A friendly rivalry took place Tuesday night as Sauk Rapids-Rice and Sartell faced off in a handful of sports. 

Sauk Rapids hosted girls swimming and diving and boys soccer, while Sartell hosted girls soccer and girls tennis. 

Here’s some of the highlights from Tuesday’s rivalry night. 

Girls Swimming and Diving: Sartell 105, Sauk Rapids 76

Sartell and Sauk Rapids have been on a roll to start the season, so the two teams were excited to face off Tuesday for a top four battle in the Central Lakes Conference. 

The Sabres continued their undefeated season with a 105-76 win over the Storm, but each team had some highlights. 

Sartell took first place in the first half of the events, while Sauk Rapids took over the top spot in the final half of the races. 

The Sabres finished the 200-yard medley relay in first place with a time of 2:11.19 and the Storm finished a second behind in second place. Faith Akervik won the 200 freestyle for Sartell with a time of 2:04.76, while Valeria Flores Bonilla ended up in second for Sauk Rapids. 

Sartell’s Lenarz sisters paced each other in the 200 individual medley as Holly took first with a time of 2:20.40 and Heidi was a second behind her. Sartell took the top two spots in the 50 freestyle as well with Madeline Francois placing first with a 26.15 time and Janie Martin coming in second. 

Sartell swept diving. Hailey Westrup ended up in first with 230.60 points, while Morgan Weber and Anna Haehn finished in second and third respectively. 

Holly Lenarz came back to finish first again in 100 butterfly with a time of 1:02.22. Emma Yao finished second for Sartell. 

The Sabres finished one-two in the 100 freestyle with Lauryn Kramer finishing first with a 56.99 time and Francois ending up in second. 

Sartell concluded its first-place finishes in the 500 freestyle as Akervik won with a time of 5:40.65, while Sauk Rapids’ Abigail Tangen finished about a second later to claim second place. 

The Storm took over first place in the 200 freestyle relay as the relay team won with a time of 1:48.50. Sartell came in second place about 0.4 seconds later. 

Flores Bonilla kept the winning streak going for Sauk Rapids with a first-place finish in 100 backstroke with a 1:05.12 time. Sara Hennemann claimed second place for Sartell. 

The Storm swept the 100 breaststroke with Kaytlin Bittman finishing first with a time of 1:19.61 and Kendal Stucke in second. 

Sauk Rapids ended the night with a win at 400 freestyle relay as the team finished with a time of 3:55.47. 

Sartell improves to 3-0 on the season, while Sauk Rapids falls to 2-2. The Sabres will host Apollo at 6 p.m. Thursday. The Storm will face off at ROCORI at 6 p.m. Thursday.  

Boys Soccer: Sauk Rapids 1, Sartell 1

Sauk Rapids boys soccer used a high-energy effort to hold on for a 1-1 draw against Sartell on Tuesday night.

Junior forward Keegan Pham drilled a shot from outside the box with 17 minutes remaining to give the Storm a 1-0 lead over their rival. 

Pham’s goal came with a bit of redemption after Sartell goalie Brandon De la Rosa stopped a penalty shot earlier in the half after junior forward Eli Moilanen drew a penalty. Pham’s shot into the right corner was blocked, and his rebound sailed wide to keep the game scoreless. 

“Not letting the (penalty kick) ruin my game … and not worrying about it,” Pham said. “I had to put one on the board. It feels really good.”

The goal, off an assist from sophomore Cooper Godwin, was the team’s first goal from open play this season, previously only scoring three penalty kicks.

Sartell junior Ernest David evened the game at 1-1 with only a few minutes remaining after a failed clearance from Sauk Rapids. The attacking trio of David, junior Mitiku Nies and senior John Engelkes applied constant pressure on Sauk Rapids goalie Eli Rudnick all night.

Despite the deflating late goal, the Storm defense held on with some late heroics to tie Sartell for the second consecutive year in the regular season.

After never beating Sartell since they began the program a decade ago, Sauk Rapids is unbeaten against the Sabres in the past three meetings, winning in the section tournament last year.

“It feels good to always get a tie or win against Sartell,” Rudnick said, who made 11 saves in goal. “They’re always a tough team to play. They had a lot of momentum going forward with that late goal … but our backline kept up their attitude and didn’t let it get to them.”

Tuesday night was also unique with assistant coach Dean Marlin taking the reins for Sauk Rapids with head coach Chris Rothstein unable to be on the sideline with an illness. 

The former Storm defender is a 2016 graduate, now in his first year with the program as an assistant coach and teacher at the high school.

“There wasn’t much I had to do; Chris (Rothstein) has set me up for success, and these guys have too,” Marlin said. “We played a lot tighter than we have in the past … we didn’t really give them anything easy.”

Sauk Rapids improves to 0-3-2 with the tie as they aim for their first win on Thursday when they travel to ROCORI. Sartell is 3-1-1 on the season and host Apollo on Thursday.

Girls Soccer: Sartell 4, Sauk Rapids 0

The Sartell girls soccer team had a strong second half Tuesday night to score three of its four goals and earn the 4-0 victory over Sauk Rapids. 

The game remained close in the first half as both defenses were able to shut down the offenses and the Sabres led 1-0 at the half. The only goal came from Reese Kloetzer with about 16 minutes left in the first half. 

Sartell came out firing in the second half as the Sabres went on a roll and connected on three goals. Every goal came from a different player as Christa Meyer, Madi Kruse and Claire Quinn each scored to make it a 4-0 final. 

Chloe Swanson was the starting goalie for Sartell and had a shutout.

Sartell improved to 3-2 this season, while Sauk Rapids dropped to 0-6. The Sabres will travel to Apollo at 7 p.m. Thursday. The Storm will host ROCORI at 5 p.m. Thursday. 

Girls Tennis: Apollo/Sauk Rapids 5, Sartell 2

Apollo/Sauk Rapids and Sartell were both looking for its first win of the season Tuesday night as the two teams squared off at Sartell High School. 

The Storm’n Eagles came out with the 5-2 win. 

Apollo/Sauk Rapids swept the singles matches to earn a 4-0 lead. Three out of the four matches ended in straight sets, but the No. 3 singles match between Storm’n Eagles’ Grace Roesch and Sartell’s Olivia Marek. 

The Sabres won two of the three doubles matches as two matches went into a third set. 

Here’s the overall results from Tuesday’s match. 

No. 1 singles: Brynn Karasch (Apollo/Sauk Rapids) defeats Sarah Weno (Sartell) 6-1, 6-0

No. 2 singles: Cailey Davidson (Apollo/Sauk Rapids) defeats Addy Bultema (Sartell) 6-3, 6-4

No. 3 singles: Grace Roesch (Apollo/Sauk Rapids) defeats Olivia Marek (Sartell) 6-3, 1-6, 6-2

No. 4 singles: Isabelle Haddy (Apollo/Sauk Rapids) defeats Haley Hennen (Sartell) 6-1, 6-3

No. 1 doubles: Addison Burns/Violet Steil (Sartell) defeats Addison Bemboom/Alyssa Meyer (Apollo/Sauk Rapids) 6-1, 1-6, 6-0

No. 2 doubles: Emily Crandall/Rainna Stangle (Sartell) defeats McKinsey Newbanks/Bailee Bonebright (Apollo/Sauk Rapids) 6-2, 6-1

No. 3 doubles: Gabby Jaskolka/Liz Ernst (Apollo/Sauk Rapids) defeats Tia Leen/Greta Schmidt (Sartell) 2-6, 6-1, 6-3

Apollo/Sauk Rapids improves to 1-6 on the season, while the Sabres drop to 0-6. The Storm’n Eagles will host ROCORI at 4:30 p.m. Thursday. Sartell will have the rest of the week off and host Tech at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. 

Brian Mozey is the high school sports reporter for the St. Cloud Times. Reach him at 320-255-8772 or bmozey@stcloudtimes.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrianMozey.

Zach Dwyer is a sports reporter and photographer for the St. Cloud Times. Reach him at 320-406-5660 or zdwyer@stcloudtimes.com. Follow him on Twitter @sctimeszach.

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