By: Abby Altman
Highland Park has been a powerhouse in many sports over the last few years, most notably Cross Country running and Nordic skiing. So what happens in the spring, when Highland no longer represents a powerhouse endurance sport?
Spring sports at Highland Park Senior High have not historically compared to that of fall and winter sports, both in success, and in spectator turnout.
Baseball and softball games don’t attract nearly as many viewers and support as football and basketball, and most people don’t even know that Highand has a combined ultimate frisbee team with Central High School.
However, each of the spring sports at Highland have achieved some level of success and each team deserves to be recognized.
Softball:
The Highland Park softball team has been short in numbers ever since the COVID-19 pandemic. For the first time since 2019, Highland was able to fill a JV roster this spring, and utilized an abundance of underclassmen to fill out the Varsity roster.
The softball team went 8-0 in conference play, outscoring conference opponents 132-10 en route to their sixth conference title in team history. The team then went on to beat Minneapolis Southwest 16-6 to earn the first Twin Cities championship title in team history.
Baseball:
Similar to softball, the Highland Park baseball team went 8-0 in conference play, and 14-3 overall. The baseball team started the season extremely hot, going 14-0 to open the season, before dropping the last 3 games of the regular season.
Baseball and softball both went 0-2 in section play to end their seasons.
Badminton:
The Highland girls badminton team went 9-3 in conference play, and 17-3 overall on the season. Highland finished the season ranked 4th in team state.
At the individual state meet, Sunny Vang placed 1st overall in the singles varsity matches, and Houahna Yang placed 2nd overall in the singles JV matches. Edi Damiyo and Sara Leticho placed 3rd overall in the JV doubles matches.
Track:
The track team had a relatively bumpy start to the season, with many distance runners continuing their Nordic ski season, and several top athletes out with injury. Despite these setbacks, both the boys and girls teams won the team conference meet, with every single relay team taking 1st or 2nd place, and 12 overall event wins.
The team is now in the middle of their section championships, with Gavin Roberts and Terez Vaughn going to state in the 3200 and triple jump respectively. The finals for the section meet will be held on Friday, June 2, with 7 athletes qualifying for finals in various events.
Girls Golf:
The girls golf team had a record breaking number of participants this year. The golf team went 5-0 in conference, and won the conference tournament for the 18th time, by a daunting 150 strokes. This marks 10 conference titles in the last 11 years for Highland girls golf.
Boys Golf:
For the 3rd straight season, the Highland boys golf team was conference champions, finishing the match with a team score of 326. This is the 16th conference title in team history.
Ultimate Frisbee:
After losing the majority of their team to graduation last season, the Highland-Central combined team was able to recruit lots of new players, and the team is now even bigger than in years prior. The team went 5-4 on the season, including a 4 game win streak in April.
Tennis:
The Highland Boys tennis team clinched the conference title, going 6-0 in city play, ending with a 7-0 defeat over Como Park. This is the 17th conference win in team history.
Doubles duo Andrew Bacigalupi and Bodie Zwank defeated Eagan in the Section 3AA doubles championship, taking 1st place and qualifying for the state tennis tournament. The state tournament will begin on June 8th.
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