On the Bench with Byron Higgin
Rodney Stensrud of Minneota last week shot a Hole-In-One at Countryside Golf Course in Minneota. Stensrud made the shot on Hole No. 3 using a No. 5 Hybrid.
He called it, “A once-in-a-lifetime shot” and while he’s been golfing a long time he’s never had the difficult shot before. “It hit the front edge of the green and slide toward the hole. The guys said go look in the hole. And there it was,” Stensrud said. He was surprised and enjoyed the event he doesn’t expect to repeat. “I’ve gotten close before but it’s never gone in,” he said.
He said he plays with an older men’s group. “Us older guys get together,” he said.
Of-course, the hole-in-one meant he had to buy a few drinks for the group.
CORRECTION: Two weeks ago in the Fall Preview, “Viking Pride,” we forgot the name of Cale Sorensen. His photo was in the team picture but we skipped his name in the cutline. Sorry Cale!
Mages wins after 10 years without running
Josh Mages talked to Hillary Buysse of Minneota and she talked him into running in the Run the Bug at Boxelder Bug Days. He hadn’t ran a road race in 10 years — but when the dust cleared, he’d won the 5K race in 23:44. When asked how he felt, Mages said, “I feel terrible.” In second place was Bruce Bossuyt of Minneota in 23:53. He’s getting ready for the Minneapolis Marathon and has been upping his amount of miles to get ready for the big event. He ran a half marathon at Grandma’s but is running the full marathon in the Twin Cities.
Right after Bossuyt were Tyson and Todd Sonnenburg. The father-son team ran together the whole way, but Tyson poured it on at the end to beat his dad for third place. Quinn Horvath was eighth and Darwin Dyce 10th. Minneota’s Rachel Engels was the third girl finisher with Karissa Nissen winning the event.
A familiar face won the 10K. Tim Fryer of Hendricks won it again in 37:49 but he had to outlast Trevor Hinderaker, who came in just six seconds later. Lisa Becker was the women’s winner. It was a perfect day to run and the event drew a pretty good attendance.
The Run the Bug for kids is always a fun race and it seems as though it’s been drawing a large throng each year. Congratulations to the committee for putting on another great Run the Bug. It’s a big part of the great celebration.