Six from area receive Minnesota 9-man all-state football honors
Dec. 17—GRAND FORKS — Six players from the Grand Forks Herald coverage area have been named to the Minnesota 9-man all-state football team, which was selected by league coaches last week.
Area selections include Fertile-Beltrami's Caiden Swenby and Isaiah Wright, Goodridge-Grygla's Lewis Jones and Blake Rychlock, Win-E-Mac's Ryan Kangas and Clearbrook-Gonvick's Alex Churness.
Kittson County Central's Morgan Muir was the lone area honorable mention selection.
Fertile-Beltrami advanced to the state semifinals. Swenby, a 6-foot-3, 185-pound senior quarterback, threw for a school-record 1,455 yards on 85-for-124 passing with 13 touchdowns to three interceptions.
For a career, Swenby has thrown for more than 2,500 yards, 28 touchdowns and six interceptions. As a safety on defense, Swenby has a conference record with 11 career interceptions.
Swenby and the Falcons lost just three games across the last three seasons, advancing to the state championship game once and the state semifinals twice.
Swenby is a Minnesota-Crookston basketball signee.
Wright, a 6-1, 185-pound junior running back, ran for 1,655 yards and 27 touchdowns. He also caught 20 balls for 405 yards and four touchdowns. For a career, Wright has more than 3,500 rushing yards, which is a school record.
Rychlock is a senior quarterback-defensive end for Goodridge-Grygla, the Minnesota Section 8 champions.
He ran for 414 yards and six touchdowns, while throwing for 899 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Defensively, Rychlock had 76 tackles and seven sacks. He was named the District 9 West Defensive Player of the Year.
Jones is a running back-safety for Goodridge-Grygla. As a senior, he ran for 764 yards, eight touchdowns and an average of 8.5 yards. He also caught 21 passes for 290 yards and four touchdowns.
On defense, Jones had 80 tackles and three interceptions to bump his career total to 11.
Jones had four kickoff return touchdowns as he was a two-time District 9 Special Teams Player of the Year.
Kangas is a 6-4, 185-pound senior running back-wide receiver for the Patriots.
Kangas ran 73 times for 761 yards and nine touchdowns despite missing five games due to injury. He also had 14 catches for 158 yards and two touchdowns.
Kangas is committed to play at Bemidji State.
Churness is a 5-10, 175-pound senior running back-linebacker for Clearbrook-Gonvick, which finished 7-4 in 2023.
Churness ended the year with 145 carries for 1,140 yards and 21 touchdowns.
He had 105.5 tackles on defense including 11.0 tackles for loss.
