SPORTSLINE: Manske, Smith advance to Junior Olympic ski meet

Bemidji will have two skiers taking part in the Junior Olympic Nordic Championships March 2-11 at Soldier Hollow, Utah.

The 10 day event will select skiers for the U.S. Junior Olympic squad.

Waylon Manske and Jill Smith are members of the Midwest Junior Olympic team after a series of qualifying meets throughout the winter.

There are 28 girls on the Distance Cup point standings and 27 on the Sprint Cup standings.

Smith is 8th in the Distance Cup standings and 11th in the Sprint Cup races. Both divisions are topped by Lindsey Wallis of Woodbury.

Manske is sixth among 38 in the Distance Cup standings and fifth among 30 in the Sprint Cup division. Nicholas Peterson of Ely tops both categories.

Both leaders pre-qualified as members of the World Junior Biathlon team.

JC wrestling

Bemidji wrestlers continue to do well in the junior college ranks.

At Ridgewater, Brent Mason scored the deciding fall at 197 in a 24-21 win over Ellsworth, Ia. It gave the Warriors a 24-15 lead, enough to withstand a heavyweight pin by the losers.

He followed with a first period fall over Rochester in a 36-13 Ridgewater win and capped his week with a third straight first period pin in a 35-6 win over St. John's.

Bemidji's 141 pounder Greg Skerik did not wrestle in any of the three matches.

At Itasca, Bemidji heavyweight Chris Miller won the North Country Open at St. John's and led the team into the North Central District qualifying meet at Worthington this weekend. Miller won three straight bouts at St. John's taking the title over Kevin McLeary of Mary.

Earlier, Miller lost a 6-1 decision to Ellsworth which stopped Itasca 29-9 on its northern trip.

KCC forfeits five

Kittson County Central, which operates with perhaps the smallest hockey squad in Section 8A, was forced to forfeit five games when several players were suspended for training rules violations.

Picking up the forfeits were Crookston, Park Rapids, Grafton, Wadena and B Baudette.

The team returned to the ice at Langdon, N. D. Saturday.

2,000 point cager

Jake Driscoll of DGF joined a rare group of cagers when he topped the 2,000 point mark, only the 47th player to ever reach that total.

He scored 27 in the 66-64 win over Breckenridge giving him 2,013 for his career. He now has 466 this season.

The 1,000 Point Club continues to swell. Junior Dawnelle Askelson of LPA became the first girl in that school's history to reach that figure scoring on a first half lay-up in a 43-38 win over Breckenridge.

She entered the game with 994 and ended the night with 20.

Justyne Larson of Goodridge/Grygla became the first player at that co-op to top 1,000 also.

Other recent additions are Bryce Tesdahl of Crosby-Ironton, grandson of Chisholm's legendary Bob McDonald, Clearbrook-Gonvick's Clayton Johnson, Corey Lof of Detroit Lakes, Samantha Anderson of Wrenshall and Gretta Hjelseth of Nevis and Molly Frick of WHA who reached the mark in a game against each other the same night.

Frick joined CLB transfer Ashleigh Trosen and Lof became the second DL player this season along with Hallie Hoganson.

Bagley has produced three in Chelsea Gray, Shane Olson and Brodie Camp and Clearbrook-Gonvick a pair in Heidi Kjolhaug and Johnson.

Other newcomers include Tucker Sheley of Pequot Lakes and Peder Beckstrand of Lake of the Woods, the third Bear to join the club.

Helling retires

The area lost one of its top professional baseball players this week when Rick Helling of Fargo called it quits after 12 seasons in the majors.

He retired to coach his son's Little League team this summer in the Twin Cities suburbs.

Helling, a Fargo Shanley graduate, pitched eight seasons for the Texas Rangers, and also worked for Florida, Baltimore and Milwaukee.

He ended with a 93-81 record wining 20 games for the Rangers in 1998. He went 0-2 with four playoff teams. He missed the 2004 season with a broken leg sustained in a spring training game with the Twins.

He returned to pitch relief his final two years at Milwaukee.

Spikers honored

The NDSCS volleyball team has been named the NJCAA Fall Academic Team of the Year for maintaining above a 3.00 grade point average.

Members of that unit include Bemidji sophomore Ashley Brown and freshman Lindsey Gullickson.

Carlson out

Frazee football coach Steve Carlson has been asked to resign by the school administration. He has headed the Hornets for the past four years and has 33 years of coaching experience in some capacity.

The step comes as Frazee leaves the Heart O' Lakes Conference to join the Northern Plains along with Agassiz Valley, swelling that league into a 15 team circuit which will split according to enrollment and award titles to each division.

Former North Star Conference members Pine River, WHA, Blackduck and Cass Lake-Bena will be in the large school division and Baudette in the small school division. Fosston has been a member of that circuit for a number of years.

Hawley and Mahnomen round out the large school division. Barnesville, Fertile, BGMR, Warren, LPA and Red Lake Falls compete in the small school class.

Soccer star

Angie Olson of Eagan has been named the Minnesota Girls Soccer Player of the Year by Gatorade. She will join with 49 other state winners to compete for the national Player of the Year Award.

The 5-8 forward scored 29 goals and 25 assists this year to aid Eagan to an 18-2 record and the sectional semifinals. She was named Ms. Soccer in Class AA by the State Soccer Coaches Association. She maintained a 3.85 GPA and will enroll at Minnesota next fall.

Tourney windup

The final three games of the Bemidji Senior Hockey Association's Invitational will be played this morning at BSU at 9, 10:30 and noon.

Six teams with players 50-85 are taking part in the annual event. Fans are asked to bring contributions for the Bemidji food shelf which will be collected at the door.