For the Freeman Academy/Marion boys track team, the 2022 State Track Meet started and ended just about as well as could be imagined.

Emily Mendel, who will be a sophomore at Freeman Public, prepares for her third attempt in the triple jump Saturday morning - the final day of the 2022 State Track Meet. Mendel is one of a number of local student-athletes competing on Day 3 of the track and field championships. Three have already medaled today: Freeman Public’s Rylee Peters finished 3rd in the 100 hurdles, Menno’s Ashton Massey was 4th in the event, and Freeman Public’s Dawson Munkvold was 4th in the 110 hurdles.

As a seventh grader competing in her first State Track Meet on Friday, all Rylee Peters wanted was to advance to the finals in her open events — the 100 and 300 hurdles. Not only has she reached that goal, she’s going into Saturday’s competition with two of the best times in the field.

Freeman Academy junior Jada Koerner starts the 3200 run first thing Friday morning, May 27 — the second day of the State Track Meet. Koerner finished fifth in the opening event of the day, clocking a 12:08.09 and holding off a charging runner from Kimball/White Lake in the closing meters by just 0.02 seconds. The Bearcats also saw a medal-winning performance from Tavin Schroeder, who picked up a number of runners in the closing laps to finish third in 10:07.98.

Student-athletes from Freeman Academy/Marion, Freeman Public and Menno all earned medals on the first day of the three-day, all-class 2022 State Track Meet at Howard Wood Field in Sioux Falls Thursday afternoon, May 26.

Ground has been broken on The Hanger project at Freeman Public Schools, which will see a new wrestling/multi-use facility built in the open space immediately east of the Freeman Elementary School gym by the end of the year. Pictured at a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday afternoon are, from left: Whitney Donohue, a project associate with JLG Architects; Cody Fransen with the Freeman School Board; Freeman Public Superintendent Jake Tietje; Rylie Tschetter, Zac Sayler and Chris Sayler, representing Marion/Freeman wrestling; and Doug McCune and Kyle Higgins of Puetz Design+Build.

This photo of Freeman seventh grader Rylee Peters and Menno senior Raygen Diede was taken as part of The Courier's State Track Meet preview, but wasn't used in this week's edition. Instead, the editor opted for a photo of the two smiling on the track, which can be found on the front page of this week's issue. The May 26 edition will be available online early Wednesday afternoon and in mailboxes and on news stands starting Thursday morning. 

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER Rylee Peters was eight years old when Raygen Diede qualified for her first State Track Meet — the discus competition of 2018. In the years since, both have grown up a bunch. Diede, who just finished her senior year at Menno, has been among Class B’s top throwers in both the discus and the shot put while Peters, who will be an eighth grader at Freeman Public in fall, has quickly emerged as a star on the rise in the hurdles.

The Menno community will once again reflect on what sacrifice means while remembering men and women who have served in the Armed Forces at a Memorial Day program Monday morning, May 30 at the city’s cemetery. The service is sponsored by the Rames-Bender Post 152 of the American Legion and will begin at 10:30 a.m.

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER Ten seniors from Freeman Academy took their turn crossing the commencement stage and received their high school diplomas in a graduation marked by humor and poignant perspective from speaker Nathan Epp. Epp, the outgoing head of school at Freeman Academy, focused his comments on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic that hit during the Class of 2022’s sophomore year.