RTR girls gear up for the hoopster season

By Jim Kopel
Tribute Sports

The RTR girls have been practicing over two weeks to get ready for the open­ing game of the 2019-20 basketball season. Head Coach Steve Krause and his two assistants, Coach Mik­kelsen and Coach Hesse, have been getting the girls into basketball shape. Yes, I attended a practice and there are many prospects out for the season.
Lost to graduation are Brooke Thomsen, Jonni Bi­ren and Maddi Muenchow. All of these girls started at one time or another last year. Thomsen was the leading scorer for the team last year.
Returning are three starters who did most of the starting last year. Ha­ley Muenchow, Kalleigh Carr and Shawna Thoms­en would be those players. Skylar Borresen, Maddi Wendland and Allie Chris­tianson also saw some var­sity playing time last year.

For the full story, read this week’s Tyler Tribute.

RTR football, cheer team awards night held Wednesday

Photo courtesy of Julie Jorgensen
The 2019 RTR Cheer Team— from left to right in front are Melissa Barber, Brynn Peterson and Ellie Frahm; in back are Coach Sandy Carpenter, Jacey Jorgensen, Trinity Hagen, Emma Althoff, Calin Kor and Kara Jorgensen.

By Mark Wilmes
tributeeditor@gmail.com

The awards banquet for RTR football and cheer team was held last Wednesday evening in the high school cafeteria.
RTR sophomore Kara Jorgensen was the Spirit of a Knight Award win­ner for Sandy Carpenter’s squad. The award rec­ognizes the cheer team member who best exem­plified excellence in both cheerleading skill and in personal character. Letter winners for 2019 were Jorgensen, junior Emma Althoff, 8th grader Melissa Barber, freshman Ellie Frahm, junior Trinity Hagen, freshman Jacey Jorgensen and freshman Brynn Peterson.

For the full story and more photos, read this week’s Tyler Tribute.

Photo courtesy of Jessie Wichmann
RTR Football letter winners, pictured left to right in front, are Collin Johnson, Jaden Borman, Chris Cauwels, Connor Kremin, Payton Swanson, Caleb Witte and Darrick Baartman; in back are Jonah Christensen, Cade Jorgensen, Dalton Muecke, Aiden Wichmann, Corbyn Sitzmann, Kyle Fischer, Lane Thomas, Payton Hess and Hayden Gravley. Not pictured are Tim Gilmore, Dylan Anderson and Logan Lamote.

Rutz signs letter of intent to MSU

Ali Rutz (center) with parents Steve and Karie.

By Mark Wilmes
tributeeditor@gmail.com

 
Ali Rutz, granddaughter of Jim and Joyce Jensen of Tyler, has signed on to be part of the women’s soccer team at Minnesota State University next fall. Ali is the daughter of Tyler native Karie Rutz and husband Steve of North Mankato.
Rutz is a four-year starter and four-year letter winner for the Mankato West Scarlets…

For the full story, read this week’s Tyler Tribute.

Knight volleyball players make conference honors

By Jim Kopel
Tribute Sports

 
The Camden Conference has announced its 2019 conference selections for the volleyball season. The top four teams in the south portion of the conference all had three players make the all-conference team.
The Minneota Vikings, Lakeview Lakers, Canby Lancers and the Lady Knights saw three of their top players selected. Kylea Baartman, Kalleigh Carr and Haley Muenchow were the RTR selections.

For the full story and photos, read this week’s Tyler Tribute.

RTR volleyball awards ceremony held last week

RTR Head Volleyball Coach Daynica Brown announced the 2019 team volleyball awards at last week’s banquet.

By Mark Wilmes
tributeeditor@gmail.com

The RTR volleyball awards night was held last week. The Knights finished the season with a 22-9 record and went un­defeated at Jimmy John’s Tournament. Collectively, the team earned a state Gold Academic Team Award, with an Individual All-State Academic Award going to senior Rylie Hess…

For the full story, read this week’s Tyler Tribute.

From left: Senior RTR volleyball players Madison Witte, Kylea Baartman and Rylie Hess each spoke during the ceremony.

Lady Knights start strong, but Vikings move on with win

From left— seniors Madison Witte, Rylie Hess and Kylea Baartman played their final game for the Knights in last week’s Section 3A loss to Minneota.

By Jim Kopel
Tribute Sports

In baseball, the Twins have plenty of trouble with the evil empire, the Yan­kees. It seems that the vol­leyball Lady Knights have the same problem with the Minneota Vikings. Once again, the Vikings ended the season of the Lady Knights with a three-set victory. The scores were 25-16, 25-18 and 25-9.
The Lady Knights actu­ally looked like this could be the night for success in the first set. Two kills by Abby Carr plus ace serves by Maddi Wendland and Haley Muenchow made the score 10-4 for the Knights as the Vikings would call a timeout…

For the full story and more photos, read this week’s Tyler Tribute.

Knights bow out in section play by 42-6 score to Tigers

Quarterback Payton Hess fires a pass to Darrick Baartman in the flats against Springfield on Saturday.

By Jim Kopel
Tribute Sports

The RTR Football Team, riding a six-game winning streak, just lacked too much experience, size and quick­ness against the talented Springfield Tigers last Sat­urday in Springfield. The Tigers, coming into play with 30 total juniors and seniors compared to only 10 juniors and seniors for the Knights, used that dif­ference to run the ball very well throughout the game.
The loss ends the Knights’ season while the Tigers will play for the section championship at SMSU this coming Friday against MVL.

For the full story, read this week’s Tyler Tribute.

Knights score 30-7 win over Dragons

Running back Tim Gilmore picks up some yardage against Adrian in last week’s playoff opener against the Dragons.

By Jim Kopel
Tribute Sports

The RTR Football Knights won their sixth straight game last Tues­day, as they would dump the Adrian Dragons 30-7 in Adrian under perfect weather conditions.
Coach Fredrickson was pleased with the effort of his squad. “We got behind and seemed to play de­fense the whole first half, but the kids never gave up on themselves. We caught a couple of breaks and really took advantage of these situations. Yes, we’re ready to tackle Goliath, the Springfield Tigers, on Sat­urday.”

For the full story, read this week’s Tyler Tribute.

Calin Kor and the RTR cheer team were on hand to support the Knights during their playoff win at Adrian.

Knights advance

Kylea Baartman gets the ball past a pair of MACCRAY defenders during last week’s playoff opener win over the Wolverines. RTR faced #1 Minneota last night at SMSU. Details next week.

CC team competes at Section 3A

By Mark Wilmes
tributeeditor@gmail.com

The RTR Cross Country teams traveled to Madison on Thursday to compete in the 2019 Section 3A Cross Country Championships.
In the boys’ 5K event, RTR’s Logan Roelofs fin­ished 76th out of 141 runners with a time of 20:07.85…

For the full story, read this week’s Tyler Tribute.