Former Kasson-Mantorville teammates go head-to-head on college gridiron

Sep. 5—Gavin Giesler and Matt Donovan were nearly inseperable as they worked their way through the Kasson-Mantorville schools.

From the football field in the fall to the hockey rink in the winter, the standout athletes saw each other and their teammates and friends more than they saw their families. The 2022 Kasson-Mantorville High School graduates both are playing college football, but are now separated by more than 300 miles and slightly more than a 5-hour car ride.

Giesler

and

Donovan

— both in their second seasons with their respective Division II college football teams — shared a football field for the first time in a couple of years last Thursday, when Donovan's

Bemidji State University Beavers

topped Giesler's

Northern State University Wolves

(Aberdeen, S.D.) 49-13 at Bemidji in the season-opening game for the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference rivals.

Giesler is listed as a 6-foot-2, 205-pound sophomore tight end for the Wolves, who went 6-5 overall last season. Donovan, who ran the KoMets' dangerous option offense as a quarterback in his high school days, is listed as a 5-9, 165-pound redshirt freshman wide receiver for the Beavers, who were 10-3 a year ago and reached the second round of the NCAA Division II playoffs.

Giesler was a two-year starter on both sides of the ball at K-M and finished with more than 300 yards receiving in a run-heavy offense, as a senior in 2021.

"Gavin worked on his speed and he became a huge asset for us on offense because he was a great blocker and was also a very good receiver," K-M coach Joel Swanson told the Post Bulletin following Giesler's senior season.

Donovan, the son of former long-time K-M assistant coach and current La Crescent-Hokah head coach Terry Donovan, ran for more than 2,000 yards and passed for more than 800 as a senior at K-M in 2021, when the KoMets won the Section 1, Class 4A championship and reached the state championship game, the Prep Bowl.

Giesler and Donovan were also key members of the Dodge County Wildcats boys hockey team that won the Section 1A title and reached the Class A state championship game in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season.

If the initial state polls are any indication, the battle for the Section 1, Class 1A girls cross country championship this fall will be a good one. Three teams from Section 1 are in the top 10 in the initial rankings, released over the weekend.

Winona Cotter leads the way at No. 7, followed by Rochester Lourdes at No. 8 and Lake City at No. 9.

Lake City is the defending section champion and is paced by freshman Olivia Yotter, who is ranked No. 12 individually in the state. Lourdes also qualified for state a year ago with a seven-runner lineup that included just one senior. Cotter is led by junior Sonja Semling, who is ranked No. 7 in the state individually. She is the defending individual section champion, while Yotter was the runner-up in 2022.

Two area teams appear in the Class A boys state rankings to open the season: Winona Cotter at No. 8 and Lewiston-Altura/Rushford-Peterson at No. 11. Cole Arens, a senior from Wabasha-Kellogg, is the lone area runner in the individual state poll, at No. 10.

In the Class AA boys state poll, Winona High is receiving votes, while Kasson-Mantorville sophomore David Obst is ranked No. 7.

The Owatonna girls are also in the polls; the Huskies are receiving votes in the Class AAA rankings.

Red Wing native Cecil Belisle is clearly more comfortable at the start of his second full season with the University of Kansas men's golf team. Belisle fired an opening-round 3-under-par 68 on Monday to sit in a tie for second place after the first round of the three-round Folds of Honor Collegiate.

Belisle shot a 2-under 34 on the front nine, then a bogey-free back nine at American Dunes Golf Club in Grand Haven, Mich., on Monday, to sit just one shot back of first-round leader Nick Mathews of North Carolina State University.

Belisle, a two-time high school state medalist at Red Wing, kept his strong start to his senior season going on Tuesday, remaining at 3-under for the tournament through 6 holes, as of the time this was published. The three-round Folds of Honor Collegiate — which features 18 of the best Division I teams in the country — concludes Wednesday.

From there, the Jayhawks will head close-to-home for Belisle. They'll play in the University of Minnesota's Gopher Invitational on Sunday and Monday, at Windsong Farm Golf Club in Maple Plain.