Highlights of the past week for area athletes in golf, soccer, tennis, cross-country and cheer-dance

It was a busy week for area athletes, with competitions in soccer, boys’ golf, girls’ tennis, cross country, and cheerleading and dance.

Here are some highlights (Saturday through Thursday) of these sports:

Boys Golf

Watertown shot 301 to win the Yankton Invite by seven strokes on Sept. 13, led by medalist Ty Lenards’ 1-under 71. Jonathan Lake finished fourth (75) and Gabe Norberg eighth (76) for the Arrows. Jerome Zebroski tied for 18th with a 78.

Aberdeen Central shot 353 to finish 14th. Ben Phillips and Cole Brust both tied for 46th with 86 for the Golden Eagles.

At the Brookings Invite on Monday, Watertown was third with a 293, 11 strokes behind Harrisburg and one stroke behind Pierre. Lenards shot a 3-under 69 to take third. Solheim finished 12th (73), Norberg 14th (75) and Stemwedel 17th (76). Kaden Rylance did not play at Yankton and withdrew after a few holes at Brookings because of stitches in his hand.

The Arrows host the Watertown Invite on Tuesday at Cattail Crossing Golf Course.

PREPARING FOR THE POLLS: Watertown High School’s football team takes over the top spot in the state’s Class 11AA standings

At the Redfield Invite on Tuesday, Aberdeen Ronncalli shot 307 to beat the Watertown junior varsity by eight strokes for the title. Groton Area was third with 316, followed by Sioux Valley (324), Milbank (332), Sisseton (354) and Redfield (370).

Roncalli’s Finn Anderson took medal honors with an even-par 70, one stroke ahead of Milbank’s Jonathan DeBoer. Watertown’s JV’s Gavin Neynes was third with a 72, followed by Sioux Valley’s Maverick Nelson and Groton Area’s Brevin Fliehs with 74s.

Football

The Watertown boys (9-1-1 overall) rebounded from a loss to Sioux Falls Lincoln on Thursday by beating Mitchell 5-0 on Saturday and Brandon Valley 3-0 on Tuesday on the road.

Riley Fischer had a goal and two assists and Patrick Bednarczyk and Dawson Hartman had a goal and an assist against Mitchell. Braxten Endres and Parker Meek also scored and goalie Owen Muller made three saves. Fischer, Endres and Skyler Stanton each scored against Brandon Valley with Jacob Sadler, Alex Raml and Fischer recording assists and Muller making nine saves.

Madison Enstad had 14 goals and seven saves for the Arrow girls, who moved to 2-9 with a 1-0 loss to Mitchell on Saturday and a 4-0 defeat to Brandon Valley on Tuesday.

The Aberdeen Central boys (6-2-3) defeated Tea Area 7-0 on Tuesday with two goals from Linus Johnson and a goal and an assist from Derek Arunasalam. Antonio Buedo Ruiez, Gus Bjerknes, Derek Holland Tyler Bain also scored. The Aberdeen Central girls (4-5-2) tied Tea Area 0-0. The Golden Eagles suffered a 1-0 loss to Sioux Falls Lincoln on Thursday.

Groton Area’s second-division Class B girls defeated Vermillion 10-0 with three goals and three assists from McKenna Tietz. Ryelle Gilbert, Sydney Locke, Brooklyn Hansen, Liz Fliehs, Laila Roberts, Brenna Imrie and Jerica Locke also scored. Roberts, B. Hansen, Carly Gilbert and Kennedy Hansen also added assists and Jaedyn Penning made eight saves. The Tigers (6-1-1) also defeated Dakota Valley 1-0 on Laila Roberts’ late goal off a B. Hansen corner kick.

Vermillion defeated the Groton boys 8-0, who came back to beat Dakota Valley 5-2 thanks to two goals from Logan Olson and one each from Easton Weber, Karson Zak and Ethan Kroll.

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Girls tennis

Watertown increased its mark to 13-3 by beating Brookings and Rapid City Central, both 9-0, on Friday in Brookings, posted 8-1 wins over Huron and Pierre on Saturday in Huron and defeated Sioux Falls Roosevelt 9-0 and Harrisburg 8-1 on Tuesday in Sioux Falls.

No. 1 Ellie Zink, No. 2 Leyla Meester, No. 3 Faith Berg and No. 5 Cayda Weiss each went 6-0 in singles and No. 3 Sophia Nichols and No. 6 Jade Smith each went 5-1 in singles for the Arrows. In doubles, Zink-Meester at No. 1 and Weiss-Smith at No. 3 were each 6-0 and Berg-Nichols was 5-1 at No. 2 doubles.

The Arrows and Milbank, who lost 0-7 to Vermillion (9-0) on Tuesday, will play each other on Saturday in the Elliott Extravaganza, hosted by Aberdeen Central and Roncalli.

Aberdeen Central (11-7) won 8-1 and Aberdeen Roncalli (4-8) lost 9-0 to St. Thomas More on Monday. Julie Knie, Avery Tennan, Reese Comstock, Chloe Ladner, Sarah Knie and Ashley Ortega helped Aberdeen Central sweep in singles. J. Knie-Tennant also won at No. 1 doubles and Madalynn Holman-Estelle Riggs at No. 3 doubles.

Cross-country skiing

Watertown runners competed Sept. 14 at the Heartland Preview at Yankton Trail Park in Sioux Falls. Saturday at the Clyde Cotton Invite in Huron.

The Arrow girls finished 10th with a score of 256, led by Grace McElroy’s 17th place (19:05.7) in the girls’ 5,000-meter division race. Kate McElroy was 37th (20:25.10) of 146 runners. Northwestern’s Ella Boekelheide was seventh (18:30.30). The Arrow boys finished ninth with a score of 280, led by Ty Sullivan (19th, 16:22.9). Dane Stark was 31st (16:34.5) for the Arrows of 211 runners.

In the Milbank Grandstay Invitational, Dylan Gerdes of Madison (16:40.27, boys) and Faith Wiese of Flandreau (18:07.59, girls) won.

Clark-Willow Lake’s Kamryn Nesheim had a big week, winning the girls 5,000 meters (20:33.53) at the Don Ray Invitational hosted by Deubrook Area on Saturday, the Webster Invitational (20:30.28) on Monday and the Aberdeen Roncalli Invite (21:46.58) on Thursday.

Sutton Benck of Deuel (18:11.31) won the boys division in the Don Ray Invite. Ryder Graff of Sisseton was second in the boys division (18:13.49) in Webster and won the Roncalli Invite (19:18.94).

At the Arlington Invite on Monday at Lake Region Golf Course, Kaelyn Ulschmid of Arlington was second (21:28.72) in the girls division. Nate Timm of Elkton-Lake Benton won the boys race in 18:12.97, followed by Nolan Eidson of Castlewood (18:25.76) and Lance Kaufman of Arlington (19:02.56).

Miller’s Madeline Nye (girls, 20:01.47) and Pierce Baumberger (boys, 16:35.25) won races at the Ipswich Meet on Saturday. Mya Peskek’s fourth-place finish (20:44) in the girls division led the Canby-Minneota girls to a second-place finish at the Lac qui Parle Valley/Dawson-Boyd Invite in Madison, Minn., on Tuesday.

At the Big Dakota Conference-Garry Winter-Chamberlain Invite on Thursday in Chamberlain, Sioux Valley’s Maci Licht won the girls 5,000-meter race in 19:47. Sioux Valley won the girls division with a score of 21. Baumberger (17:57) won the boys race.

The complete cross country results can be found at athletics.net.

Cheer dance

Watertown’s cheerleading team finished fourth and the dance team sixth at the Huron Invitational on Tuesday.

Class A Sioux Valley won the 11-team cheer division with a score of 264, followed by Brookings with a 262.5. Mitchell defeated Watertown 221.5-221.0 for third place. Aberdeen Central was eighth with a 199.5.

Harrisburg won the nine-team dance division with a score of 280.25. Aberdeen Central was fourth (244.75) and Watertown was sixth (211.75). Aberdeen Central was third in hip hop (246.5) and third in pom (245). Watertown was third in jazz (218) and fifth in pom (205.5).

Watertown, Aberdeen Central and Sioux Valley compete in the Brookings Invite on Saturday.

Follow Watertown Public Opinion sports reporter Roger Merriam on X (formerly known as Twitter) @PO_Sports or email: [email protected]

This article originally appeared on Watertown Public Opinion: Highlights of other area sports from the past week