A look back at some of the sports happenings during the week of May 14-20:
Last year on May 16, 2022: Aberdeen Roncalli eighth-grader Claire Crawford shot a career best 86 to win the Northeast Conference Girls’ Golf Tournament. Her performance and the third-place finish of teammate Margaret Anderson led the Cavaliers’ to their first girls’ golf conference title since 2012.
10 years ago on May 18, 2013: Nathan Haar, 18, graduated from Frederick High School. A couple hours later, he jockeyed Strike Oro to a win in the eighth horse race of the day at the Brown County Fairgrounds.
20 years ago on May 17, 2003: Two Aberdeen high schools won five conference titles on the same day. The Roncalli track teams swept the Northeast Conference titles and the Central boys and girls did the same thing in the Eastern South Dakota Conference. The Central boys’ tennis team won the ESD title that same day as well.
30 years ago on May 15, 1993: Two Watertown athletes led NDSU to North Central Conference women’s and men’s track titles at Howard Wood Field in Sioux Falls. NDSU senior Dawn Koehn of Watertown led the Bison women by winning the 100 and 200 meters and running the opening leg of NDSU’s championship 1,600-meter relay team (Jane Loskot, Jodi Kelly and Ronda Viken). NDSU sophomore Brent Parmer of Watertown won the long jump, placed second in the 200 and ran a leg on the Bison’s championship men’s 400-meter relay team (Marc Paul, Shane Wendel and Cal Carlson).
40 years ago on May 14, 1983: The South Dakota Amateur Baseball Association’s Hall of Fame is opening this weekend on Lake Norden’s Main Street.
50 years ago on May 19, 1973: Despite severely spraining her ankle four days ago, Lavonne Opitz set a national record and led Redfield to the Class A state title in the fifth annual girls’ state meet at Watertown. Opitz won the long jump, the 80-yard hurdles (in a national high school girls’ record of 10.6 seconds), the100-meter hurdles, and anchored the Pheasants’ gold medal 440-yard relay with Cindy Hansen, Darlys Olson and Dianne Strande. Redfield scored 34 points followed by Yankton (29) and Aberdeen Central (28). The Golden Eagles were led by Sue Gapp’s win in the discus and their champion mile relay team (Margaret Dilley, Angie Doerr, Becky Stewart and Carol Zahn).
