The Gophers football program picked up a commitment from Caledonia, Minn., athlete Ethan Stendel on Wednesday night.

Stendel attended a camp at the U, and after speaking with head coach P.J. Fleck. He received a scholarship offer and quickly pledged to the U.

“I’m excited to announce my commitment to the University of Minnesota,” Stendel said on social media.

Stendel is listed at 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds; he might be a linebacker in college. He has been a three-sport athlete at Caledonia, including at quarterback and on the basketball and track and field teams.

Stendel, who is initially considered a two-star recruit, had other offers from North Dakota and Northern Iowa. He also had interest from Iowa State, North Dakota State.

The Gophers now have eight commitments for the 2025 class.

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The three-peat is completed.

St. Paul Academy took home its third straight Class A boys tennis state championship with a dominant 6-1 victory over Breck at Reed-Sweatt Tennis Center on Wednesday.

The Spartans became the first team to three-peat since Blake did from 2013-15 and just the fourth school in Minnesota high school boys tennis history to accomplish the feat.

“It puts us in the history books to a certain extent,” said head coach Luke Elifson. “There are a couple other teams that have three-peated in Class A, but it shows what our team is… They’ve earned that moniker.”

St. Paul Academy entered the 2024 season with the expectation of pushing for another championship. Elifson said his players “operated humbly but really with a purpose this year” after earning a reputation of winning.

“When you win one, the pressure of learning how to win is there, but then the second one… everybody knows who you are by the time you’ve won two in a row… It does ass an element of pressure and just how you approach things,” he said.

The team finished the regular season as the top-ranked team in its class with a 16-6 record. They swept both Minnewaska in the first round and Rock Ridge in the semifinal, respectively, on the way to its state championship matchup with Breck.

Despite the consistent success, St. Paul Academy assistant coach Max Hommeyer believes his team “peaked at the right time.”

“We had some rough matches. [We] lost our first match of the year, lost some tight ones in April and early-May but kind of got things rolling… really picked up at the right time,” said Hommeyer.

Prior to its three-peat, the Spartans captured back-to-back state titles in 2007 and 2008 but fell short of its third straight state title in 2009. Capturing its third straight championship puts the school in an elite class in which very few teams have been labeled – a
dynasty.

“We proved it this year that we are that good. The team earned it,” said Elifson.

Having accomplished this feat only adds more pressure for the following season. And with five players leaving the program, the pressure will fall on those returning, some of which haven’t seen a lot of action this year.

“Just putting in the work this summer,” said Hommeyer. “We have a lot of young guys who played at the bottom of the lineup who are eager to take that next step. We’re going to have five really important seniors graduate, so they [have to] step up and fill their shoes.”

“It was a really good test of where we stack up in the greater scheme of things, and it was a good way to push ourselves,” said Elifson. “You’ll again stay humble and build off that knowing we’re in Class A and there is another tier above us.”

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NEW YORK — The outcome of the game never seemed to be in question after the first inning. The bigger question, instead, was how long Yankees starter Carlos Rodón could carry his bid for perfection.

The answer was into the sixth inning, at which point Carlos Santana finally broke through, getting the Twins on the board with a solo home run.

By that point, though, the Twins were trailing by seven runs on their way to a 9-5 loss to New York on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium.

Leadoff hitter Anthony Volpe got the Yankees going with a single at 101 miles per hour off the bat off Chris Paddack, the beginning of a first inning in which the Yankees scored four runs.

Three of those runs scored with a pair of outs, including two on a Gleyber Torres double that ticked off a diving Manuel Margot’s glove in right field.

While Paddack recovered in the middle of the innings, at one point sending down 10 straight batters, a walk to D.J. LeMahieu in the fifth inning snapped that streak and spelled the beginning of the end of his night.

Paddack left his start with the bases loaded, no outs and former Most Valuable Player Aaron Judge coming to the plate, a mess that reliever Diego Castillo couldn’t clean up.

Judge smacked a triple, clearing the bases and making a game that had already felt out of reach more lopsided. The superstar drove in five of the Yankees’ runs, including another in the sixth when he drew a bases-loaded walk in an inning in which Twins pitchers walked four.

While Paddack was unable to make it through five, his teammates were stifled by Rodón, who threw six scoreless frames against the Twins last month.

The Yankees’ starter struck out nine and was perfect for 5 1/3 innings before the Twins finally broke through in his final inning of work.

And while the Twins tacked on runs in the later innings — including one on a birthday home run from Royce Lewis, which made him the first player in club history to homer in his first three games of the season — it was not nearly enough to make a true dent in the Yankees’ lead.

Fans watch as a ball hit by New York Yankees’ Gleyber Torres gets away from Minnesota Twins outfielder Manuel Margot for an RBI ground-rule double during the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, June 5, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Cretin-Derham Hall 8, Benilde-St. Margaret’s 0: Raiders ace Brooke Nesdahl threw a two-hit shutout littered with 11 strikeouts to power the top seed into the Class 3A semifinals.

Nesdahl has now thrown 19 consecutive shutout innings dating back to section play.

Cretin-Derham Hall will face fifth-seeded St. Francis — which upset Rocori 5-2 on Wednesday — at 2 p.m. Thursday in North Mankato with a spot in the title game on the line.

The Raiders busted Wednesday’s bout open in the second, scoring six runs. Kaiya Anderson, Camille Castro and Audrey Michel each tallied two-hit games for Cretin-Derham Hall (19-6), which is in the state semis for the second straight season.

Winona 6, Simley 1: Mackenzi Simmons was one person Simley struggled to get out in Wednesday’s quarterfinals — and that proved mighty costly for the Spartans (16-8).

Simmons drove in all six Warhawks runs via a pair of three-run homers — one in the first inning, the other in the third — to lift second-seeded Winona to victory. Winona (20-4) will meet third-seeded Mankato East in the semifinals Thursday after Mankato East downed North Branch 16-2 on Wednesday.

Taylor Gallahue was responsible for the Spartans’ lone run — a solo homer in the top of the second frame. Gallahue and Emma Seelhammer each tallied a pair of hits for Simley.

CLASS 2A

St. Agnes 5, Proctor 0: For the second straight season, St. Agnes will play in the Class 2A semifinals after Angela Proper threw a three-hit shutout while striking out eight in a quarterfinal mini-upset as the fifth-seeded Aggies downed fourth-seeded Proctor (20-5).

Proper also went 4 for 4 at the plate, knocking in a pair of runs while scoring one of her own. But it was Gianna Schmidt who got the Aggies off to a strong start Wednesday with a solo shot with two outs in the first frame.

That was where the score stood until the fifth frame, when the Aggies strung together a walk and three consecutive hits — all with two outs — to extend the lead to 3-0. They added insurance runs in the sixth and seventh.

St. Agnes (23-2) will meet top-seeded Randolph at 4:30 p.m. Thursday in the semifinals. Randolph (25-1) rallied from a 2-0 deficit to down Glencoe-Silver Lake 3-2 in Wednesday’s quarters.

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