Page 4 Stillwater Ponies Fall Sports Preview • Friday , September 6 , 2024 stillwatergazette . com
TENNIS
( Continued from page 3 )
play four years at Luther College and the Norse won IIAC championships all four years .
Kahl was a three-time individual conference champion in singles while playing at the fourth ( 1988 ) and second spots ( 1989 and 1990 ) and in doubles while playing at the No . 2 spot ( 1988 ) and No . 1 position ( 1990 and 1991 ).
• Andre Beaulieu , who was an NHL head coach for the Minnesota North Stars in 1977-78 , also coached the Stillwater girls ’ tennis team from 1988 to 1993 .
• The Chuck Anderson Memorial Scholarship was first awarded in 2007 . The 2023 scholarship was awarded to Haley Swanson .
It went unclaimed in 2022 , but previous winners of this award include : Arielle Johnson ( 2007 team ), Alex McDowell ( 2008 ), Abby Harri ( 2009 ), Katherine Beach ( 2010 ), Ellie Port ( 2011 ), Maggie Corman ( 2012 ), Hannah Quinn ( 2013 ), Remi Larson ( 2014 ), Savannah Johnson ( 2015 ), Emma Germundson ( 2016 ), Elizabeth Quinn ( 2017 ), Claire Gorman ( 2018 ), Erin Gallion ( 2019 ), Allison Benning ( 2020 ) and Jana Myers ( 2021 ).
A similar scholarship award is also presented annually to a member of the Stillwater boys ’ tennis team in honor of Anderson , who was inducted into the St . Croix Valley Sports Hall of Fame in 2023 .
• The Ponies have finished with a losing record just twice in the past 30 seasons .
• Former Ponies standout Natalie Phippen , a four-time MVP before graduating in 2013 , holds the Stillwater school record with 129 career singles victories .
• Rochester Mayo last fall became one of the few schools outside of Edina to win the Class AA state championship . The Spartans joined Minnetonka and Mahtomedi as the only teams other than Edina to claim a state title in Class AA since 1997 . Mahtomedi ended a run of 19 consecutive state championships by the Hornets in 2016 .
Edina responded with three straight state titles from 2017 to 2019 before Minnetonka broke
See Tennis , Page 5
Senior Gretchen Wenner , above , is joined by Taylor Erickson , Jazzy Kruse and Karina Fischer in serving as captains for the Stillwater girls tennis team .