at the RVHS gymnasium.It was just the second loss in 14 games for the Cards (21-5) who despite the loss will head into the postseason as the number one seed in the Section 3AA-South bracket.Redwood Valley - who finished 13-2 against Big South opponents this season - will have a first round bye and will face the winner of the Fairmont/Luverne match-up in semfinal action.The Cardinals hosted the Trojans a night after a good non-conference battle with Springfield in which junior Lukas Means buried 10 three’s in an 83-72 Cardinal victory.Worthington did an outstanding job defensively on Means Saturday in the Trojans win as they limited him to just 10 points on 3-of-14 shooting.Leading 40-32 at the half, the Trojans would extend that lead to 12 late in the game before the Cards would rally to cut it to just two with four minutes to go.Worthington was able to withstand the storm however and would close out the win to advance to face New Ulm in the Big South title game.The Cards had an uncharacteristic off night from long range as they went just 7-of-27 while the Trojans - who shot over 50 percent from the floor - hit eight first half three’s and would finish 9-of-16.Isaiah Dow led the Cards with 20 points, seven rebounds and an assist and Elway Berg had 18 points, three rebounds and three steals.Ethan Louwagie added eight points, five assists and two rebounds, Brandon Lang had seven points and 12 rebounds and Oliver Smith had six points and two assists.Andrew Peterson added two points and Laiten Goodthunder had two points and one board.Zach Hayenga had 28 points and four assists to lead the Trojans and Jacari Swinea added 23 points, seven rebounds and three assists.Friday night the Cards travelled to Springfield and would bury 18 three’s to outlast the Tigers by 11.Means would go 10-of-21 from long range on the way to a team-high 38 points, six rebounds, five assists and four steals.Berg added six three’s and would finish with 24 points, four rebounds and four assists and Lang had eight points, 10 rebounds and four assists.Louwagie would add seven points, four rebounds and four assists, Goodthunder had three points and an assist, Smith added two points and nine assists and Peterson had one point and three rebounds.

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