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The Forest Lake boys golf team is always one of the Suburban East Conference’s best: In the previous 12 years of head coach John Buck’s tenure, the Rangers have never finished lower than fourth in the league and have won the championship five times.
“We’re always able to be in the running for the conference and sectional titles,” Buck said. “Our conference is always tough.”broadstreet.zone(48036);
2016 was something of a down year for the team, placing fourth in the SEC and third in the section. For the first time since Buck took charge of the team, no Ranger advanced to the state tournament.
As they look to reverse their fortunes in 2017, the Rangers will rely on three seniors for leadership. Derek Odland and Jared Hunt played on the sectional roster last year. Nick Mogren was the best player on the JV team a year ago and will

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Photo by Brad Asplund
In their last go-around as members of the Eastern Minnesota Athletic Conference last year, the North Lakes Academy softball team won the conference title.
This year, the Huskies will not only move to a new league – the Twin Cities Athletic Conference – but also to a new home, the Columbus City Fields.broadstreet.zone(48036);
“We’re very excited to have a new partnership with one of our supporting communities,” head coach Christopher Stewart said.
Many of the Huskies’ old EMAC rivals also made the move to the TCAC, so the schedule will feel familiar.
The new home field, however, will bring a few exciting opportunities. The Huskies will not only serve as hosts for the first-ever TCAC tournament in mid-May, but they will also host their own all-day tournament this Saturday, April 22, another program first.
The tournament, which begins at 10 a.m., will see the Huskies matched against St. Paul Humboldt, Chesterton

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Photo by Brad Asplund
The North Lakes Academy baseball team only won one game in 2016. The Huskies will look to increase that number as they contend with their first season in the Twin Cities Athletic Conference – though, unlike with some other sports, that move will give the Huskies a schedule that will be largely unchanged from years past, featuring familiar opponents like Liberty Classical, Nova Classical, and PACT Charter.
“We’re looking to improve this year,” first-year head coach Forrest Florczak said. “We have a couple of guys returning who are looking pretty solid, and some young guys coming up who are looking sharper and sharper every day.”broadstreet.zone(48036);
Senior pitcher and infielder Jeremy Knutson, who has committed to play college ball for Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa, will be the key player on this year’s team.
“He’s been hitting it hard in the offseason, putting more velocity on his fastball,” Florczak

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Photo by Brad Asplund
When head coach Chelsie Thielen started the North Lakes track program five years ago, there were only six athletes on the team. The school had a dearth of equipment and had to practice when and where it could.
“I forgot to bring the shots to the first meet, if that’s any indication,” Thielen said.broadstreet.zone(48036);
This year, the roster lists 22 athletes.
There is still no track on the North Lakes campus. The Huskies practice off-campus on a cinder track – a surface that was considered obsolete for high-level use by the late 1960s. The program pays to utilize the track at Chisago Lakes a few days out of the season.
“We have high aspirations of getting high jump and long jump pits,” assistant coach Tom Lutes said. “There’s a lot of things we’d like to have if we allow ourselves to dream a little bit. In the meantime, we’ve become very

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Forest Lake synchronized swimming coach Laura Davison has been involved with the team for 20 of its 24 years. Davison was a swimmer on the team when it was inaugurated in 1994, and apart from a four-year layoff for college, she has been an athlete or coach ever since.
In that time, the Rangers have developed into one of the state’s best programs and become a fixture at the state meet: A year ago, the Rangers placed third overall.broadstreet.zone(48036);
“We’ve been consistently in the top three in the state behind Wayzata and Stillwater,” Davison said.
The Rangers have already contested three figure meets, where swimmers perform individual maneuvers for judges and score points toward a team total. The Rangers defeated Columbia Heights and Osseo-Maple Grove, and took a one-point loss to Stillwater.
“We lost, but if you look at the top 20 places, we took 12,” Davison said.
With the figure portion of the

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Photos by Brad O’Neil
The Forest Lake boys tennis squad will have a whole new look this season. Nearly every member of the 2016 varsity lineup graduated, meaning the 2017 lineup will feature many young players who will have to learn on the fly.
“It’s a small team this year; we only have 19 kids out,” head coach Violet Shortly said. “Some of them are being thrown up into varsity a little sooner than I would prefer, but we have to do it.”broadstreet.zone(48036);
Senior captain Carter Stumne will lead the team from his No. 1 singles spot.Senior Carter Stumne and junior Logan Olson have been named the captains and will be responsible for bringing the younger players up to speed as the season progresses.
“Carter has worked very hard and is a great kid,” Shortly said. “Logan is the junior with the most varsity experience.”
Stumne won at No. 1 singles in his first match,

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