On Monday night, Hastings High School held its inaugural Raider Sports Awards. The ceremony, held in the school’s auditorium, was a unique new way to honor the achievements and successes of Raider athletes over the last three sports season. While most of the awards were already known and announced ahead of time, each award winner was individually honored.
The ceremony started with a speech from 1997 Raider alum Katy Hertel. The former Raider basketball player spoke about her journey from Hastings to being a member of the USA Rugby team, and about how you don’t necessarily have to be a starter to make an impact on your program. Hertel told a story about her time at UMD as a basketball player, and how she was told she would no longer be in the starting lineup, but that her role as a player off the bench was equally as important. She also congratulated the Raider wrestling team on their state title.
After that speech, individual awards were presented for Three Sport Athletes, followed by All Conference winners in multiple sports, which included Jaylen Hanson, Lauren Jenkins, Keagan McVicker, Johnny Bezdicek, Payton Burow, Creed Peterson and Lucas Sorenson. The Raider Award winners, of which there were more than two dozen, were then honored, followed by State Qualifiers over the last three seasons. All State Athletes over the last three seasons were the next category, with Track and Field, Lacrosse, Swim and Dive, Wrestling and Alpine Ski represented. Academic All-State Awards followed this, before the athletes who broke a school record were honored. There were too many to list here.
This was followed by individual state champions Blake and Trey Beissel and Skylar Little Soldier, and then Ava McNamara, Keagan McVicker and Linnea Ronning were honored for winning Conference Player of the Year in their sport. The awards following were the ExCel, Triple A, Academic All Conference, Athena and Apollo, Outstanding Seniors, and Senior College Commitments. Team Awards concluded the night, with the wrestling team being honored for their state title, Girls Swim and Dive and Tennis for their conference titles, and Boys Basketball for being Academic Section champs. The Head and Assistant Coaches of the year Becky Hartung, Tim Haneberg, Jeanne Kasel, Eric Mace and Kevin McBride were then honored, before Jim Happe, retiring after 27 years driving for Raider Athletics was honored with a standing ovation and a girls hockey jersey.
More coverage including interviews will be coming to our website and in our sports updates.