Sports

The Norway Lake-Sunburg amateur baseball team improved to 2-1 overall with a 12-6 victory over Paynesville, Sunday afternoon.  The Lakers trailed 5-3 after five innings, but went on to outscore Paynesville 9-1 over the final four innings to pull out the win.
Jonah Johnson, one of nine NL-Sunburg players with at least one hit, earned the win on the mound.  He pitched seven innings, giving up seven hits, five runs, and one walk with seven strikeouts.  Justin Johnson pitched two innings of one-run ball to earn the save.
Aaron Zimmer, Jordan Johnson, and Chad Searcy had two hits each to lead a 12-hit attack for the Lakers.  Jonah Johnson, Fred Mansfield, James Cortez, Jessie Engler, Kyle Baker, and Blake Hagen added one hit each with Hagen and Baker recording two RBI each, and Cortez, Engler, and Searcy getting one RBI each.

BOYS GOLF

The Benson-KMS boys golf team placed fourth and fifth at the second doubleheader of WCC meets  at ACGC and Paynesville, Monday night.
Benson-KMS is now in fourth place overall after the first four meets.  Minnewaska Area leads the way with 40 points, followed by YME with 32, BOLD with 31, and Benson-KMS with 30.
Among the many high school activities postponed from last week was a WCC doubleheader at Morris and Minnewaska Area, Tuesday, April 29, which has been rescheduled for this Friday.
Coming up, Benson-KMS was set to compete in a WCC doubleheader before playing at Morris and Glenwood, Friday.

GIRLS GOLF

The 59th Annual Craig Johnson/Ernie Wheeler Athletic Awards Night is scheduled for 8:30 p.m., Monday, May 19 at Our Redeemer’s Lutheran Church Fellowship Hall in conjunction with the Senior Scholarship & Awards Ceremony.
The Senior Scholarship & Awards Ceremony is scheduled from 7-8:10 p.m. at the same night and location, and the Athletic Awards Night is set from 8:30-9 p.m.
Each year, student-athletes at Benson High School are recognized and rewarded for their positive influence as role models to younger athletes.
The evening itinerary will include the introduction of West Central Conference performers, Army Reserve National Scholar Athletes and many other awards. The evening will be capped off with the announcement and presentation of the Craig Johnson and Ernie Wheeler Awards.

The Benson-KMS boys and girls track teams both claimed titles at the Benson Invitational, Monday night.
The Benson-KMS boys won the title with 192 points, followed by Minnewaska Area with 156.5, BOLD-BLH with 152.5, Paynesville with 57, Community Christian with 42, and Hancock with seven.
Lincoln Pahl led the Benson-KMS boys with three titles.  Pahl won the 200 meter dash (23.67), triple jump (36-10), and 300 meter hurdles (42.94), while Grant Molden took first in the 800 meter run (2:11.45), Alex Forsberg won the high jump (5-8), and three relay teams were also first -- the 800 meter relay team in 1:46.15, the 1600 meter relay team in 3:48.33, and the 3200 meter relay in 9:14.51.
•  In the girls competition, Benson-KMS totaled 186 points to edge BOLD-BLH (158) for first.  Paynesville was in third with 138.5 points, followed by Minnewaska Area with 109.5, Hancock with 20, and Community Christian with three.

The Benson baseball team rallied for a 7-2 victory over Atwater-CGC, Friday in Benson, as the Braves scored five runs in the sixth inning to break a 2-2 tie.
Earlier in the week, the Braves fell to BOLD, 12-1, putting the team’s overall and conference record at 2-3.
Benson was also set to host Renville County West, Thursday, but that game was canceled due to weather.
This week, the Braves were set to play at YME, Tuesda; host Paynesville, Thursday; and play at a tournament in Montevideo, Friday.  During the Montevideo Tourney, Benson was set to play Worthington at 4 p.m., and  Redwood Valley at 6 p.m., both on Montevideo’s JV baseball fields.

Photo: Brady Young can’t quite come up with this hard grounder to third base during the Braves’ 7-2 victory over ACGC, Friday night in Benson.

The Benson-KMS boys tennis team opened up the season with two big wins.  The Braves edged WCC foe, Montevideo, in the season opener last Tuesday night in Benson, 5-2, and then Benson won by a 7-0 sweep at Litchfield, Friday.
Benson has another two matches scheduled this week, starting with a home match against Long Prairie-GE, Monday, and a match at Minnewaska Area, Tuesday (yesterday).
The boys tennis team did not lose any players from last year’s team and, in fact, had just one junior on last year’s roster.  Add in a talented seventh-grade class, a strong foreign-exchange student, and the return of an injured player, and the Braves should be one of the stronger teams in the area this season.

Photo: Bradley Berens opened up the season 2-0 playing at first doubles with two different partners.

The Regional NYWA tournament and the State Jaycee tournament was held the same day this year, and it forced wrestlers to make a choice about where to go.  “We offered our opinions as to where the kids should go, (if they qualified for both), and we let the parents decide.,” the youth coaches said.
State Jaycees results: (in Albany):
Max Nygaard-first, Jordan Grussing-first, McCoy Kurkosky-first, Jaiden Zimmerman-first, Nathan Bolduc-first, Taylor Ellingson-second, Graidy Zimmerman-third, Tait Kobbermann-fourth, and Johnny Kobbermann-fourth.
Region NYWA qualifiers: (in New London):  Adam Zosel, 4th; Aaron Zosel, 2nd; AJ Klassen, 5th; Kaden Kurkosky, 2nd; Thomas Dineen, 2nd; Mason Abner 3rd; and Preston McGee-DNP.  The State NYWA tournament will be held this week (Thursday-Saturday) in Rochester.  Results of area wrestlers will be run next week.

Benson senior Lincoln Pahl earned this year’s MBA boys hockey Hobey Baker High School Character Award.
The award, established in 2003 to honor high school senior hockey players who exemplify the Hobey Baker ideal of “character builds excellence”.  Candidates for the award are selected by their coaches, based on th following criteria:  integrity and positive attitude, coachability, outstanding sportsmanship,and community spirit.
•  In addition, the team also announced several other season-ending awards.
Benson junior Taner Gimberlin, who led the Storm in scoring with 28 points on 17 goals and 11 assists, was named the overall Most Valuable Player for the Storm this season.  In addition, ninth-grade goalie Tony Bruns earned the Defensive MVP award, junior Bo Olson won the Hustle Award; and Benson senior Chad Schwarz earned the Storm Award.
After starting out 0-11, the Storm finished the 2013-2014 season with a 9-17-1 overall record.

The Benson wrestling team was shut out from any state tournament berths for the first time in a few seasons, but don’t feel sorry for the Braves though, who should have an improved season in the years to come after graduating just one wrestler this season.
Bryce Goff, one of three Benson wrestlers to place third at the Section 3A Individual Tourney, one win from a state berth, is the only senior on the 2013-2014 Benson wrestling team.  Goff finished his career with 92 victories.
The Braves went 5-14 overall, picking up the first win over BOLD in at least three decades, and 2-6 in the WCC.  The Braves ended the team portion of their season with a 45-34 loss to BOLD-BLHS in the section preliminary round.  Minneota went on to win the section title.

A season that began with so much promise ended in a thud as the Benson boys basketball team lost its third-straight game, ending the season with a 50-38 loss at Litchfield in the opening round of the Section 6AA Tourney.
Benson was seeded sixth in its half of the section, while the Dragons were seeded third.  The 38 points scored was a season-low for the Braves, who have also scored 39 and 40 points this year, but have also scored a season-high 83 points during a win over ACGC.
The loss ended the Braves’ season with a 12-15 overall record and 8-8 mark within the WCC South to finish third behind ACGC (8-6) and Paynesville (8-7).
Benson started out 3-0 and 5-2 this season and was still at 9-7 late in the year before going 3-8 in its final 11 games.
Seniors lost to graduation from this year’s team are Alex Forsberg, Zach Maurer, Ryan Hampton, Christian Larson, Zach Jensen, Kenny Dieter, and Jacob Goff.