Best of the Jacks: Recapping the Pioneer's top moments from each 2025-26 Bemidji High School team
Jun. 9—BEMIDJI — From state tournament appearances to breaking historic records, Bemidji High School athletics programs seemed to do it all in 2025-26.
Annually, the Pioneer looks back at its favorite moments from each Bemidji High School team. While there are so many memorable moments for each team, here are our favorites from 2025-26:
The Bemidji High School football team went through trials and tribulations in the 2025 season. A back-and-forth opening loss to defending state champs Elk River, one-point losses to both Buffalo and Alexandria — the Jacks had been through it all.
But one night, everything went Bemidji’s way. That night happened to be
homecoming, Sept. 26,
against rival Brainerd in the Battle for Babe’s Bell.
The game started with a bang — Rhys Sneide caught not one, but two 50-plus-yard touchdowns in the first quarter. Touchdowns from Miles Gish, Wyatt Tverstol and Brennen Brower added on to Bemidji’s 44-14 rout of the Warriors.
As is tradition, the team took the bell to Paul Bunyan Park and celebrated with the trophy, the sixth time they’ve claimed it since its creation in 2018.
— Leo Pomerenke
It was a different vantage point for senior Clara Bieber on Sept. 30 against Crookston.
The goalkeeper for the Bemidji High School girls soccer team had played forward until she got into high school, where she was moved to goalkeeper. On Senior Night, she played forward for the first time in years, hoping to find an opportunity to score.
She wouldn’t waste any time getting a chance just 49 seconds into the game. She took a pass from Miika Novak, split the Pirates’ defense and buried a goal to her teammates’ delight. It kick-started the Jacks’
7-0 drumming of Crookston,
sending seniors like Bieber home happy.
— Leo Pomerenke
Buffalo played in five games where it didn’t win. The most unlikely of them came against the Bemidji High School boys soccer team.
The Bison finished the regular season with an unbeaten record of 12-0-4. They outscored opponents 15-2 in the Section 8-3A Tournament and finished the season with a 1-0 win over Wayzata in the third-place game at state. However, they had their hiccups on Aug. 28 against a young but determined group of Lumberjacks.
Hosting at Bemidji Middle School, the Jacks quickly jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first 12 minutes. Buffalo got one back in the 35th minute before an ill-timed yellow card put Bemidji in a precarious spot.
Senior goalkeeper Kellen Heuer was brilliant for 79 minutes, making 14 saves in a game that the Lumberjacks were outshot 16-3. However, while going up for a ball in the box, he fouled a Buffalo attacker, giving the Bison a penalty kick. Because Heuer committed the foul, he had to sub out of the game.
In stepped Landen Riewer, a reserve sophomore. He’s not a keeper, but because the junior varsity team was playing at the high school, backup Birk Chaffee wasn’t available to defend the PK. Ultimately, it didn’t matter. Riewer stopped Owen Seestrom’s attempt to keep the Jacks in the lead.
It proved to be a big save in the second half when the Bison tied the game, but Bemidji’s young rag-tag group fought their way to the season’s
most impressive result against one of the top teams
in the state.
— Jared Rubado
The latest Minnesota State High School League competitive section realignment didn’t see many Bemidji teams change sections. However, the expansion of girls tennis from two to three classes
put BHS with the big dogs.
Coming off a Section 8AA championship a year earlier, the Lumberjacks had some growing pains in 2025. But through those growing pains came some great moments, like
Liz Peterson’s ascension
to the top singles spot and her
run with senior Megan Berg to the 8-3A doubles semifinals.
The afternoon that stood out to me, though, was on Sept. 25. The Lumberjacks hosted Staples-Motley, a Class A power. Bemidji
put it all together to beat the Cardinals 5-2
in the final home match for Berg, Ruby McKeon and Abby Myhrer.
— Jared Rubado
It’s hard to imagine a tighter margin of finish to decide a section champion.
On Oct. 23, the Bemidji High School cross country team ran in the Section 8-3A Championships in St. Michael. It was crowded at the top of the standings, with five teams separated by just 16 points in the boys standings.
Bemidji was at the top of that list
with the low score of 74, three better than Alexandria and four better than Brainerd. It was such a close finish that head coach Ryan Aylesworth
couldn’t believe it, and neither could his runners.
But once they came to their senses, they realized they qualified for state as a team for the first time since 2022.
Bemidji finished 14th in the team standings at the Class 3A championships in Minneapolis. Impactful seniors, like
Triple ‘A’ winner Tanner Johnson
and
Caleb Knott,
exited the program after the state’s grandest race.
— Jared Rubado
It had been seven years since Bemidji High School swimmers competed at state. Finley Zothman
felt that was long enough.
BHS had been represented at state multiple times by divers during that window, but Zothman’s 50-yard freestyle time of 24.67 was fast enough to win a Section 8AA championship.
She wasn’t done there. Zothman competed in the 200-yard freestyle relay with Kiera Strodtman, Elle Wille and Abby Daman. The quadrant took second place with a time of 1:40.07 to take second place, qualifying for state.
Zothman is only a freshman and has plenty of time left to return to the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis.
— Jared Rubado
No group was hit harder by the 2025 graduating class than the Bemidji High School volleyball team.
Two falls ago, the Lumberjacks and their senior-laden team were in the thick of a competitive Section 8-4A race. But after the seniors graduated, including standouts Mollie Rupp and Margie Anderson, BHS reloaded with an extremely green core that had to learn on the fly.
The Jacks took their lumps, but not every night. On Sept. 30, a deserving group of volleyball players was rewarded with their first win.
Bemidji went on the road to play against Rock Ridge and took home a sweep. Junior Norah Jacobson, the Lumberjacks’ go-to offensive option, planted 14 kills to lead the way, while Stella Wolde and Berklee Anderson combined for 30 assists.
— Jared Rubado
It was over — it felt over.
With just under two minutes left in the Section 8AA championship game, Millie Knott gave the Bemidji High School girls hockey team a 4-1 lead with an empty-net goal at the Bemidji Community Arena. The top-seeded Jacks were easing their way to dethroning Moorhead, the champs from one year earlier.
However, the Spuds provided a push. Moorhead scored a pair of power-play goals within the following minute to make it a one-goal game. Bemidji, which hasn’t been to the state tournament in 19 years, was on the brink of a monumental collapse.
In the end, Bemidji regrouped and closed out the final 54.5 seconds. Junior goaltender Lily Lauer made two big saves. Defenders sold out to block shots. Team USA U18 forward Bailey Rupp won the season’s biggest faceoff in the final seconds.
It wasn’t the prettiest way to close a game, but they all count the same in the end. Bemidji had its own flair in returning to St. Paul
for the first time in almost two decades.
— Jared Rubado
JD Wood wasn’t even supposed to play in this game.
The Bemidji High School senior boys hockey goalie was told on Monday, Dec. 8, that he’d make his first varsity start the following day. He’d been the primary backup to senior Christian Hill, but with a non-section road game against Duluth East on the schedule, Wood was ready for his first crack at it.
Then a winter storm rolled through Minnesota. Bemidji’s road game was postponed, and Wood believed his first start was put on ice. The Lumberjacks hosted Sartell five days later, one of the state’s top Class A teams. Wood was a little surprised to learn the net was still his, despite the upgrade in opponent.
It was a game to remember. He stopped
25 of the 27 shots he faced in a 4-2 win
at the Bemidji Community Arena.
— Jared Rubado
On Jan. 15, before
a game against Moorhead,
Jaxon Boschee was honored as the Bemidji High School boys basketball team’s all-time leading scorer. It was his first game at home since breaking the program’s all-time scoring record in Buffalo two weeks earlier.
There was something different about Boschee that night. Maybe it was the atmosphere, the pregame ceremony or just living up to the moment, or some combination of all three.
Whatever it was, the Spuds just could not stop him. He scored 22 points in the first half alone and kept that hot streak going into the second half. Tied 71-71 with ten seconds left on the clock, Boschee found himself open and took a jumpshot just as time expired.
The shot went in as the buzzer sounded. Pandemonium in the BHS gymnasium ensued. His clutch gene carried on into the Section 8-4A playoffs, where he hit
a game-winning 3-pointer
to seal the victory against Rogers.
— Leo Pomerenke
Changing venues for senior night at the last minute can be seen by some as a bad omen. Not to the Bemidji High School girls basketball team.
After a hoop malfunction at the BHS gymnasium, the Lumberjacks had to move their Senior Night game against Hibbing to the BSU gymnasium on Dec. 11, a unique venue for a unique night.
The Jacks took care of business against the Bluejackets, winning 73-23. Seniors like Kayce Christiansen got some well-deserved playing time. Christensen got the biggest cheer of the night from the game’s last bucket — an uncharacteristic 3-pointer that made
the BHS bench go crazy.
— Leo Pomerenke
Early on in the Section 8-3A quarterfinal, Sartell had a stranglehold on the Lumberjacks. It led 27-18 late, with the Bemidji High School boys wrestling team needing pins in order to pull out the victory.
Jeremy Linn and Carter Rinehart did just that.
At 160 pounds, Linn was down 7-1 before he pinned the Sabres’ Michael Hamak in 2:33, getting a strong reaction from the BHS bench. Sensing a momentum shift, Rinehart did the same against Michael Kulu, pinning him in 2:47.
Those pins were truly a momentum-shifter, leading to an avalanche of wins
to close out Sartell, 45-27,
to advance in the Section 8-3A semifinal. Although the Jacks would go on to lose to No. 1 Brainerd, their comeback against Sartell — especially at home — won’t be forgotten anytime soon.
— Leo Pomerenke
On Jan. 9 at the famed Rick Lee Invitational, Brenalen Fredriksen-Holm had a chance to do something special.
Entering the 112-pound fifth-place match, she was sitting at 99 career wins. If she could beat Addison Bouman, she’d become the first Bemidji High School girls wrestler to reach 100 wins.
The two had wrestled just five hours earlier, with Fredriksen-Holm winning by technical fall, 17-0, in the first round. Although the two were familiar with each other, Fredriksen-Holm’s confidence going into the match was sky-high.
She won by another technical fall, 15-0, to become
the first BHS girls wrestler to reach triple-digit career wins.
She, along with Tayler Merschman and Mercy McIntyre, went on to represent Bemidji in the state tournament.
— Leo Pomerenke
It’s pretty rare for a varsity program in a sport’s largest class to not get a home competition, but that was the case for the Bemidji High School dance team in 2024-25. Due to a judge shortage, the Blue Angels competed entirely on the road.
So when they
returned to the BHS gymnasium on Jan. 24
for the final meet in the regular season, the afternoon was met with fanfare.
The Blue Angels dazzled, winning the jazz competition to the tune of “Something in the Orange” by Zach Bryan. Bemidji took second in high kick to a Macklemore mashup.
— Jared Rubado
After Bemidji High School gymnastics head coach Kaleigh Porter left the team after one season, the program was once again in need of a head coach to bring stability to the Gym Bin.
The process to find one was a struggle. To keep the program afloat, someone had to step up.
Danielle Olson didn’t need to take the job. Her daughter, Kennedy, was in gymnastics throughout high school and graduated the previous year. Still, she felt obligated to step up. She just couldn’t do it alone.
That’s when Sandy Hennum stepped in. The two agreed to be co-head coaches and take on the daunting challenge of guiding the BHS gymnastics program. The partnership took pressure off of each other, and the future of the gymnastics program
looks to be in good hands.
— Leo Pomerenke
It’s tough to make it out of the Section 8 championships as a team, but
five Bemidji High School Nordic skiers did it individually.
Two relay teams and Izzy Renn qualified for state, sending five Lumberjacks to Biwabik at Giant’s Ridge. At the section meet in Callaway, Renn finished in eighth place in the pursuit rankings, while the duos of Wendy Mellema and Rylee Story, along with Leo McKeon and Peter Mathews, qualified as pairs.
Mellema and Story won the section title with a time of 17:35.9, with Story
being part of a unique sister trio.
McKeon and Mathews took third place in 14:51.0, but the two fastest relay teams qualified for state in the team standings. Renn made it with 2.1 seconds to spare, clocking a combined time of 38:33.0.
— Jared Rubado
The Bemidji High School boys tennis team celebrated senior day on April 30 during the Northwest Quadrangular. There’s only one senior on the squad: Peter Matthews.
The team wasn’t about to let the day go to waste. Naturally, Senior Day was renamed
“Peter Day,”
as the Jacks celebrated the lone 12th-grader.
Mathews enjoyed the special occasions, including getting the silent treatment during player intros. But he backed it up with his performance with No. 1 doubles partner Ethan Frank. The pair swept their matches, two of them going to three sets, en route to Bemidji’s overall win in the quadrangular.
— Leo Pomerenke
The Bemidji High School baseball team trailed 11-1 in the top of the fifth inning against Moorhead on May 13, the first game of a doubleheader. It would’ve been easy to write off the game and focus on Game 2. Not for the Lumberjacks.
The bats came alive — albeit a little late — to score seven runs, avoiding the mercy rule, losing 11-8. By Game 2, the Jacks turned around and mercy-ruled Moorhead 15-5 in five innings.
The offense carried its hot streak from the end of Game 1, highlighted by Gunner Ganske, who hit two home runs, the first time in his career he’s done so. For a team being so close to being run-ruled, only to
turn around and mercy-rule the team in the second game,
is astonishing. Baseball truly is a funny game.
— Leo Pomerenke
No matter how much planning goes into the spring sports postseason tournaments, weather will always have its say. That was the fate of the Brainerd and Bemidji High School softball teams on May 26.
The Lumberjacks were trailing 4-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning in the Section 8-4A semifinals in Brainerd. When a storm cloud rolled over the field, play was suspended to the point where the game was pushed to the following day.
The Jacks boarded the bus back to Bemidji, only to return 24 hours later to complete the comeback. Bemidji scored five runs in the final two innings. Thanks to a game-winning single from Emma Greiner and the
clutch pitching from Karley LaZella,
the Lumberjacks
pulled out a 6-5 win.
It was part of a marathon week for Bemidji against Brainerd. Ultimately, the two schools played against each other for four consecutive days, with the Warriors advancing to state.
— Jared Rubado
When talking to Taylen Schermerhorn about track and field, you can tell that his mindset is different.
Some join the Bemidji High School track team just to have fun, and it’s something to do in the spring. But for Schermerhorn, he’s had a drive to put his name into the BHS record books. He’s come close in the past, but he wasn’t quite fast enough.
This year,
he finally reached his goal
and then some. He broke the record for the 60-meter indoor race (7.15 seconds), the 200-meter outdoor (22.18) and the outdoor 4×100-meter relay (43.50), doing so with Rhys Sneide, Vinny Nelson and Henry McCrady.
He’s had his sights on becoming one of the fastest sprinters in school history. Now he has the records to prove it.
— Leo Pomerenke
I was pretty curious how the Bemidji High School boys volleyball team would look in its second MSHSL season. The self-funded program is persevering, but it faces
constant logistical and geographical challenges.
Add to that, the core of seniors who helped start the program were gone. Left were a collection of players with little to no varsity experience, tasked with filling big shoes. The spring certainly came with growing pains, but it culminated in a postseason triumph.
The ninth-seeded Lumberjacks walked into No. 8 Osseo and left with
a 3-1 play-in win.
Daniel Scherling had 11 kills to lead BHS, while Levi Anderson had 10 kills and seven aces.
— Jared Rubado
