Rochester Regional Stadium will be getting a new artificial turf surface.
The stadium, located on the Rochester Community and Technical College campus, hosts a wide variety of sporting events and is used all year around.
Both the RCTC football and women’s soccer teams play their home games at the stadium. Lourdes High School also uses the stadium for home football and soccer games.
High school lacrosse games are also played at the venue. A bubble is put over the interior of the stadium usually from the middle of November to early April which gives a number of sporting teams — especially softball teams — the opportunity to rent the facility.
With all the activity, the turf has worn out and is in need of an upgrade. The new turf is set to cost about $600,00 and the money is expected to come from usage fees (60 percent) and RCTC budget funds (40 percent).
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Rochester Regional Stadium is also the host for a number of tournaments. Lourdes plays a home Section 1AAA football game at 7 p.m. tonight and if victorious will be at RRS again on Saturday. The stadium will be the site of four section championship football games on Nov. 2-3.
The new turf is expected to be installed in July of 2019 and the project will be completed in time for the fall sports season.
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The Blooming Prairie football team is ranked in the top 10 in Class A and is the No. 1 seed in the Section 1A tournament, which begins today.
But the Blossoms will be without senior quarterback Seth Petersonin the first round of the playoffs, and possibly for the rest of the season.
Peterson, a senior, suffered a knee injury in the first quarter of regular-season finale last Wednesday against Rushford-Peterson.
The Blossoms, ranked No. 4 in the state in last week’s poll, will host eighth-seeded Kingsland at 7 p.m. today in the section quarterfinals.
"He’s not playing (today) for sure," said Blooming Prairie coach Chad Gimbel, who is also Peterson’s stepfather.
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Gimbel said the injury was "not real good" and that "we might find out more by the end of the week when the swelling goes down."
Peterson has excelled in the passing game this season and the Blossoms have averaged 44.1 points per game while going 8-0 in the regular season. The Blossoms have been held to less than 40 points in a game just once.
Junior Kaden Thomaswill play in Peterson’s place. After Peterson was hurt against R-P, Thomas entered in the first quarter and was 9-for-13 passing for 187 yards and four touchdowns in a 47-14 win over the Trojans, who entered the game ranked 10th in the state in Class A.
"He’s been in our system and he knows all the plays," Gimbel said of Thomas. "He’s a smart kid and can make all the throws we need him to."
The path to a Section 1A title might be a tough one as the Blossoms, R-P and Goodhue (No. 4) were all in the top 10 in last week’s state rankings.
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Trenton Kruger, a student at Kasson-Mantorville, competed in the Western Wisconsin Open power lifting competition in River Falls, Wis., on Oct. 6. Kruger was in the 105 kilogram weight class.
He set personal bests in all of his lifts at the meet. He had a squat lift of 530 pounds, narrowly missing at 560, a bench press of 185 pounds and a dead lift of 465 pounds for a total of 1,180. He was coached by Zach Krugerand James Vang.
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There was an omission of a Mayo girls cross country runner in the Big Nine Conference Meet results last week in the Post Bulletin.
Spartans freshman Hadley Jensenfinished 14th in the meet with a time of 20:26.4. The top 17 finishers earned Big Nine All-Conference honors.
The Mayo, Century and John Marshall boys and girls cross country teams will be running in the Section One, Class AA meet on Thursday at Brooktree Golf Course in Owatonna.
