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
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The Byron Bears probably were not thinking upset at the start of the Section 2A volleyball tournament.

But the NRHEG Panthers were. And it crossed the Bears’ minds after the first game.

The Panthers, seeded sixth, took game one from the third-seeded Bears 25-22 at Byron Thursday, Oct. 24, but it was all home team after that. Byron won the final three games 25-13, 25-9, 25-13 to end NRHEG’s season.

“We lost to a tough-hitting team,” said NRHEG coach Onika Peterson, whose team finished with a record of 15-16 overall, 2-5 in the Gopher Conference.

According to Peterson, the Panthers played some of their best volleyball of the season in the first game.

“We couldn’t have played much better,” she said. “We did all the little things well and looking to be firing on all cylinders with our passing, hitting and blocking.”

But they couldn’t sustain it.

It was another beautiful evening for a cross country meet, and the NRHEG Panthers responded with one of their best performances of the year.

The Panthers posted a plethora of personal bests in the Section 2A meet last Thursday at Riverside Country Club in Blue Earth, where the NRHEG boys finished 15th and the girls 14th.

Daniel Nydegger, a junior, was the Panthers’ top placewinner, finishing 23rd with a time of 17:40.

“He finished his race with a fantastic kick, and achieved his goal of breaking 18 minutes,” said coach Miles Otstot.

Following for the NRHEG boys were Addison Deyle, 72nd, 19:23; Caden Riewer, 89th, 19:50; Tylar Malakowsky, 91st, 19:51; Conner Nelson, 108th, 20:58; Matthew Mueller, 114th, 21:34; and Gavin Anderson, 115th, 21:37.

Mueller cut 50 seconds off his personal best and a minute and a half off his previous race. Deyle’s time was his best of the season. Nelson achieved a personal goal to break 21 minutes.

The end of the fall season for the NRHEG clay target team included a wave of 25 Straight patches as six sharpshooters put on a display.

On Sunday, it was Clay Stenzel, Even Reyna and Riley Schultz. For Schultz, it was his career first 25 Straight patch. Then on Wednesday, the team added Jason Eustice, Matthew Bartness, and Walker Krampitz to the roster of 25 Straight rounds for a strong season finish. While it was mathematically impossible for the team to catch the conference leader from Hermantown, it did serve to put the team solidly into the second-place position they have held all season as they had their largest point total margin seen all year vs. the rest of the field.

“It was a good season and puts the team into a great spot for the spring league that will start up in April,” said coach Dan Sorum.

Of those shooters earning a patch, Bartness, Reyna, and Stenzel turned in a second nearly perfect round of 24 for a total score of 49/50. The team leader for the season is Caden Beauvais with an average of 23.8. This was good for the second-place individual spot in the conference.  Beauvais was leading the conference until this past week when a shooter from Hermantown put together a perfect round of 50 to pass him by just .1 and end with a 23.9.