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Tribune notebook: Willmar Cardinals face their lone CLC football opponent Friday

tom elliott, west central tribune, willmar, minn.
·3 min read

Sep. 26—There is no Central Lakes Conference when it comes to football. District scheduling tossed that out the window.

Until this season, however, it wasn't unusual to see a former CLC team competing against a majority of its former conference opponents.

With the revamped districts, the emphasis has been placed on playing teams in your class. For most of the former CLC teams, that's Class AAAAA or Class AAAA, with St. Cloud Apollo moving to Class AAA to join Fergus Falls.

Geography and the proximity of the two teams playing seems much like much less of a concern.

At 6 p.m. Friday in Cold Spring, Willmar plays its only CLC opponent of the season, the Rocori Spartans.

This season, the CLC school with the most conference opponents on its schedule is Sartell, with four. The Sabres have lost to Sauk Rapids, Brainerd and Alexandria and still have an Oct. 13 game with St. Cloud Tech.

Brainerd has three conference games: Sartell, Alexandria this week and Tech on Oct. 6.

Three is the same number of CLC games for Alexandria and Tech.

Sauk Rapids, Willmar and Rocori have one CLC game.

Fergus Falls and Apollo have none, which means for the first time Tech and Apollo won't play during the regular season since Apollo opened in 1969.

Willmar boys soccer player Mohamed Jigre earned Central Lakes Conference Performer of the Week honors after coming off the bench to score two goals in a victory over Rocori.

Other CLC top performers include:

* From Alexandria — volleyball player Hadley Thul;

* From Brainerd — girls tennis players Lydia Olson and Reese Glynn;

* From Fergus Falls — girls soccer player Vanessa Vaughn, girls swimmer Aisling Cox, girls tennis player Ruby Ellison and girls cross-country runner Cassie Wellman;

* From Sartell — girls soccer player Kaia Gack, boys cross-country runner Josh Lefeber and girls cross-country runner Ava Jemming;

* From Sauk Rapids — boys soccer goaltender Tracie Nelson, girls diver Sophia Markfelder, boys cross-country runner Kade Lovell and volleyball player Ava Athman;

* BOLD's Leslie Snow is a sophomore libero/outside hitter for the Central College volleyball team. Central, an NCAA Division III school in Pella, Iowa, Snow has 97 kills, 120 digs, 10 service aces and four ace blocks for the Dutch, who have a 12-2 record.

* New London-Spicer's Ashlyn Olson is a right-side hitter for the University of North Dakota volleyball team. The junior psychology major has 25 kills and six assisted blocks for the Division I Fighting Hawks, who have a 4-10 record.

* Paynesville's Kyleigh Tangen is a freshman outside hitter on the University of Sioux Falls volleyball team. Tangen has 37 kills, three service aces, 33 digs and six assisted blocks for the Division II Cougars, who are 4-7.

* Yellow Medicine East's Ruby Bones is a freshman middle blocker on the Minnesota State-Moorhead volleyball team. She has eight kills for the Division II Dragons, who are 4-8.

* MACCRAY's Sydney Thein is a freshman setter on the Southwest Minnesota State volleyball team. The applied computational mathematics major. Thein has yet to play for the Division II Mustangs, who are 9-2 and ranked 11th in the nation.

* Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg's Dylan Rudningen is the leading rusher for the University of Sioux Falls football. The redshirt junior is listed at 5-foot-9, 205 pounds. He's an exercise science major who rushed for 335 yards and four touchdowns on 48 carries. He's also caught four passes for 19 yards. He's in his third year of getting regular playing time for the Division II Cougars, who are 2-2.

* Also playing football at Sioux Fall is Willmar's Ethan Schwab. Schwab is a 6-2, 275-pound defensive lineman. The redshirt freshman is an exercise science major. He has two solo tackles, one tackle for loss and one quarterback hurry for the Cougars, who are in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.