By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com Doug Rakow works on one of the 29 laps he completed during the FANS 24 hour run around Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis, June 4-5. Rakow ran 69.46 miles during the race, which benefitted the Pillsbury United Communities. A marathon is considered a rite of passage for many distance runners,  Read more »

  By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com Most of the time, a bench is just a place to sit. Members of the Little Falls branch of Minnesota Raw Athletics and the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) don’t care for sitting around, though. They would rather use benches to break records. Since starting last October, the group  Read more »

By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com For the past five years, Swanville’s Jeff Opelia has headed down to Swan River every couple of weeks. He doesn’t bring bait or a tackle box with him. Instead, he takes a skinny plastic tube to test the clarity of the water. Opelia’s volunteering efforts were recently recognized by  Read more »

By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com Little Falls will kick off its fall sports schedule next month just like every other school year. However, this will not be like every other school year. That’s because Little Falls, along with six other schools, will be taking part in the inaugural season of the Granite Ridge Conference  Read more »

By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com Daniel Borash spared one of his brother Peter’s Royalton track and field records this spring. He’s unlikely to let him keep it by the time he finishes his career with the Royals. Borash, who recently wrapped up his junior season,  routinely put on dominant displays this season in the  Read more »

By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com Senior leadership is important in high school sports. Seniors have been through countless nerve-wracking situations, know what to do and what to expect and have had four years of high school to develop their skills and intelligence. When there’s only one senior starter on a team, that player shoulders  Read more »

By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com To be a pole vaulter, a person has to possess numerous athletic abilities. First is speed, which is necessary to build momentum on the run-up to the pit area. Next is strength and balance, used to create enough bend in an otherwise rigid pole to propel the vaulter into  Read more »

By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com Paul Krebs was sitting in a training room in March, icing down his knees and legs. He wasn’t hurt, not even sore really. It’s just what you do when you’re a catcher, and Krebs has been catching for years. It seemed like nothing more than another day at the  Read more »

Courtesy of CLINT RIESE Sports Editor Forest Lake Times The gray wolf has been a lightning rod since gaining federal protection as an endangered species in 1974. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) attempted on three occasions in the previous decade alone to have the gray wolf delisted as its population stabilized. Each time,  Read more »

By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com Competing in the Boston Marathon is a dream for many runners. For some, that dream can take years to fulfill. For others, it never comes at all. For Pierz woman Laurie Tax, though, it came on her first try. It all started eight years ago. Tax wasn’t much of  Read more »

By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com John Hanowski has to deal  with many challenges, just like every other high school coach. One that he hasn’t had to worry about for the past seven years, though, is writing the names of his three sons in his lineup cards. Hanowski, Little Falls’ head baseball coach, has watched  Read more »

By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com It wasn’t the Prep Bowl. It wasn’t a rivalry game. The season wasn’t on the line. Even the game itself was no longer in doubt. The Royalton football team was ahead big coming out of the locker room at halftime, ready to put the finishing touches on a 28-8  Read more »

By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com Austin Litke isn’t one to celebrate a big win by pumping his fist or jumping up and down. He simply shakes the hand of his opponent and walks off the mat. But when he won the Northland Youth Wrestling Association (NYWA) state championship Sunday, April 3, he couldn’t help  Read more »

By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com Longtime Pierz head coach Leo Pohlkamp likes to stress that only one team is left standing at the end of the season in sports. Such is the cruel reality for everyone who strives to reach the top and fails. But, for Pohlkamp, who has coached football, golf and everything  Read more »

By Bill Abeler, Upsala Correspondent Dreams do come true. For Upsala’s six senior basketball players, the dream was born after an undefeated seventh grade season. A perfect eighth grade season under the tutelage of coach Mark Herbes sealed the deal. “After those fun years in junior high our dream was to make it to state,”  Read more »