In honor of the summer Olympics this past summer, here are some female Olympians from Minnesota.
Suni Lee-
Suni Lee is an American gymnast born in St. Paul, Minnesota. Suni Lee first qualified for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. In 2021 she won gold all-around, silver for team and bronze for uneven bars. This year, at the summer Olympics, she won bronze all-around and on uneven bars, and gold as a team. Suni Lee became the first Asian American woman to win the all around title and she also was named the Female Athlete of the Year by ‘Sports Illustrated’both in 2021. She got to compete in her home state this year for the Olympic trials, which were held at Target Center in downtown Minneapolis.
Jessie Diggins-
Jessie Diggins at the World Cup in St. Paul, MN
Jessie Diggins is a Nordic skier born in Afton, Minnesota. She made history in the 2018 winter Olympics with her relay partner Kikkan Randall becoming the first Nordic skier to bring home a gold medal. This race was close between Norway, Sweden and The USA, but in the last 100m Jessie Diggins pulled ahead beating Sweden by .19 millisecond. She also won silver in the 30k freestyle and bronze in freestyle sprint, both in 2022. This winter, Jessie Diggins raced in St. Paul as part of the World Cup. There was an estimate of 40,000 people who showed up over the two days. On the second day, Jessie Diggins got 4th in the long distance. This was very exciting for her since it was in her home state.
Regan Smith-
Regan Smith is a swimmer born in Lakeville, Minnesota. In total, Regan Smith has 8 Olympic medals. This year at the Paris Olympics, she won gold in two relays, and silver in the 200m butterfly, 100m backstroke, and 200m backstroke. In the Tokyo Olympics, Regan Smith won silver in the 200m butterfly and 4×100 relay, and bronze in 100m backstroke. On Friday, October 25th, she broke the world record for the 100m backstroke with a time of 54.41 seconds.
The Iditarod Race is an annual Alaskan sled dog race held early March. It starts in Anchorage and travails nearly 1,000 miles through the Alaskan terrain all the way to Nome, Alaska. Each team starts with 14-16 dogs, a musher and sled. A musher is the human who directs and helps the dogs throughout the race. There are 3 required stops, one 24 hour stop and two 8 hour stops. During these the dogs get medical care and a check to make sure they can keep going.
Before Alaska was settled by Russia, Native Alaskans found that sled dogs were the most efficient way to get to places because of the harsh climates and rough terrain. Russia settled in Alaska in the early 1800s and found native sled dog trails. They decided it would be a good place to set up a fur trading post.
When Alaska was bought by the US from Russia, most of inland Alaska had not been explored except by the Natives currently living there, but once gold was discovered, people came rushing in from all over in hopes to become rich off of their finds. The three major places where gold was found were in Hope, Nome and Iditarod.
As miners and traders spread across Alaska they realized that the Natives’ way of using sled dogs was the easiest way to transport mail and tools to the miners in the areas. They created a path leading from Skagway up to Nome that later changed to be Seward to Nome because many people reported it was less dangerous. Along the trail up to Nome there were road houses where mushers could sleep and get food for them and their dog.
In 1925 a diphtheria epidemic broke out in Nome causing many people to fall ill. Being a small secluded town, there was no serum to help there, but in Anchorage there was a serum. They needed to get it to Nome quickly. They were able to send it partially there by train but there was still quite a way to go, so they used mushers and sled dogs on the Iditarod trail to send it the rest of the way to Nome. It took only 5 days after departing Anchorage to arrive at Nome. This run is the most historic part of the Iditarod Trail.
Throughout the next several decades, the trail saw little to no use with the gold industry declining, and airplanes being able to deliver mail.
In 1973 a race along the Iditarod started to honor the history of the gold rush and bring awareness to the Iditarod Trail. This race has continued every year since then with tons of people coming every year.
A photo of our varsity team and the Central match. Photo Credits: Emily Aune
On Thursday 9/5 the Highland Park Scottie’s took on the Central Minutemen at Central High School taking them to four sets out of five. This is one of the biggest volleyball games of the season for Highland and Central because of the huge rivalry against the two schools. Although a lot of these players may be friends with each other outside of volleyball, when you step on the court it’s all about winning.
Lots of students from both schools showed up to these games and everyone was very excited about the game. The Highland student section was louder than Central’s during the whole game, even though it was at Central’s home. The theme for Highland’s student section was white out and the theme for Central’s student section was black out. Almost everyone showed up on theme and showed school spirit while cheering for varsity Highland Volleyball.
Highland plays Central twice in the school season. We play Central again at the end of September and that is the conference match. That match is a lot more important and really helps decide who wins the conference.
For our B-Squad there were 2 sets in total with a very tough loss to the Central Minutemen. Each set was very close and Highland put up a very strong fight against the Central B-Squad. Highland’s B-Squad head coach is Emily Aune and their assistant coach is Grace Blumer-Lamotte who are both Highland alumni.
The B-Squad this year is very packed and has about 18 players on the team; many of the players on B-Squad are freshmen. The B-Squad team is filled with a ton of caring, strong, and athletic players. They all have been working so hard this season to become better volleyball players, and you can already see so much improvement.
JV won in an easy two sets and unfortunately was our only Highland team to win against our rival Central. The game was somewhat close the whole time. The JV and B-Squad teams only can play up to a maximum of three sets, the first two sets end by whichever team reaches 25 points first (win by two) and the third set only goes to 15 which is also win by two.
JV has two captains for the team this season, Jamariah Fisher (middle blocker) who is a 12th grader and Siri David (outside hitter) who is a 10th grader. There are thirteen players on JV, and the head coach is Hannah Wolfy. When all playing together our JV team this year is a very strong team and are great at communicating with each other.
Our Varsity team also had a very tough loss against the Central Varsity team. It was a pretty tight game the whole time leaving all of the student section on our toes. They went to four sets, as we said before, and the game kept going back and forth for Highland. Unfortunately, we ended up losing, luckily it is not a conference game so we can always win the next one.
Although Highland lost, they played very well and got lots of kills against Central. The referees were also very bad for this game, they kept calling people touching the net when it was obvious the players were not. Even the Central head coach had realized that these referees were being unfair to Highland but thankfully both coaches reported him.
So far in the 2024 season, Varsity is looking very good, they have great blockers and good defense. There are no freshmen on Varsity this year, but there are 2 sophomores, Juliet Kottke (outside hitter) and Sasha Deans (middle blocker). Their head coach is Sonje Odegard and assistant coach is Queen E. The Highland Varsity captains are Ella Sutherland (outside hitter), Mary Koch (middle hitter), and Lauren Kottke (libero); they are all seniors this year. There are 14 players on Varsity this year with 3 swings, Ruth Mckoskey who is a sophomore (setter/DS), Siri David is a sophomore as well, and Jamariah Fisher who is a senior this year.
This team is truly very special and we’re sure they are going to have an amazing rest of the season!
Plaid Line + PRIZM + Scottie News 