Vermillion
In our house, winter is building season. By January the cardboard castle in the living room has usually been rebuilt twice, the couch cushions are load-bearing, and somebody wants to know why we can’t build a slide down the stairs. That’s usually the point where we pack the snow boots and head somewhere with a climbing frame bigger than anything I can make out of boxes.
Eastview senior wins state Class 3A race with late surge Luke Bakken didn’t have to slay Godzilla, just outrun him. Before every cross country season, Eastview boys coach Thomas Sharp asks runners to identify a “Godzilla Goal,” meaning something that seemed so far out of reach that it could only happen in a movie. Then he’d ask them what they thought they needed to do to achieve their lofty goals and encourage them to try. Coming off a 2025 season where he finished 20th in the state Class 3A meet, Bakken’s Godzilla Goal for his senior year could be only one thing – winning the state championship. Then he went out and did it. Using the finishing kick that has now become his trademark, Bakken passed Channing Goodwin of Rosemount and Max Molinaro of Two Rivers to win the boys Class 3A championship Nov. 7 at Majestic Oaks Golf Course. All three ran career-best times. Bakken finished in 15 minutes, 6.9 seconds to Goodwin’s second-place 15:07.5 and Molinaro’s 15:14.8, good for third place. Bakken and Goodwin had the two fastest times in the entire state meet, including runners in the Class 2A and Class 1A races. It was the third
The Champlin Park girls volleyball team lost its semifinal match at the state Class AAAA tournament Thursday, falling to Eagan in four sets. After losing the first set 25-20, the Rebels won the second 25-23 but lost 25-17 and 25-19 in the final two sets. Rylee Inman recorded 24 kills...
The Forest Lake football team made some history last week in their 29-14 trouncing of Eagan in a Class 6A second-round game played at home on Friday, Oct. 6, as the Rangers earned their second berth in the state playoffs in program history and their first in over three decades. What makes this year’s state berth especially sweet was that it came after second-round playoff losses in each of the past four seasons. “It’s like a monkey off our back,” head coach Brad Beeskow said. “We’ve had four straight years where we’ve reached this point and felt we had teams good enough to get to the state tournament, and not quite getting there. This year, the guys had a look in their eyes — all the adversity that we went through, with injuries and tough losses. I thought everybody picked up the slack and did an amazing job to get us to this point. I’m proud of them.” The last time Forest Lake advanced to the state quarterfinals was 35 years ago in 1991. “An unreal feeling,” senior defensive back Brooks Rohne said of going to state. “Since youth football we’ve been working for that.” Fellow senior defensive back Ndifor
South Washington County Schools could cut $13 million from its budget, with staff losses possible but no school closures planned.
