The Foley High School softball team is getting accustomed to extra innings. For the third time in four games, Foley battled a Granite Ridge Conference foe past the seventh inning and came away victorious, defeating the Milaca Wolves 11-10 May 4 at Milaca High School in Milaca. 

The Foley High School boys track and field team traveled to Sauk Rapids May 6 for the Central Minnesota Mega Meet. The boys placed seventh of the 10 teams that competed at the Sauk Rapids-Rice Middle School stadium.  Ethan Novak was the top place finisher for the Falcons with a first-place height of 12 feet, 6 inches in the pole vault. Ethan Novak also placed fourth in the long jump with a leap of 19-5.  Teagan Duevel had a season-best throw of 134-9 to place third in the discus. Mitch Thell placed second in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 17.28 seconds. Gavin Kadlec ran a personal best of 2:11.51, finishing fifth in the 800. Evan Morris placed fourth in the 100 with a time of 11.54 and placed third in the 200 with a personal best of 23.24. The 1,600  relay of Chase David, Kadlec, Noah Mix and Thell placed third with a time of 3:51. The 800 relay of Morris, David, Tom Novak and Carter Wisted placed fifth with a time of 1:39.22.

The Sauk Rapids-Rice track and field team hosted its 30th annual central Minnesota Mega Meet May 6, where team trophies are sheet cakes. The event took place at the Sauk Rapids-Rice Middle School stadium in Sauk Rapids. For the fifth straight Mega Meet event, Foley High School girls track and field had a “sweet” enough team performance to earn a cake. This year, they brought home the third-place trophy.

Off the back of a successful season at the statewide level, the Foley Falcons archery program sent 28 archers to the 2023 National Archery in the Schools Program Western Nationals tournament April 28-29 at Mountain America Center in Sandy, Utah. There, the Falcons earned a pair of trips to the podium as the elementary school team registered a second-place finish in the 3D competition, and fifth grader Levi Novak took fifth in the elementary division in the bullseye.

Heading into its game against the Hibbing Bluejackets May 5, the Foley High School baseball team possessed a .229 batting average, having suffered its first loss of the season in one-hit fashion a day earlier. The Falcons quickly righted that ship in a hurry, piling on 14 runs in the first inning in handing Hibbing an authoritative 19-1 loss at Foley High School in Foley. 

An event designed for fun on the golf course turned into a hoot for a pair of Foley golfers. Spring Brook Golf Course in Mora was the site of a scramble event May 3, and the Falcons two-person team of Cam Evenson and Tommy Smith came away with the championship. The twosome finished regulation play 2-under par and went on to win the playoff.

FOLEY – Entering the summer of 2022, Macy Zawacki and Brittany Mellgren already had a lot in common. The pair are proficient in multiple varsity sports at Foley High School, both excelling in girls basketball and softball as talented teammates. They go to class together, play on the same sports teams, worship God and share a strong friendship.

While the team does not have the numbers to officially score throughout the spring season, the Foley High School girls varsity golf team hopes to shed rust and put together a campaign led by individual growth.  Minnesota State High School League golf competitions record team scoring only if a minimum of four golfers recorded a score; the Falcons have two golfers tabbed for the varsity roster in sophomore Mackenzie Thielman and junior Ryann Pitts. Both are hitting the greens, even if they are a little more brown than usual, after a long winter delayed the start of competition to the closing days of April.

After his team fell behind 3-0 in a big-time Granite Ridge Conference battle against Little Falls, Foley Falcons baseball head coach Mike Beier turned to assistant coach and Foley Lumberjacks teammate Mitch Keeler and said, “The next run is going to be huge. If it’s 4-0, we’re in trouble. If it’s 3-1, it’s anybody’s game.” Sure enough, the Falcons found its first run in the third inning and clawed its way back into the contest from there, with clutch hits and a spirited pitching performance from Josiah Petersen and Derek Dahmen making a big difference in a 7-5 win April 28 at Little Falls High School in Little Falls.

The Falcons had another dominating week that included two sweeps against one conference team and one non-conference, non-section team. The team had been scheduled to play two additional section teams last week but had to turn around as soon as they arrived due to rain forcing postponement for a second time. On April 24, Foley welcomed the Benson Braves to the home courts at Foley High School in Foley, and the Falcons picked up right where they had left off the previous week. 

The high school golf season finally teed off. The Foley High School varsity boys team opened the season with a Granite Ridge Conference meet in cold, wet and windy conditions April 27 at Stones Throw Golf Course in Milaca. The Falcons shot 363, finishing sixth in the eight-team, 18-hole event.

FOLEY – There have been many obstacles, natural or circumstantial, that have planted themselves in the pathway of the Foley Falcons boys golf team this spring. From snow-laden courses to practicing indoors to finding ways to replace 2022 graduate Tommy Smith’s production, the road has not been easy for head coach Timm Smith and the Falcons.

How a team hits with runners in scoring position can often swing a softball game.  The Foley Falcons, with nine hits, had only one less base knock than its Granite Ridge Conference counterparts, the Zimmerman Thunder, in an April 27 clash. However, the Falcons never found that breakthrough hit, while the Thunder piled on the runs in an 8-0 victory at Foley High School in Foley.

For the second time this season, the Foley track and field teams traveled to Milaca April 25 for a Granite Ridge Conference meet at Milaca High School that included four conference teams and Sauk Rapids-Rice High School.  While the location, the weather and some teams were the same, the most significant difference was the presence of St. Cloud Cathedral, which gave Foley strong competition in several events. At the end of the night, a resilient and dominant Falcons track and field team came home with another win.  

Once again, this wonderful Minnesota spring brought many changes and challenges to this week’s Falcons tennis schedule. Despite all of the snow and rain, the Falcons were able to play three matches, with only one needing to be moved indoors. The Falcons hosted North Branch April 17. Ready for more action after last week’s first win of the season, Foley came out strong in the first sets of each match and continued that momentum into the second sets, giving the Falcons straight-set victories in every match.

The Foley High School boys track and field team traveled to Milaca April 18 for an outdoor meet at Milaca High School in Milaca. Many on the team were ecstatic to get outside for competition. Aside from Foley, there were four teams in attendance: the high school teams of Milaca, Sauk Rapids, Albany and Pierz. The boys team placed third overall, only 11 points out of first place. 

After five weeks of nearly all indoor practice and competition, the Foley track and field teams were finally able to experience their first full outdoor meet of the season. The Falcons traveled to neighboring Milaca High School April 18 for a Granite Ridge Conference quadrangular, and the Falcons came home from Milaca with a first-place team finish. 

What ended as a 10-1 game in favor of the Foley Falcons baseball team against the Milaca Wolves at home April 18 started out as a contested ball game – at least through the first five innings of the game at home in Foley. Although Foley held a somewhat comfortable lead for the majority of the game, the Wolves battled to keep the game close until the sixth inning, when Bryce Gapinski broke the game open with a home run.

The final score was 16-14 in favor of the Foley Unified Club at the Foley High School gym April 19 as they faced off against the Milaca Unified Club, but the scoreboard might as well have not existed for the basketball game between the two teams. It was a sight rarely seen in the gym during basketball games at the high school, where fans of both teams – including an animated Foley student section – roared for any basket scored for either team.

FOLEY – Making it to the state tournament in any competition is difficult to achieve a single time let alone twice in a row. However, the Foley High School boys tennis program is vying for a strong season similar to last year when they captured the Section 6A title.