Owatonna Adapted Floor Hockey Returns to State Tournament
After a third-place finish at the 2016 state tournament, the Owatonna High School adapted floor hockey team returns to state Friday.
The Huskies take a five-game winning streak into the state tournament, including a home playoff win 9-2 over Robbinsdale/Mound/Westonka. OHS (10-3) is the No. 2 seed from the south and will face No. 3 from the north Maple Grove (8-4-1), according to the Minnesota State High School League bracket. They will square off at 6:30PM Friday at Bloomington Jefferson High School. The teams did not play during the regular season.
The other quarterfinal games on Friday include North Suburban against Wayzata/Minnetonka, St. Cloud Area versus Burnsville/Farmington/Lakeville and South Washington County against New Prague/TCU/Le Sueur-Henderson/Belle Plaine/Jordan. Owatonna is one of the few teams in the league that is not a cooperative program.
Two of Owatonna's losses came against South Washington, who is the top seed from the south. Win or lose in their first game, every team plays at least one more game on Saturday. All games are at Bloomington Jefferson High School.
Owatonna's roster shows seniors Abby Donahe, Nolan Engebretson and Sam Gefre. Juniors include Taylor Hagen, Zach Sencer and Sam Mullenbach. OHS freshman are Angel Gonzalez, Melinda Abernathey, Skyler Kopecky-Johnson, Jasmine Talley, Katelyn Rysavy and Colton Drache. Owatonna also has seventh-graders Kerryn Keller, Mason Enger and Chloe Talley on the team. The head coach is John Scheil. He is assisted by CW Wolfe and Kyle Burns.
The high school league record book shows Owatonna has been to state 16 previous times, winning a state title in 2004 and finishing second three times. The Huskies took third place at the 2016 tournament. The high school league has hosted an adapted floor hockey tournament since 1994.