<![CDATA[COKATO MUSEUM - Sports, Women]]>

<![CDATA[COKATO MUSEUM - Sports, Women]]>Thu, 05 Mar 2026 07:54:17 -0600Weebly<![CDATA[Chargers Cross Country]]>Fri, 30 Oct 2020 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.cokatomuseum.org/sports-women/chargers-cross-country

1989 Cross Country team

Back Row: Kevin Carlin and Scott Sunblad
Standing: David Wilde, Shawn Webber, N. Ylitalo, Kevin Roberts, Shane Weber, D. Lundeen
Seated: Char Reinke, Kevin Borg, Melinda Yerka
Front Row: Karl Hillstrom, Jamie Jorgenson, and Adam Kleiwer

The first Cross Country (CC) program at D-C started during the fall of 1972, the same year that the Dassel and Cokato High Schools consolidated. The first CC program consisted of male athletes that were looking to stay in shape for their other sports. It is not known the exact reason as to why the CC program ended in 1976; one possibility is that there was not enough participation in the sport.

Then, in 1987, Mike Lhotka brought back the CC program to D-C. He coached the CC team from 1987 to 2008. Lhotka stated that "to start the CC program in 1987, I recruited athletes from other sports that were in their off-season like track." Unlike the first team in 1972, this team included both boys and girls, however, Lhotka had more difficulty starting the girls' CC program. He believes that this could have been because the girls' fall swimming program conflicted with CC. This meant that for the first couple of years D-C did not have a full girls' team. Justine Anderson, Char Reinke, and Melinda Yerka were the first girls to run for D-C.

Without a full team, the girls competed individually. During Lhotka's time as coach, he had multiple girls' place as All Conference Athletes at the Wright County Championship meet; this included Char Reinke, Rochelle Barberg, Jennah Nelson and Ericka Norgren. Caitlin Keskey was D-C's first girl CC runner to go to state in 2009.

Char Reinke, 1988

Since the beginning of the girls' CC program, there have been a total of three different race distances that the girls have run. Starting in 1987, the girls' D-C runners ran 2 miles. Then, at somepoint between 1992 and 2005 the girls distance switch from 2 miles to 4000 meters (2.5 miles). Today, girls and boys are both running the same distance of 5000 meters (3.1 miles).

Alison Kern and Molly Sundt, 1996

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]]><![CDATA[COKATO GYMNASTICS]]>Fri, 23 Oct 2020 18:40:38 GMThttps://www.cokatomuseum.org/sports-women/cokato-gymnastics

Cokato High School’s first girls gymnastic team. Photograph from the 1971 Cokato High School Yearbook.

During the 1970-1971 school year, the year before Title IX was passed, the Cokato High School incorporated girls varsity gymnastics and golf as its first school sanctioned sports for girls since it dropped basketball in 1931. Cokato’s first girls gymnastics team was comprised of fifteen students from seventh through tenth grade. They were Paula Benson, Kelly Kivi, Mary Bernhart, Kathy Hentges, Marianne Pokornowski, Teri Kivi, Bonnie Gillman, Mary Jilek, Rori Ortquist, Julie Kallstrom, Julie Oelrich, Loretta Nikkola, Diane Monson, Viki Peterson, and Regina Ziegler.

According to the 1971 Enterprise Dispatch, the Cokato High School gymnastics team participated in four separate meets and performed during half-time at the last home basketball game during their first season.

Nikkola recalled preparing for these meets these first few years, “The short story is we went from creating and practicing our floor exercise routine in a straight hallway for the better part of the week while the basketball team had the full court. Closer to competition we could get the gym so we could do our routines and make sure we were hitting the corners and the center of the square.”

According to Nikkola, Title IX and the merging of the Dassel and Cokato schools were the biggest changes to the program. In particular, Nikkola stated that the merge with
Dassel brought “more talent on board.”

As time passed, the events that D-C gymnasts participated in evolved as well. Nikkola remembered that, “Very early on in the program we had trampoline as part of gymnastics. We had some real talent that [could] even use a spring board to get on the trampoline, which other squads didn't do. Unfortunately somewhere in another school a female had a bad accident on the trampoline and they stopped having trampoline for competition.”

Teresa Kivisto. Photo from Enterprise Dispatch collection.

Sara Keskey-Rufer, D-C gymnastics coach, also mentioned changes to the sport. According to
Keskey-Rufer, uneven bar routines changed as the bars were placed further apart from each other. Also, routines have become more difficult over time.

In 1984, Dassel-Cokato girls gymnastics made it to state for the first time in the program’s history. The occasion was also remarkable in that it was not only the first D-C girls team to go to state, it was also the first time any winter D-C sport had made it. This historic 1984 team was comprised of Julie Haugen, Kari Shoutz, Patty Hannus, Teresa Koivisto, Debbie Peterson, Beth Peroutka, Lisa Stelton, Marilyn Ryan, Stephanie Rokala, and Karen Bergstrom. The manager was Miriam Ryan and the coach was Paul Kliewer. The team placed third in state.

This February, D-C’s gymnastics legacy continued with gymnast Kiana Keith. Keith, according to the February 28, 2020 Enterprise Dispatch, was the first D-C gymnast to qualify for state since her coach, Alex Halonen, did so in 2012, and the first Charger to participate in the state
tournament since Kara Hedin in 1997.

Anna Schumann dismounts from bars as Patti Erickson spots.

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]]><![CDATA[Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato Hockey]]>Fri, 23 Oct 2020 17:57:21 GMThttps://www.cokatomuseum.org/sports-women/cokato-on-ice

On July 12, 1971, Forrest (Butch) Amundsen, representing the Cokato Jaycees, approached the City of Cokato about the need for a youth hockey program. In addition, Amundsen proposed plans for enlarging the skating rink and building hockey boards. In December of 1971, the newly enlarged rink and growing community support allowed the Cokato Hockey Association to establish a Squirts (under 10 years) and Bantams program (age 12-14). Eventually, Peewees, Mites, Midgets, and Juveniles teams were added as well. Although these teams were primarily comprised of boys, a couple of girls briefly entered the ranks in the early 1980s—Sara Keskey and Sonja Lund. Unfortunately, a girls’ team would not form until approximately a decade later.

In Minnesota, girl's hockey also took longer to develop. As a result, the first Minnesota State Girl's Hockey Tournament did not occur until 1994. Women's hockey also did not become an olympic sport until 1998. For the Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato girls it wasn’t until the 1998-1999 season that the Dragon’s had a girls’ hockey team. The first team was coached by Markus Millazo and Steve Benda, and was comprised of S. Niemela, Talia Wischmann, Robyn Wozniak, M. Carlson, Naomi Benda, S. Fischer, J. Tidwell, S. Gunnerson, Valerie Moe, Heather Amundsen, Elizabeth McGraw, D. Oberg, Stephanie Nikula, M. Eidsvaag, K. Johnson, S. Wright, K. Nielson, Jessica Hilker, A. Belinsky, M. Lalonde, and A. Kerr.

Sara Jones (Fischer) of Litchfield was on the first L/D-C team. She recalled what she experienced the first years of the program, "While participating we unknowingly had to grow a "thick-skin" as we were harassed by male players. We also faced comments at school that are less than desirable. Having done something that was typically a male sport pushed us as players to be strong on and off the ice..." L/D-C's first girls' hockey team created an important building block for the next generation of players. In 2014, the L/D-C girls' hockey team made it to state for the first time. One can only imagine what future years may bring for girls' hockey.

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