NRHEG Star Eagle

137 Years Serving the New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva Area
Newspaper of Record for NRHEG School District
Newspaper of Record for Waseca County, MN
PO Box 248 • New Richland, MN 56072

507-463-8112
email: steagle@hickorytech.net
Published every Thursday
Yearly Subscription: Waseca, Steele, and Freeborn counties: $52
Minnesota $57 • Out of state $64


Seniors Charlie Nissen, Porter Peterson and Nikolas Petsinger

By ELI LUTGENS
Publisher/Editor

After losing in heartbreaking fashion earlier in the season to St. Clair Loyola, the NRHEG football team entered Wednesday night’s contest looking for redemption. 

They didn’t find it.

Instead, the Panthers’ season came to an end, losing 13-7 in the opening round of section playoff action. The winning Cyclones played Blooming Prairie in the section semi finals Saturday, Oct. 30 and lost 47-19. 

“We couldn’t overcome turnovers, and sadly the season is over,” NRHEG head coach Marc Kruger said. “We were just not able to finish.”

“I give our team a lot of credit for sticking it out and being in it,” Coach Kruger said. “Our offense struggled a bit at times, but our defense really stepped up and played well in big moments.” 

Sophomore Faith Nielson sets for junior Bree Ihrke

By ELI LUTGENS
Publisher/Editor

The NRHEG Volleyball team continued their best season in ten years, defeating St. Clair three games to zero in its first home playoff match since 2018. 

The last time the Panthers finished with a winning regular season record was in 2011 when they went 24-6 and came within “a whisker” of a sub section championship, narrowly losing to LeSueur-Henderson. And the last time the Panthers played for a sub section championship was in 2015 when they were swept by Kenyon-Wanamingo. 

This Panther team hopes to do what those teams could not as they prepare for a Thursday night bout for the sub section championship in New Prague against high seed WEM. 

The spikers hosted St. Clair Thursday, Oct. 28 and took all three games handily, by scores of: 25-18, 25-20 and 25-7.

“The girls competed for every single point,” NRHEG head coach Onika Peterson said. “It was great to get a win at playoff time.” 

The Panthers handily took all three games, by scores of: 25-18, 25-20 and 25-7. 

Eva Wayne and Clay Stenzel

By DAN SORUM
Head coach

In the final week of the fall clay target season, the Panthers of NRHEG faced some challenges with both weather and unexpected athletes absences.  The result was just the third highest score for the week, but still enough to fend off the team from Andover to take the Conference 16 title by just under 700 points out of over 20k scored.  The leading scorer for the week was Walker Krampitz, who turned in a 49 out of 50.  He was joined by Keria Lenort with a 48 out of 50.  For the season, Clay Stenzel and Eva Wayne topped the male and female divisions of the conference for individual averages. There were eight male shooters in the Conference Top 25; Clay Stenzel, Alex Dobberstein, Ned Bell, Cale Flatness, Walker Krampitz, Alden Dobberstein, Sean Beauvais, and Trevor Lenort.  Six of our shooters were in the Top 25 for the female division.  They were Eva Wayne, Keira Lenort, Neela Wencl, Miranda LaCanne, and Aspyn Stenzel.  Overall we had four shooters in the Top 5 of the conference. Clay Stenzel in 1st, Alex Dobberstein in 3rd, Eva Wayne in 4th, and Ned Bell in 5th. Additionally Clay and Alex finished in the Top 100 averages in the state. Clay in 34th and Alex in 99th.  The team wants to thank all of our sponsors and supporters, the parents and family members of the team, and the Owatonna Gun Club for helping make this team and this sport a success.  We look forward to returning for the spring league in April.