Matt Kane
Sports Editor

ST. LOUIS PARK — It wasn’t easy, but Delano stayed alive in the Section 2A playoffs Wednesday night. The No. 2 seeded Tigers survived their quarterfinal game against No. 7 Southwest Christian with a 3-2 win at the St. Louis Park Rec Center.

Southwest Christian was coming of a 4-1 win over Waconia the night before in a play-in game. The Stars finished with a 13-12-2 record.

Delano improved to 20-6 with the win. The Tigers won’t know their semifinal opponent until Friday night, when the quarterfinal game between No. 3 Breck and No. 6 Minneapolis is decided.

Delano’s semifinal game is Monday, Feb. 24, at 8 p.m.

The first semifinal game that night will include No. 1 Orono and the winner of Friday night’s quarterfinal game between No. 4 Armstrong/Cooper and No. 5 Mound-Westonka.

In the early game Wednesday night, Orono topped No. 8 Bloomington Kennedy 5-1.

Delano 3, New Prague 0

DELANO — The Delano boys put a wrap on the regular season with a sweep of two games over New Prague in a home-and-home series Feb. 14-15.

The Tigers shut out the Trojans 3-0 in the Friday night game at the New Prague Community Center, and returned home Saturday night to pick up a 4-2 win.

READ ABOUT DELANO’S PLAYOFF WIN AND THE WINS OVER NEW PRAGUE IN FRIDAY’S DELANO HERALD JOURNAL

Matt Kane
Sports Editor

ORONO — A school sweep on the hardcourt at Orono Tuesday night began with the Delano boys’ 64-56 win over the Spartans in the early game.

Typical of when Delano and Orono meet, the game was tightly played throughout.

The visiting Tigers overcame a slow start to build a 30-23 lead by halftime. The Spartans came out of the break hot, scoring the first eight points, and eventually taking over the lead, 40-37.

“We got some big baskets from Terron O’Neill, Keagen Smith and Trey Longstreet to get the lead back and hold on,” said Delano coach Terry Techam.

O’Neill finished with a game-high 25 points. Smith scored 21.

Delano 77, St. Thomas Ac. 36

DELANO — The Tigers had no problems against the St. Thomas Academy Cadets Feb. 15 in a matinee game at the Tiger Activity Center.

Delano rode a 54-point first half to a 77-36 victory.

The Tigers led 54-21 at halftime.

Terron O’Neill led Delano with 27 points. Keagen Smith wasn’t too far behind with 23 points, and Jack Balsiger scored 13.

Jamie Smith and Stephen Betts scored eight each for the Cadets.

Waconia 65, Delano 59

DELANO — The first meeting between the Wright County Conference East’s two best teams went to Waconia.

The Wildcats fended off several Delano threats to pick up a 65-56 win over the Tigers at their home, the Tiger Activity Center.

The Wildcats stayed perfect in the conference with the win, and through Wednesday were 7-0 (18-4 overall).

The loss was the first for Delano in conference play. The Tigers were 6-1 (19-3 overall) entering Thursday night’s game at Hutchinson.

READ MORE ABOUT THESE THREE GAMES IN FRIDAY’S EDITION OF THE DELANO HERALD JOURNAL

Matt Kane
Sports Editor

The completion of two pigtail games Tuesday night completed the setup for the quarterfinals in the Section 2A bracket. All games are played at St. Louis Park Arena.

Delano, which is the No. 2 seed, plays No. 7 Southwest Christian tonight (Wednesday) in the late game, at 8 p.m.

Preceding this game will be No. 1 Orono and No. 8 Bloomington Kennedy at 6 p.m.

In the pigtail games, Southwest Christian defeated No. 10 Waconia 4-1, and Kennedy defeated No. 9 Providence Academy 4-3.

The other two quarterfinal games are Friday, Feb. 21. No. 3 Breck plays No. 6 Minneapolis at 6 p.m., and No. 4 Armstrong/Cooper plays No. 5 Mound-Westonka at 8 p.m.

The semifinal games are Monday, Feb. 24, and the final is Thursday, Feb. 27.

Matt Kane
Sports Editor

WATERTOWN — Delano gymnasts Leah Pinoniemi and Gabby Stoudt survived the Section 5A championships Feb. 13 in Watertown and kept their seasons alive by qualifying for the Class A state tournament.

The Class A individual state meet is Saturday, beginning at 11 a.m.

Pinoniemi’s state trip will include appearances in uneven parallel bars and floor exercise. Stoudt with compete in vault.

Pinoniemi and the other Section 5 gymnasts will perform on bars in the eighth rotation. The other gymnasts in the group are Watertown-Mayer/MW’s Maggie McCabe, Erin Singsank and Anna Mielke, and Rockford’s Elise Biorn and Alayna Schloeder.

Section 5 will perform on floor exercise in the fourth rotation. In the group with Pinoniemi are Watertown-Mayer/MW’s McCabe, Mielke, Maris Heun and Rosemary Unglaub, and Rockford’s Schloeder.

Stoudt will perform on vault with her fellow Section 5 performers in the sixth rotation. Also in the group are Watertown-Mayer/MW’s McCabe, Mielke, Unglaub and Anja Gilbert, and Rockford’s Schloeder.

Pinoniemi finished sixth in both bars (8.35) and floor (9.175) at the section tournament. Those were the final qualifying spots.

Stoudt finished fifth at the section meet in vault. She scored a 9.20.

Watertown-Mayer/Mound-Westonka won the Section 5A team title. The Royals will compete in the team competition Friday, beginning at 11 a.m.

The other section team champions competing Friday are Pine Island/Zumbrota-Mazeppa (1), Mankato West (2), Worthington (3), St. Paul Highland Park (4), Willmar (6), Big Lake (7) and Perham (8).

Watertown-Mayer/MW scored 145.0 points to win the section title. Delano finished second with 138.025 points.

Matt Kane
Sports Editor

HUTCHINSON — Delano/Watertown-Mayer (DWM) would up in second place when the dust settled on the Wright County Conference Championships Feb. 8 at Hutchinson Middle School.

The Tigers finished with 514 team points, finishing behind only host Hutchinson, which tallied 563 points.

“All of the boys competed well at the conference meet. The majority of the swims were lifetime bests and all of the divers scored higher than the school record of 202.85,” said DWM coach Mark Seguin. “Hutchinson was just a little better than us. All in all, it puts us in position for a very successful section meet next week.”

DWM will swim in the Section 2A Championships meet Wednesday and Friday, Feb. 19 and 21, at Richfield Middle School.

Two DWM individuals captured conference championships, and Tiger quartets finished second in all three relays.

FIND OUT WHICH TIGERS CAPTURED CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS AND READ MORE ABOUT THE WCC MEET IN THE DELANO HERALD JOURNAL