Athletics and Activities Update January 22nd

Girls’ Varsity Basketball

Coach Bryan Backes & Henry Smith, Jr.

The Johnnies returned to play Tuesday against Saint Cloud Christian School.  It was the second meeting against the Warriors – the Johnnies having prevailed in the first game of the season.  The execution was crisp in the first half as the Johnnies had great energy, however the ball was not going in the basket so the girls were down by 5 at halftime.  The Warriors extended their lead to 12 in the second half before the Johnnies started to rally ultimately falling short, losing 25-22.  Justine Meyer ’20 had a double/double with 12 points and 14 rebounds.  Valeryia Woodard ’21 added 9 points.  A’ishah Smith ’18 had 6 rebounds and handled the full court press like a veteran point guard!  Reid ’19 and Jaedyn Nydeen ’22, Hana May ’21, Irene Jiang’21, and Yadira Garcia ’21 all contributed; as did Sydnee Wick ’21 in her first real action.

CELEBRATE A’ISHAH ON THURSDAY

This Thursday’s game v Cambridge Christian is SENIOR/JAM THE GYM NIGHT.  This year the Johnnies’ only senior is A’ishah Smith. Come cheer her and the rest of the team on Thursday at 6:00 pm.

Boys’ Basketball

Coach Michael Moen

Last week’s opponent for the boys’ basketball team was conference foe Osakis. A very hard fought and defensively toned first half had both teams tied at only 16 points at the break. The second half brought more of the same with the Johnnie’s tough man to man defense frustrating the opponent’s shooters. Unfortunately, for the second game in a row, the boys had a very cold night shooting. The Silver Streaks were able to make a short run midway through the half to pull ahead by 10 points despite a gutsy effort by all our boys on the court, and maintain that lead to a final score of 50-40. Andrew Moen ’18 led all scorers with 15 points while pulling down 12 rebounds. Henry Smith ’18, Nick Foss ’18 and Alton Mies ’21 each added 7 points. The JV squad also fell short in their game while being led in scoring again by Mekan Mamedov ’20 with 17 points.

The Johnnies have a very busy schedule next week with a Monday match up at Kimball before hosting Paynesville on Tuesday and Upsala on Friday.

Nordic Skiing

Coach Bob Ellenbecker

Great job last Thursday at the Willmar Invitational, held on the surface of a lake due to the lack of snow.  We had nice warm weather and lots of fun was had by all!  The results summarized:

Girls Varsity:  Our young team fared well with 9th grader Sabella Akre finishing 7th, 10th grader Sabrina Wuolu finishing 11th, 9th grader Catie Sikes finishing 12th and 9th grader Beca Muntifering, who has shown great improvement the past few weeks, finished 13th in her first official varsity race.  The girls scored 361 total points for a third-place team finish.

Boys Varsity:  Our boys’ varsity features two tenth graders with Will Pittelko finishing 8th overall and Sawyer Engholm finishing 10th.  The two boys posted team scores of 184 points for a third-place team finish.

Girls’ Junior High:  Holly Hansen ’22 continues to ski very well and notched a first-place finish with Clare Duffy ’22 coming in a close third.  Great job girls!

Boys Junior High:  Sam Hoover ’22 skied a great race and finished first in the boys’ junior high race.  Will Taft ’22 skied to his second 2nd place finish in the past two races and Sam Meyer ’22 finished 4th. Oscar Cheeley ’23 skied well for a 6th place finish, and Luke Pittelko ’22 notched his second 10th place finish in as many races.  Nick Hansen ’24 continues to improve and finished just outside the awards with 11th and Kane Bauman ’23 finished 12th after falling while sprinting to the finish line.  Frazer Shepherd ’24 finished 14th, Cameron Thompson ’23 finished 17th and Kincade Wilson-Sather ’21 finished 18th to round out the rest of a very fine showing by the boys’ junior high skiers!

Girls’ Hockey

Coach Amanda Monkman

Saint John’s Prep along with several other schools cooperatively sponsor a hockey team-named the River Lakes Stars.  SJP senior Jordyn Tomaszewski is a four-year starter at goalie; in fact one of the top goalies in the state.  Unfortunately, this season Jordyn has been recovering from an injury which has prevented her from playing.  She is at the point of being healthy enough to get back into action last Thursday night at Alexandria.  Jordyn made 35 saves against the Cardinals and everyone was excited to have her back on the ice!  The Stars fell 3-1 in the game.  Jordyn will proceed cautiously with her come back.

Catholic Schools Week

January 29-February 2, 2018

Next week is Catholic Schools Week! Among our special events is an all-school Mass on Wednesday, January 31, 2018 at 9:30 a.m. in the Saint John’s Abbey Church. Parents, grandparents and siblings are welcome to join us for this special Mass with Fr. Robert Rolfes, Vicar General of the Diocese of Saint Cloud and Headmaster Fr. Jonathan Licari, OSB. We are also excited to welcome the following elementary schools for the Mass:

• St. Mary’s School, Melrose
• Holy Family School, Albany
• Sacred Heart School, Freeport
• St. John’s-St. Andrew’s, Greenwald-Meire Grove

There are many special events on campus for students next week. A lunchtime movie will be shown in the Weber Center each day. A crazy game student assembly is also in the works. In addition, Student Council has scheduled these dress-up days for students:

• Monday, Jan. 29, Pajama Day
• Tuesday, Jan. 30 Wacky Day! Wear crazy combinations!
• Wednesday, Jan. 31 School Spirit Day! Wear red and blue!
• Thursday, Feb. 1 Beach Day
• Friday, Feb 2. Flag and Nations Day