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It's nearly time to wrap up yet another fall season in the high school sports pantheon.

The only sport remaining on the docket is Chisago Lakes swimming and diving, which has the bizarre schedule of taking two weeks off in between their final regular season meet and the sectional and state tournaments.

Although they have the two weeks off, the flurry of sections and state at the end should be a crazy one. After getting two girls to the medal stand at the state tournament last year (Brogan Lee and Alex Thomsen), the Wildcats hope to bring an even bigger contingent with them when they travel south to the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center.

There were some immensely bright spots this year for both Chisago Lakes and North Branch, and some tough times for both schools activites.

North Branch reinvigorated the local football rivalry by snapping a four-game losing streak against Chisago Lakes on the gridiron. The last four meetings had been tipped heavily in favor of the Wildcats, but behind Zack Smith's 200-yard rushing performance, the Vikings were able to beat Chisago Lakes in the first game of the season 28-14.

Both teams went on to have roller coaster seasons. The Vikings topped a good Cooper team late in the season, and went point-for-point with the high-octance Benilde-St. Margaret's Red Knights until the very end.

In the same breath, however, that same Vikings squad dropped three different games to Princeton, Columbia Heights and St. Francis, who outside of their wins over North Branch, were a combined 3-22.

Chisago Lakes had an equally rough ride throughout the North Suburban Conference. Although they only finished 3-5, they won their first playoff game with a thorough domination of St. Paul Harding. In their last two wins of the season, the regular season finale against Columbia Heights and that first round matchup against Harding, the Wildcats outscored their opponents 104-12.

However, both North Branch and Chisago Lakes came to the same fate when in consecutive weeks, they were knocked out of the section playoffs by the one-loss Mahtomedi Zephyrs.

Also taking place on the sea of grass that is the football field was the North Branch soccer team's revival. The Brian Grand-led team made it all the way to the section finals before being knocked out by eventual state runner-up Hermantown.

The end of the season is bittersweet, however. The accomplishments of the team this year were great after enduring a two-win season just two years ago, and they can look forward to taking another step forward next year, but it's the end of the Grand Era in North Branch as Brian graduates as Minnesota's all-time leading goal scorer.

On the cross country courses, the season ended on a scary and sad note for the Wildcats. Chelsea Johnson, who had qualified for the state tournament last year as a junior, was well on her way to another state tournament berth as she was running strong all season.

However, in the section meet, something went terribly wrong and Johnson ended up collapsing before she finished the race.

It was a disappointing ending to what has been a phenomenal career for Johnson. Cross country enthusiasts are only left to wonder what might have been if Johnson, who was a senior this year, wouldn't have had the mysterious lapse. You have to feel for someone who had their shining moment taken away from them at the last possible second.

It's a late congratulatory peice, but I can't help but throw it in. Congratulations to the Minnesota Twins on their 2009 American League Central title. It was a four-day roller coaster catching up to, and tying the Detroit Tigers for the lead, and then there was a season's worth of heart attack-inducing moments in that tiebreaker game.

I was one of the lucky ones to be at the game, and a month later, I still have a cough that all started on that day or screaming and waving the Homer Hanky around.

That win was the epitome of what Twins' baseball is: gritty, tense, down-to-the-wire and fun.

It'll be an even bigger blast next year when the Twins move into their new digs across Minneapolis. The Metrodome provided a nice little distraction for opposing teams, but if there is one sport that absolutely belongs outside in the summer, it's baseball. And I look forward to those 30 degree night baseball games too. We're from Minnesota, we should be used to the weather by now.

At 7-1 and coming off a bye week in which they got to sit at home and presumably laugh at the shortcomings of the Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears, the Minnesota Vikings seem to be in auto-pilot to win the NFC North Division crown.

As if that wasn't evident enough, the Vikes have a very favorable schedule as they head into the second half of the season. They open with three striaght home games against the Lions, Seattle Seahawks and Bears, teams that have a combined 8-16 record.

It's not a stretch to think that in less than a month, the Vikings should be 10-1 and hopefully, they can start to prepare themselves for a deep playoff run. It's been a long time since Minnesota has had something like that to hang their hat on.

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Chisago County Press

Attn: Jeff

12631 Lake Blvd.

Lindstrom, MN 55045

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