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Sun Patriot
Waconia tennis team battles St. Louis Park
The Waconia girls tennis team competed in a close contest with St. Louis Park, with the Orioles ultimately prevailing 4-3. Reidun Trostad won her singles match 6-0, 6-0, while Ireland Ohm went to a third set but narrowly lost (6-2, 2-6, 2-6). Emerson Schutte and Kalli Swanson won their doubles match 6-3, 6-7, 6-3. Evie Tellers and Lizzie Sieberer won 6-2, 6-3. Carrigan Mair and Stella Limoges narrowly lost 6-7, 6-7.
Crusaders win five matches in busy week
The No. 1 ranked Mayer Lutheran volleyball team won a pair of matches last week before going 3-2 at the Southwest Minnesota Challenge, taking 10th place out of 32 teams. Mayer Lutheran 3 Jackson County Central 1 The Crusaders took on JCC at Bethany College Tuesday night, winning 3-1 (25-11, 24-26,25-7, 25-7). ...
Memories and motors
There will be around 300 vintage vehicles in town Sept. 14 for the annual Nickle Dickle Day car and truck show — and each one of them has a story. The story could be about the era when the vehicle was built, special features and performance, work under the hood, a former driver, or some driving memories. Steve Klaseus’ stories are in his dad’s 1962 Chevy panel truck. The area man recently completed restoration of the vehicle and will be showing it at the Nickle...
Chanhassen sports update
Football The Chanhassen football team held a 7-0 halftime lead Sept. 6, but a second half rally by Owatonna sent the Storm home with a 21-7 loss. Nathan Ramler completed 13 passes for 94 yards, connecting with Ty Jensen six times for 55 yards and James Kopfmanh twice for22 yards. Coleman Zielinski was the lead...
Wildcats defeat Trojans with dominant performance
The Waconia girls swimming and diving team avenged a 2023 dual loss in definitive fashion, defeating New Prague 102-84 on Sept. 5. “Our depth allowed us to come out on top,” said coach Ashley Westphal. “We didn’t have a single sixth place all night. This is huge because sixth place earns zero points.” In the first half of the dual, the 200 yard freestyle and 50 freestyle events provided big...
Raiders win big under Friday night lights
The Central football team moved to 2-0 on the season with a 42-6 win over New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva Friday night. “I thought the team executed pretty well,” said Jack Strickfaden. “We had that rough second corner, but we bounced back pretty well and I thought we really showed intensity.” The Raiders are off to a strong start with two commanding victories, having defeated St. Clair/Loyola 53-0 in week one. ...
Carver County earns Triple Crown Medallion
Carvery County was awarded the Triple Crown Medallion by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA) for receiving three of GFOA’s highest awards: a Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting, the Popular Annual Financial Reporting (PAFR) Award, and the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award again this year. GFOA’s Triple Crown recognizes governments that have received all three GFOA’s awards, the county has received the Triple Crown since its inception. The Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting was...
Royals kick off cross country season
The Watertown-Mayer cross country team kicked off the season with the Maple Lake Invitational. Tyler Stutsman led the boys with a 20 minute, 24.2 second race, and was followed by Lincoln Schinze (24:48.1), Andrew Maus (24:49.9), Paul Leuthner (25:55.1) and Prescott Jones (28:25.3). Madeline Bean (28:04.3) and Adeline Burman (28:06.3) represent the girls for Watertown-Mayer.
Museum at State Fair preserves history, advocates for newspapers
This reporter/editor spent a day at the State Fair again this year in the Minnesota Newspaper Museum talking with visitors and sharing the newspaper story. The museum, located in the 4-H building, recreates a 1930s newsroom with an editor’s corner, linotype operation, printing press, and job shop for commercial printing. That’s an era when newspapers were the primary news source for folks, and the Minnesota Newspaper Museum exists to preserve that history and connect newspapers to the community. ...
Crusaders kick off football season
The Mayer Lutheran football team kicked off the season with a 20-6 loss at United South Central/Genesis Classical Academy Friday night. Sam Jopp completed eight passes for 120 yards and a touchdown, connecting with five different receivers — Isaiah Ingram twice for 22 yards, Nicolas Maas once, Nolan Hoese twice for 10 yards, Lucas Baumann twice for 55 yards and Josh Clark once for 33 yards. The Crusaders ran for 93 yards — Maass had 34 yards, Cayden Olson had 19 yards, Jopp had 17 yards and Baumann had 33 yards. Hoese led the defense with 13 tackles, while Ingram and Baumann each had 10. Ingram had an interception and Gabriel Shimanski had a fumble recovery.
Safari Island gets improvements, now leads senior center operations
Safari Island community center recently went through bit of a facelift during its annual maintenance closure. Some the maintenance and housekeeping items included a deep clean, new carpet throughout the building, new flooring in the conference room, aquatics office, family changing room, and locker rooms, and new rubber flooring in the fitness room. Floors were re-done in the gymnasium, which reopened Sep. 3. ...
Nickle Dickle Day had humble beginnings
In a recent interview with one of the original founders of Nickle Dickle Day, Paul Melchert, I had the privilege of diving into the history of how this beloved Waconia tradition came to be. The concept for Nickle Dickle Day was born from a simple question: How do we get people to shop downtown for a great deal? Birth of a tradition In the early 1960s, business owners in Waconia...
Central football and volleyball teams kick off season
The Central football team defeated St. Clair 59-0 in the season opener last Friday. Jack Strickfaden opened up the scoring with a 10 yard touchdown run, then hit Zack Wickenhauser for a 35 yard score and Carter Storms for an 8 yard touchdown. Storms the went on to record a safety and Benjamin Molnau returned a kickoff 49 yards to give the Raiders points from all three phases. ...
Fiercest storm of the season left debris, power outages in its wake
Hard-hit Waconia and other communities in the path of a fierce thunderstorm on Monday, Aug. 26, continued clean-up well into the aptly named Labor Day weekend. The storm was the strongest yet this year and in recent memory with winds topping 60 miles per hour, snapping off trees and branches, and causing power outages in portions of Waconia and throughout the region At peak, more than 250,000 across the Twin...
Stiftungsfest draws crowds to NYA
For 163 years, Norwood Young America’s Stiftungsfest has proudly stood as Minnesota’s Oldest Celebration. Founded in 1861 by a German singing society, this festival has become an expression of the community’s rich heritage. It’s a time when the small town comes alive, offering a unique variety of food, fun, and fellowship that brings people together year after year to celebrate our shared traditions. Norwood Young America welcomed thousands of community members and visitors who came to soak in the full Stiftungsfest experience from Aug. 22-24....
Lakers win Class C tournament
Two local baseball teams, the Waconia Lakers and the Young America Cardinals made deep runs at the Minnesota Class C Baseball State Tournament this season. Waconia reached the weekend “sweet 16” in strong defensive fashion with a 10-0 blanking of the Hanaska Lakers and a 6-1 win over the Montgomery Mallards. Young America, Region 7C champ with a first-round bye, advanced with a 4-2 win over the Raymond Rockets. Ultimately, the Young America Cardinals were knocked out in the semi-final by the Jordan Brewers with a score of 6-0. Waconia faced Jordan in the championship, and claimed the title with a 5-2 win. Tournament hosts this year were Jordan, Belle Plaine and Green Isle.
Royals battle Jaguars to fifth set
The Watertown-Mayer volleyball team battled Jordan to a fifth set Wednesday, but ultimately fell 3-2 in a back and forth set that went 25-17, 22-25, 25-14, 21-25, 10-15. Alaina Burns led the team in kills with 20, while Anna Fiscus had 10. Claire Vanderlinde had five. Addie Leuthner, Emily Peterson and Hailey Rasmussen each had two. Leuthner led the team in assists with 34, Peterson had two, Fiscus and Jill...
Wildcats kick off season with a win
The Waconia football team got off to a strong start for the 2024 season, defeating Rochester Century 34-0 Thursday night. “We played well,” senior cornerback Aaron Golka said. “The defense played well and the offense played well. I think we’ve got a lot to work on, lot to get better at. I think we can always be better.” The Wildcats started the game on fire, as Mason Speers caught a...
Crusaders battle Chaska Hawks
The Mayer Lutheran volleyball team battled Chaska this past week, falling 3-0 to the Hawks (20-25,23-25,17-25). “I feel like the Crusaders put up a good fight tonight,” said coach Joelle Grimsley. “We are just getting started and working with a couple different rotations to see what the girls can do in game like situations. Tonight we gave the ball over too many times in our own errors. We will need to play much sharper as the season progresses. Ada Hahn, a first year starter, had...
Quilters to descend on Chaska in September
Minnesota is known as “The North Star State,” “The Gopher State” and “The Land of 10,000 Lakes.” Thanks to the work of world-renowned quilter Gudrun Erla, Minnesota is also gaining a reputation as a key destination for quilters. This September, quilting enthusiasts from around...
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Sun Patriot is comprised of Waconia Patriot and News & Times newspapers and serves the Cologne, Mayer, New Germany, Norwood Young America, Watertown and Waconia communities. Published Thursdays by APG of East Central Minnesota dating back to 1889. 24/7 local coverage found online at www.sunpatriot.com
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