Sports

The Benson girls basketball team ended its season with a 59-19 loss to NLS in the first round of the Section 3AA Tourney.  One game earlier, the Braves snapped a 29-game losing streak with a 67-64 overtime win over Paynesville.  Benson finished the season with a 1-25 overall record for the second-straight season.

The victory over Paynesville meant the Braves avoided finishing the season without a win for the third time in program history.  The Benson girls basketball team went 0-22 in 1991-92 and also went 0-26 in 2013-14.

Benson’s previous win was a 42-37 victory over BOLD, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015.  Benson went 0-5 the rest of the 2014-15 season and was 0-24 to start out 2015-16 before edging the Bulldogs.

The Benson wrestling team held its season-ending banquet recently, announcing the team awards and other postseason honors.

Captains for this season were seniors Grant Ascheman and Mitch Koosmann, and sophomore Aaron Zosel.  All three of the captains earned state berths this season along with 9th grader Jared Knutson.  Ascheman highlighted the state efforts by placing fifth at state with a 4-2 record.

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The KMS wrestling team had another fantastic season of wrestling in 2015-2016, going 16-3 overall, winning the Section 5A Tourney, going 0-2 during the state team tourney, and qualifying six wrestlers to the state individual tourney, including Karter VanHeuveln, who went 3-1 at state to place second.

KMS only lost to Willmar during the regular season (33-28), and Willmar went on to place fourth at state.  At the state tourney, KMS ran into a couple of hot teams, losing to Pierz in the first round (44-22), and to Caledonia in the consolation round (37-18).

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The Benson boys basketball team ended the season with a 10-16 overall record, which included a 2-12 mark in the WCC to give the Braves a tie with BOLD for seventh place.

The Braves started out, losing close games to Hancock (74-66) and NLS (53-52) early in the season to start out 2-3.  Benson climbed to 6-6 with a 79-69 win over BOLD, but fell to 6-10 with a four-game losing streak.

The Braves played their best basketball of the season in winning four-straight games over KMS, YME, Paynesville and BOLD, but Benson ended the season with a six-game losing streak to finish 10-16 for the program’s fourth-straight losing season.

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The MBA Storm Pee Wees finished sixth at the Minnesota State Pee Wee Tournament at Moorhead last weekend.  MBA went 1-2 overall, losing to Champlin Park in its first game, 4-3, but coming back to beat Park of Cottage Grove in its next game, 3-0, before losing to Edina White in the consolation finals, 8-0.

MBA, which finished the season 37-6-1 overall, earned a berth at the state tourney after placing second at the Minnesota Hockey West Region Tournament, Feb. 26-28 at Red Lake Falls.  

Five of the team’s losses came against top-20 ranked teams.  MBA also won the District 15 regular-season title, Fergus Falls Tourney championship, and District 15 tourney title.

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KMS seniors Kallee Anderson and Ashley Just, along with junior Samantha Gjerde, were named to the Willmar West Central Tribune’s All-Area Girls Basketball Team for 2015-2016.  They were also recently named to the Camden North All-Conference team for this season.

Anderson, Just, and Gjerde were named to the 28-member All-Area honorable mention team, while players from Lac qui Parle, Montevideo, Minnewaska, NLS, and Willmar earned All-Area first-team honors.

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The Benson-KMS-Montevideo gymnastics team had another highly-successful season in 2015-2016.  The Fighting Braves went 8-1 in dual meets, losing only to Melrose Area, and also placed second to Melrose at the WCC Meet and fourth at the Section 6A Tourney.

Benson-KMS-Montevideo scored over 130 points in 12 of its 13 meets this season, including a team high of 135.925, set Jan. 19, 2016 at Morris Area. The Fighting Braves were also third at invitationals at Marshall and Morris Area this season.

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KMS senior Karter VanHeuveln placed second at 220 pounds, and Benson senior Grant Ascheman was fifth at 145 pounds to highlight the Benson and KMS wrestlers’ efforts at the State Individual Tourney, Friday and Saturday at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

VanHeuveln went 3-1 to claim the runner-up medal at his second-straight state tourney after placing fifth last season.  He ends his senior season with a 39-6 record and with 118 career wins, placing him tied for 18th on the all-time career wins’ list at KMS.

Ascheman meanwhile, went 4-2 to place fifth at 145 pounds, ending his senior season of wrestling with a 34-8 record and his high school career with 126 career wins, which places him fifth on the all-time Benson list.

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The Benson girls basketball team came within a few points of picking up its first win of the season, but ended up losing a close game to Melrose, Thursday night in Benson, 35-33.  The Braves also fell to Montevideo last Tuesday night in Benson (66-32) and at Morris Area, Friday night (62-18).

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Minnewaska used a 23-5 run toward the end of the first half and into the second half to beat the Benson boys basketball team in the Section 3AA opener, 65-52, Saturday night at Minnewaska Area High School.

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