Blooming Prairie Overcomes COVID, Wins Opener

The Blooming Prairie girls basketball team was not able to have any full five-on-five drills before opening their season Saturday against Bethlehem Academy due to coronavirus. The Awesome Blossoms still prevailed 46-28. Coach John Bruns was proud of the effort, writing in an email, "We were able to win our first game of the season tonight (Saturday) is spit of having our first two weeks interrupted with COVID concerns...I was very happy with a lot of things about tonight, but the best thing was that the girls finally got a chance to get back out of the court."

Bobbie Bruns led BP with 14 points which included a pair of three-pointers. Megan Oswald turned in a double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds. Emily Miller scored six. Allison Krohnberg added five points. Katie Trump led BA with nine points.

Bruns added, "Offensively, we did struggle at times and missed some shots that we normally would make, but defensively we played very solid and forced BA into several first half turnovers."

Blooming Prairie was the Section 1A runner-up last winter and returns the bulk of their starting line up. BP is home versus Lyle/Pacelli Tuesday, January 19.

The Westfield wrestling squad opened their season in Waseca Saturday. The Razorbacks are a coop of Blooming Prairie and Hayfield. They dropped matches to New Ulm Area 48-27 and to the BlueJays 44-30. (Click on the score to see the match recap from coach David Lassahn.

Westfield had a trio of wrestlers go 2-0 on the day. Keegan Bronson (145 pounds) pinned his New Ulm Area opponent in 45 seconds and won a decision over Waseca. Sam Skillstad (152) won a pair of decisions. Tyler Archer (195) won by pin in 46 seconds against New Ulm Area and got a forfeit versus Waseca.

The Razorback wrestlers are scheduled to go to Maple River Tuesday, January 19.

The Blooming Prairie boys basketball team was not able to play against Bethlehem Academy this weekend, but will open their season Tuesday, January 19 at Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton. BP is scheduled to host United South Central Friday, January 22.

Scoreboard from Saturday, January 16
Boys basketball
Owatonna 65, Century 59
Maple River 63, NRHEG 57
USC 62, Medford 47
Triton 85, LCWM 75

Girls basketball
Owatonna 61, Century 46
Blooming Prairie 46, Faribault Bethlehem Academy 28
Maple River 60, NRHEG 58

Boys hockey
Owatonna 4, Faribault 2

Girls hockey
Owatonna 10, Mankato West 0

Wrestling
Owatonna 84, JM 0
Owatonna 46, Byron 25
New Ulm Area 48, Westfield 27
Waseca 44, Westfield 30

Junior Hockey
MN Moose 4, Steele County 1 (Friday)
MN Moose 6, Steele County 3 (Saturday)
MN Blue Ox 7, Steele County 4 (Sunday)