Registration starts at 2:30 p.m. with opening ceremonies set for 3:30 p.m. The public is invited to come out to the high school for the opening ceremonies. “There are 150 Special Olympic athletes from several towns and facilities that would love to have people there to cheer them on,” Jane Hjelle, coordinator, said.
Area 7 includes eight counties from Paynesville to North Branch. Teams coming include Albany Area School, Buffalo Schools, Cambridge/Isanti Special Olympics, Mora Special Athletes, North Branch Schools, Princeton Special Olympics, Rockford Special Olympics, Rocori Spartans, St. Cloud Community, Therapeutic Community Residence, the Vikings and Paynesville.
Competition will start about 3:45 p.m. with the 100-meter run and wheelchair events. At 4:15 p.m. the 800 meter run and 400-meter run will take place followed by the 23 meter run, 50-meter race walk and 100-meter race walk. The wheelchair events will take place on the far side of the track.
Field events include: the softball throw, high jump, shot put, running long jump, frisbee throw and others.
Paynesville has 11 athletes involved in Special Olympics training and sports competition. They are: Yvette Lounsbury, Danny Schutz, Aaron Vadner, Dustin Rudy, Erica Wander, Dallas Richardson, Michael Naujokas, Margaret Schmitz, Katherine Parks, Jesse Bahner, Matt Bayer and Nathan Martin.