Spring 1996

This article submitted by Molly Connors on 12/30/96.

Spring
Paynesville hosts Special Olympics
Paynesville hosted the Area 7 Special Olympics on Friday, May 17, for the first time.
After a wet start, the sun came out in the afternoon. About 140 athletes from 13 communities participated.
The athletes took part in many events, including 100-meter dash, wheelchair events, 25-meter run, 50-meter race walk, 100-meter race walk, softball throw, shot put, long jump, 1500-meter race and long jump.

Girls sixth at True Team State
The Paynesville girls track team beat Becker by nearly thirteen points at the True Team sections and earned themselves a trip to True Team state competition.
The team came back from the National Sports Center with sixth place, a remarkable accomplishment for the Bulldogs, who were both the youngest team (no seniors) and the smallest team (15 girls) at the competition.
The weather for the meet wasn't optimum, but the young team still performed well. Tiffany Rausch brought home the highest place with second in the 400. Steph Tangen followed with thirds in the 100 and 300 hurdles.

Benson, 4x4 take state trip
Eleven individual Bulldogs and three relays competed in the section meet in Litchfield. When the sun set that night, only the boys 4x4 team and high jumper Gina Benson had qualified for state competition. Benson jumped a 5'3", adding five inches to her jump at True Team state. The 4x4 team (Jay Zumwalde, Jeff Hansen, Dan Johnson and Tom Lieser) ran a 3:30.25 and beat the automatic state qualifying time by two seconds.
At the state meet, Benson again cleared 5'3". She missed all of her 5'4" jumps and placed sixth.
The boys 4x4 team didn't qualify for the finals. Their 3:33.19 in the prelims was too slow. The 4x4 team ended their season with a 13th place finish at state.

Baseball wins sub section
The Bulldogs baseball team beat Dassel-Cokato 4-2 to win the sub-section crown.
Two days later, the Bulldogs ended their season with a 4-0 loss to Sartell in the section playoffs.

Schmitt's second state trip
Heather Schmitt, a 1995 PAHS graduate, played in the state golf tournament at the St. Cloud Country Club on June 3 and 4.
Although the weather was uncooperative with wind and low temperatures, Schmitt shot an 86.
Coming into the tournament's second day, she was tied for 12th place. The second day didn't go as Schmitt had hoped. She shot a 96 and placed twenty something out of 88 golfers.

Return to Sports Archives